After the historic 1997 Red River floods, which covered downtown Grand Forks and caused great damage in the Fargo-Moorhead area, Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy joined local, state and federal agencies and organizations in a mediation process to find ways to reduce flooding and its damage.

The results of those efforts come to life in a new video commissioned by MCEA and the Red River Watershed Management Board. Filming began as the river was rising during another huge flood in 2009, but a flood that saw less damage than 12 years earlier.

The video shows how restoring wetlands and changing tributary streams and rivers to the Red River can not only reduce flooding, but improve habitat for fish, waterfowl and other wildlife.

"We are taking a systematic and planned approach to finding solutions to problems here so we can have projects that are built that not only reduce flood damage but enhance natural resources," Henry VanOffelen, MCEA's natural resources scientist says in the film. "In the long run, that's going to make the Red River basin a better place to live."

Simply click on the film at the bottom of the home page. And if you want to help us continue our work in the Red River Valley, please click on the donation button.