Update - American Heritage Rivers Initiative October 2001

Background

In 1997, President Clinton announced American Heritage Rivers Initiative (AHRI), a new voluntary federal initiative designed to integrate economic development, natural resource protection and historical and cultural preservation in designated river communities. 19 communities and over 40 supporting organizations worked together to nominate the Twin Cities stretch of the Mississippi River and ultimately joined forces with an additional 38 communities and 210 supporting organizations from the headwaters to St. Louis to successfully achieve designation of the Upper Mississippi River in 1998.

Metropolitan Council, the regional government agency in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area that coordinates regional planning and operates regional systems, facilitated and coordinated the Twin Cities effort. The effort to achieve AHRI designation was enhanced by earlier planning efforts that had previously resulted in the designation of the 72 mile Twin Cities stretch of the river as a unique national park, Mississippi National River and Recreation Area (MNRRA), in the 1980's. A 24-member Twin Cities AHRI Steering Committee provides broad representation of river interests on a geographic and topical area basis, identifies shared areas of interest among river communities and supports collaborative efforts to advance new ideas, and reviews progress against the original AHRI plan of action. The committee meets on a monthly basis, with all meetings open to the public.

Projects

Many projects summarized in the original AHRI plan of action have progressed or achieved significant milestones. Upper Mississippi River AHRI communities and supporting organizations worked with the Lower Mississippi River AHRI communities and others to achieve designation of the Mississippi River as a National Millennium Trail in 1999. An annual Millard Fillmore/Mississippi River conference in St. Paul, Minnesota has become an effective venue for many Upper Mississippi River AHRI communities to learn from each other, update the public on river projects and initiatives, and evaluate overall progress.

In the Twin Cities, the Metro Greenways project was provided funds from the Minnesota Legislature in 1999 and 2000 and has awarded grants for both planning and acquisition activities in or near the river corridor. Great River Greening, a major reforestation program in the city of St. Paul, has planted 26,000 trees and shrubs and nearly 12,000 wildflowers and restored nearly 47 acres of prairie along the river. Greening has also received funding to expand its reforestation program further south along the river over the next several years.

On the central riverfront near downtown Minneapolis, over 2,000 housing units have been built or are under construction, many historic buildings have been preserved, and key park and trail projects completed. An illustrative project is the West Side Milling District in the core of the St. Anthony Falls Historic District, where the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board has undertaken an archaeological dig to expose the foundations of the water power system and flour mills that made Minneapolis the "Mill City". The end result will be Mill Ruines Park, an urban archaeological interpretive park adjacent to a recently completed link in the Great River Road, which recently achieved National Scenic By-way designation. The Minnesota Historical Society has begun construction of the St. Anthony Falls Heritage Center, a major interpretive center which has been designated a "Save America's Treasures" project and will be built within the ruin walls. Vacant historic buildings are being rehabilitated for loft housing and compatible new construction housing is also planned. The internationally renown Guthrie Theatre will relocate to a new downtown riverfront location by late 2004.

In St. Paul, a new Science Museum of Minnesota with 11 acres of exhibit space opened on the downtown riverfront in late 1999. The museum includes a Mississippi River Gallery created in partnership with National Park Service/MNRRA. Directly across the river from the museum, a grand opening celebration in September 2000 drew 50,000 visitors to a newly rehabilitated Harriet Island Park, which includes new facilities, landscaping and a series of steps that lead directly to the river. Plans are also underway to convert a 26-acre former industrial site to a mixed-use development known as Upper Landing Urban Village, which would create 650 rental and for-sale housing units, 23,000 square feet of commercial space and a plaza in the downtown river corridor.

In 1999, the Coon Rapids Dam Visitor Center opened displaying many educational exhibits about the river, the cultural importance of the watershed, and a "talking" storm drain. WaterShed Partners, a collaboration of over 40 non-profit, private, and public organizations, has (1) created a traveling WaterShed exhibit and kiosk that has been shown to over 400,000 people in the metro area, (2) completed a metro-wide media campaign, "Think Clean Water," to educate the general public on everyday household practices that can prevent non-point source pollution and (3) recently began a citizen volunteer water monitoring program in streams and tributaries in the metro area.

And nearly all 19 communities from Ramsey to Hastings are actively working on riverfront revitalization projects, several of which have been the focus of proposals recently funded by Metropolitan Council through its Livable Communities Demonstration and Metro Environment Partnership Grant Programs and the Smart Growth Twin Cities Opportunity Sites Initiative. The city of South Saint Paul is working with the national non-profit American Rivers and Friends of the Mississippi River to develop a national model of riverfront redevelopment that accommodates landowners' needs while increasing public access and protecting natural resources in an industrial area of the city.

On-going Collaborative Efforts

Work groups linked to AHRI have formed to collaboratively explore shared areas of interest in the river corridor and are beginning to achieve results. They are focused on (1) Mississippi River Trails (which builds upon prior, significant progress made by the Regional Trails and Open Partnership in the Twin Cities to create a multi-state effort); (2) Conversions of brownfields to green space; (3) Surface water use management on the river; and (4) Tourism. Results from these efforts include, but are not limited to, an anticipated mapping of a preferred route for a system of trails along the Upper Mississippi River by the end of 2001; development of a legislative strategy to create a program to encourage cleaned-up sites to be converted to greenspace in 2002; partnering with the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers in an Upper Mississippi River Reconnaissance Study that would result in the co-development of a Surface Water Use Management Plan for the Twin Cities stretch of the river; and the planned development of river tourism packages by 2002, with assistance of the Minnesota Office of Tourism.

In addition, the planned re-creation of an excursion led by former President Millard Fillmore, who along with public officials and media traveled up the Mississippi River from the Quad Cities to the Twin Cities by steamboat in 1854, has been publicly announced and appropriately named the Grand Excursion 2004. This large-scale event has provided additional momentum to local governments to complete riverfront projects by providing a major opportunity to showcase the Mississippi River and the Upper Midwest to the rest of the country and the world in 2004.

The Metropolitan Council established its own Mississippi River Team in 1999 to better integrate and align staff and financial resources across its community development, transportation and environmental services division for the benefit of the river communities and organizations. These efforts have put in place a valuable infrastructure of communications, collaboration and community outreach that supports an integrated approach in local planning and implementation of riverfront projects and programs in the Twin Cities metropolitan area.

For further information on AHRI, please contact Linda Henning, MCES Manager of Special Projects at (651)-602-1279 or via email at linda.henning@metc.state.mn.us.