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Balanced Urban Ecology
Connecting Land, Water and People
The lakes, streams, and wetlands of the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District flow through a dynamic region where the natural and built environments have a unique opportunity to thrive together.
Recognizing the integrated relationships of our surroundings, we developed a Balanced Urban Ecology policy to guide our partnership-driven work across public, private, and civic sectors. This policy clarifies our commitment to understanding community needs in cross-jurisdictional settings and working collaboratively to protect and improve our natural systems for future generations.
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Successful, sustainable, livable communities are built on a foundation of integrated planning – planning that recognizes communities as living organisms and takes into consideration all components of the urban ecology.
– BUE policy
A Guiding Philosophy
The MCWD Board of Managers formalized this partnership-focused approach in 2014 by adopting a new policy, “In Pursuit of a Balanced Urban Ecology in the Minnehaha Creek Watershed.” This policy guides our planning and initiatives with the following three principles:
- We will join with others to pursue our watershed management goals
- We will intensify and maintain our focus on high-priority projects
- We will be flexible and creative in adapting our practices to those of our partners
![Arden Park shelter and walking bridge](https://minnehahacreek.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/ArdenPark_03-1024x576.jpg)
An Ongoing Effort
Balanced Urban Ecology represents our commitment to working collaboratively across the watershed. Our culture is rooted in the understanding that everyone benefits from a healthy watershed, and that partnership is our best hope for protecting water resources across a diverse region of cities, towns and rural areas.
Discover what Balanced Urban Ecology looks like in action by exploring MCWD capital projects. Considering a project that will shape the landscape within our watershed? Partner with us to bring it to life.