University of Wisconsin-River Falls
EN-10: Community Partnerships

Hope for Creation is a community group consisting of UW-River Falls, the City of River Falls, and several churches who are partnering together to advance sustainability in the River Falls community and region. Mark Klapatch-Mathias represents the university and contributes to the partnership by serving on the leadership team for Hope for Creation. The mission of Hope for Creation is to create a hopeful, ecologically sustainable future for River Falls through collaboration, education, partnerships, advocacy, and action. Hope for Creation envisions partnership with local faith communities and other ecologically-based organizations to acknowledge the urgency of environmental challenges and to seek ways to protect all creation on Earth, our common home. We support the deeply rooted values of our unique faith traditions, which call us to respectful stewardship of the land, air, waters, and all beings. We care especially for the poor in our neighborhoods and around the world who are most impacted by climate change and ecological instability.

Youth Leadership Congress:
https://www.uwrf.edu/ContinuingEducation/YLC.cfm
This youth summer camp is a partnership with the Wisconsin Electric Cooperatives Association (WECA) and it’s designed to advance the cooperative business model and sustain active engagement within the member-owner community of rural electric providers. Cooperatives allow members to get services otherwise not available. Success is dependent upon people working together to solve a common problem. As such, camp activities include sessions on leadership skills, community solar, a day in the life of a lobbyist, and small group work on realistic case studies. Participants are high school students from rural Wisconsin areas with limited access to precollege experiences. Their attendance is sponsored by their local electric cooperative. UWRF hosts this event providing support staff as well as staff to serve as educators throughout the experience.

The Kinnickinnic River, designated as an “Outstanding Resource Water” by the Wisconsin Legislature, faces ongoing pressures and changes related to land use, population growth, environmental degradation, and climate change. In response, a multitude of scientific research has been initiated at various locations throughout the watershed in an effort to understand these issues and promote sustainability and resilience. However, the large number of projects across multiple fields of inquiry has made it difficult to coordinate research interests and engage the community about the magnitude of ongoing projects.

Successful coordination of research and integration of scientific findings into management practices hinges on trusted relationships between stakeholders and UWRF researchers to identify existing projects, information needs, and how information is to be delivered. Thus, the goal of the Kinni Consortium (KC) is to link campus-wide social-ecological research efforts taking place at UWRF with external agencies or organizations, actively communicating with the public about watershed issues, and provide undergraduate students opportunities to learn and practice research skills.

Partners in this effort include the Carpenter St. Croix Valley Nature Center, the Kinnickinnic River Land Trust, Kitty Anderson Youth Science Center, Pierce County Land Conservation, Science Museum of Minnesota, St. Croix County Land Conservation, St. Croix Watershed Research Station, Trout Unlimited, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, and the U.S. Forest Service.

St. Croix Summit:
UWRF hosts the annual St. Croix Summit each year in partnership with the St. Croix River Association. The St. Croix Summit is a conference dedicated to presenting information about the health of the St. Croix River and its watershed.