Community Rivers Program Coming Together For Clean Water
The Mission: PARTNERING WITH rural and suburban communities to connect with their watershed to inspire appreciation, educate, and enable positive land management changes
The Vision: Healthier ecosystems and communities within the Upper Milwaukee River Watershed
Amazing efforts are being made in Milwaukee’s urban areas to improve the health of the river, but less attention has been paid to rural and suburban parts of the watershed.
This isn’t top-down regulation, but instead bottom-up change emanating from community members connnecting with the Milwaukee River and taking individual actions as stewards to improve our watershed’s health.
Serving the milwaukee river communities of Grafton, Saukville, Newburg, and Kewaskum
events
Riveredge’s Community Rivers Programs offers year-round FREE programming to residents of communities in the upper Milwaukee River Watershed. Some of our favorites are: Kayaking, Family Fishing Fun, River Cleanup, Storm Drain Stenciling, Rain Barrel Workshop, and SO much more!
Information about summer 2025 CRP programs coming soon!
Why Do we need these partnerships?
Pollution continues to be a serious concern in the Milwaukee River, with our friends at Milwaukee Riverkeeper giving the overall health of the Milwaukee River Basin a “C-” on their 2023 report card, improving from the D+ grade in 2019.
The overall health grade of the Milwaukee River is increasing thanks to amazing efforts being made throughout the entire basin to improve the water health quality, but more attention is needed in the rural and suburban parts of the watershed where our Healthy River Communities are located.
We know making a river that is swimmable, fishable, and liveable for all requires the cooperation and effort of every community along its riverbanks, and we want to help do just that.
The Community Rivers Program takes a three-pronged approach to….
Inspire
We protect the things we care about. From kayaking programs to community-wide festivals to watershed tours, we want to make sure everyone sees and feels the incredible value of caring for our Milwaukee River and being a Healthy River Community.
Inform
Partnering communities are provided educational and recreational opportunities that make the river’s problems (and more importantly, their solutions!) easy to understand and act on.
Engage
Working hand in hand with residents, land owners, elected officials, scientists, and stakeholder groups, we’ll coordinate programs, discussions, trainings, and resources aimed at empowering communities and their residents to implement best practices for keeping their river healthy and clean. This is bottom-up change emanating from community members working together to design a plan that best fits their own town, village, or city.
Since 2017,
we’ve partnered with rural communities to create healthier ecosystems and communities.
4 Healthy River Communities
The municipalities of Newburg, Saukville, Grafton, and Kewaskum
“I’ve never kayaked the Milwaukee River before and I was amazed with how beautiful it is. Getting in the river helped me appreciate the need to keep it clean and free of pollutants.”
– CRP Kayaking Participant
120+
programs offered (all communities, all years, combined)
3,100+
resident participants
“We are so grateful for the rain barrel we received, especially this year. It was very easy to install and it is hidden amongst our raspberry bushes!”
– CRP Rain Barrel Workshop Participant
90+
rain barrels installed
30+
stewardship projects completed in communities…everything from river clean-ups to water monitoring to prairie plantings!
50+
hours of land management consultations provided community residents
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CRP Events
Register for upcoming CRP programs
Riveredge Events Calendar -
Questions? Contact John Rakowski!
jrakowski@riveredge.us
Email John