HISTORY

The River Watch Monitoring Program began in the Red River Valley as a pilot project on the Sand Hill River (SHR) in 1995 with funding from a Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources Challenge Grant. Since that time the Sand Hill River Watershed District and the Red River Water Management Board have continued to provide financial support for the program. Initially the program involved the four schools of Fosston, Win-E-Mac (Winger, Erskine and McIntosh), Fertile-Beltrami, and Climax on the SHR. In 1998 four additional schools (Red Lake Falls, Oklee, Plummer, and Clearbrook) on the Clearwater River initiated the River Watch Monitoring Program for testing of that river through a MPCA Clean Waters Partnership Project with the Red Lake Watershed District. 

With the support of a MN Board of Water and Soil Resources Challenge Grant, the Red River Basin River Watch (RRBRW) Monitoring Program began in 1995 with four schools on the Sand Hill River. The program has now grown to involve schools in Minnesota, North Dakota, and Manitoba. Thanks to the funding from the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources, North Dakota Department of Health, local agencies, and many other funding sources the program is still growing and reaching out to schools all over the basin.