Since 1994, Lake Superior Magazine has given out its annual Achievement Award to individuals and groups who have contributed significantly to Lake Superior and its peoples. This year we honor the St. Louis River Alliance for its partnerships, planning and commitment to the waters.
Because St. Louis River habitats range from wilderness, as in Jay Cooke State Park in Minnesota to the working waterfront harbor of Duluth-Superior, the St. Louis River Alliance seeks out partnerships that also span the waterway’s many roles.
Ask St. Louis River Alliance’s Executive Director Kris Eilers what makes the group effective in its efforts to restore the river and reconnect its residents to the water, and she sums it up nicely:
“It’s because it’s an alliance. It’s our partnerships that make a difference on both sides of the river. So many people work on the river, and so many citizens love the river. We rely on those relationships to accomplish our mission.”
It’s no surprise the St. Louis River Alliance depends on members and partners – businesses, organizations, state and federal agencies and citizens.
Alyssa Johnson
Restoration is a key component of the alliance’s work for wild rice to piping plovers.
The alliance grew from a citizen advisory committee, formed in the 1980s as part of the requirement for Minnesota and Wisconsin state agencies in developing a Remedial Action Plan (RAP) for the St. Louis River when it was designated a federal “area of concern,” one of 43 AOCs on the Great Lakes in the United States and Canada. Currently, the RAP has 80 management actions in various stages of implementation to resolve the original nine environmental problems identified for the river. The St. Louis River Alliance has been instrumental in assisting the state agencies’ work toward delisting the AOC, even taking the lead on securing millions of dollars from Minnesota state bonding to clean up contaminated sediments in the estuary.
The alliance also retains the focus on its own goals of connecting people to the river through education, outreach and events; tackling wildlife habitat projects to improve the health of the ecosystem; initiating collaborations and prioritizing actions to keep the health of the St. Louis River in the forefront; fundraising to support its mission-driven work; and involving and nurturing a highly qualified board, staff and membership to support and strengthen the alliance’s work.
That’s a lot for one organization, but the St. Louis is a lot of river. This largest U.S. tributary to Lake Superior meanders nearly 200 miles from Lake County to Duluth-Superior, with its final miles forming the border between Minnesota and Wisconsin and creating the working harbor for the Twin Ports. Its watershed drains nearly 2.5 million acres of northern forests and wetlands and remains a primary fishing and an improving wild rice source for the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe. The river flows through the band’s lands, and the alliance partners with tribal entities for restoration projects and education programs.
Michael K. Anderson
Because St. Louis River habitats range from wilderness, as in Jay Cooke State Park in Minnesota to the working waterfront harbor of Duluth-Superior (center), the St. Louis River Alliance seeks out partnerships that also span the waterway’s many roles. Alliance staff members, from left, Mikayla Erickson, Alyssa Johnson and Kris Eilers at Boy Scout Landing.
Our magazine in the past has covered the transformation of the St. Louis River from an industrially and municipally polluted waterway toward a healthy revival that is welcoming back its human, wildlife and plant residents. It’s been a long, on-going process with many entities, people and organizations contributing. “As the projects are being completed, the river still needs time,” Kris says of the healing.
While various groups take up the charge on individual programs and projects, the St. Louis River Alliance also keeps an eye on how to connect people to the river, which ultimately will safeguard the waters in the future. Kris herself lived on its banks for three years. Her time there added to her appreciation of the river as more than H20. “It’s a moving, breathing entity, and it’s really animate when you live there.”
She recalls seiches, those shifts of water on Lake Superior from atmospheric pressure that pushed the river backward and raised water levels as much as 4 feet in two hours.
One of the best ways to connect people to the river is by getting them out on it, but that’s not possible for all residents along the waterway. The alliance is trying to help connect people living near the river who have been historically cut off from it due to pollution, industry and economic hardship. A very large percent of the population around the estuary have never been able to experience the river, Kris says. After returning from a Washington, D.C., gathering of the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition, she says the alliance looked around and found, “There really isn’t anybody connecting to the river directly.”
From creation of a St. Louis River Estuary National Water Trail map/guide to lobbying governmental representatives (seen here are, LeAnn Littlewolf, executive director of the American Indian Community Housing Organization, Kris Eilers and alliance board member Breanna Ellison) to hosting river gatherings, the St. Louis River Alliance keeps its eye on the river.
To fill that gap, it offers events bringing residents to the water. Staff and volunteers host events like winter walks on the river, canoe outings, walks and talks about edible plants and beginner birding. They organized restoration activities like work-intensive pulling of invasive plants, refreshing habitat for return of piping plovers and reseeding wild rice beds. They’ve adopted Woodstock Bay in Superior as a focus area. They have been holding community events to find out what people want to do on the river and what keeps them from doing it. “We’re not just deciding what to do,” says Kris, “we’re doing what people want to do. … We want to keep helping people fall in love with the river.”
The alliance also is the delegated manager of the St, Louis River Estuary National Water Trail, a trail officially designated in 2020. “The water trail is what I called a celebration of a cleaner river,” says Kris, and it is one more way to connect people to the water.
The alliance acknowledges in its activities the multi-layered relationship of the river to people as a work place, recreation playground and healthy ecosystem.
“If you have a healthy river, or a healthy body of water, you have a healthy community as well,” Kris says. “As the St. Louis River becomes cleaner, we are evolving as an organization and celebrating that slow return by helping people build a relationship with it.”
And the St. Louis River Alliance intends to be part of the life in, on and by river well into the future.
Photos, unless indicated, are courtesy the St. Louis River Alliance. From the top:
Because the St. Louis River habitats range from northern wilderness, including in Jay Cooke State Park in Minnesota to the working waterfront harbor of Duluth-Superior (both Adobe stock photos), the St. Louis River Alliance seeks out partnerships that also span the waterway’s many roles.
Alliance staff members at Boy Scout Landing, from left, are Mikayla Erickson, Alyssa Johnson and Kris Eilers (photo by Michael K. Anderson).
Restoration is a key component of the alliance’s work for wild rice and piping plovers (photos by Alyssa Johnson)
From creation of a St. Louis River Estuary National Water Trail map/guide to lobbying governmental representatives (seen here at Angie Craig's office are, LeAnn Littlewolf, executive director of the American Indian Community Housing Organization, Kris Eilers and alliance board member Breanna Ellison) to hosting river gatherings (photo by Michael K. Anderson), the St. Louis River Alliance keeps its eye on the river.