River of Ideas Mississippi Watershed Management Organization

In this episode of River of Ideas, we sit down with Jen Ehlert, Vice President of Metro Blooms Design + Build to talk about designing sustainable urban landscapes. We discuss the history of Metro Blooms and the Blue Thumb education and outreach program and delve into some practical advice for homeowners looking to enhance their properties with native plants and raingardens. Jen also shares her personal journey into landscape architecture and her passion for integrating ecological design into everyday landscapes.

Links:

Lawns to Legumes Grants (Apply by May 15!) — https://bluethumb.org/lawns-to-legumes/
Blue Thumb (workshops, planting templates, etc.) — https://bluethumb.org/
Metro Blooms — https://metroblooms.org/

Credits:

Nick Busse — Host, Video Production
Jennifer Ehlert — Guest
Akadia Johnson — Audio Production
Mary Yang — Camera Assistant

About River of Ideas:

River of Ideas is a podcast about greener cities and cleaner water through science and urban planning. We cover topics like green infrastructure, water quality, landscape design, ecology, environmental policy, and environmental justice.

River of Ideas is produced by the Mississippi Watershed Management Organization, a Minneapolis-based joint-powers local government unit and one of approximately three dozen watershed organizations in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area. Learn more at mwmo.org.
Thanks for listening! Check us out at mwmo.org.

For our first episode of River of Ideas, we sit down with MWMO Artist-in-Residence Sarah Nassif to talk about her upbringing, her evolution from naturalist to artist, and how her Weaving Water workshops helped foster a sense of community in a troubled time.

Credits:

Abby Moore — Host
Sarah Nassif — Guest
Nick Busse — Production, Editing
Eva Hanson — Camera Assistant

About River of Ideas:

River of Ideas is a podcast about greener cities and cleaner water through science and urban planning. We cover topics like green infrastructure, water quality, landscape design, ecology, environmental policy, and environmental justice.

River of Ideas is produced by the Mississippi Watershed Management Organization, a Minneapolis-based joint-powers local government unit and one of approximately three dozen watershed organizations in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area. Learn more at mwmo.org.

About Sarah Nassif:

Sarah Nassif is a self-taught social-practice artist living in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She received her B.S. in Botany from the University of Washington in 1997 and worked in environmental education, urban forestry, and data analysis before becoming an artist. In her community-engaged art projects, Sarah Nassif connects people, plants, and place through sensory exploration of natural and human-built environments, hands-on skills practice, and person-to-person sharing.

Sarah currently serves as Artist in Residence at MWMO. Since October 2021, her workshops and art projects have drawn community back into conversations about how each of us can support clean water, care for the river, and share our knowledge in our own communities creatively.

Website: sarahnassif.com
Thanks for listening! Check us out at mwmo.org.