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Bring the St Croix and Namekagon Rivers to your local library through Rivers Are Alive

06/01/202606/02/2026

Topic: k-12 Education

The Basics

Rivers Are Alive is a K-12 environmental education program run in partnership by Wild Rivers Conservancy and the National Park Service. Through this program, both the Conservancy and the St Croix National Scenic Riverway, provides accessible and engaging environmental education programming that inspires a future community of river advocates all across the watershed.

Bringing Rivers Are Alive into libraries allows connections to more communities with new, interactive activities.

Adaptability for Your Library

Our Library Program is designed to fit where libraries need it most. Whether that is modifying outdoor programs to be indoors or changing up a program to fit your library’s summer reading challenge, we are able to bring environmental education to your patrons in the most fitting way.

Popular Programs for Libraries

By far the most popular program we offer to libraries is Who Would Win? St Croix Edition, based on the book series by Jerry Pallotta. In groups, students are given an animal fact sheet that has two native animals to the St Croix River watershed listed. They are given time to debate which animal on that sheet outcompetes the other, and the “winner” moves up in the bracket with the “loser” supporting them. As we move along in the activity, groups go against each other in matchups such as “Lake Sturgeon vs. Great Horned Owl” or “Mosquito vs. Beaver” until the final two are decided. The room is split in half, and the final two teams have to work together to build a strong case as to why their animal is the best in the watershed. The debate can get pretty lively, and the matchups are different every time. This activity is enjoyed by kids and parents alike. A family who attended one of our programs at Lake Elmo Public Library said that “[t]his was an amazing and creative event. My son talked passionately about it the whole way home…this one was definitely a favorite.”

We also offer our very popular Let’s Go Mucking and Let’s Go Birding, but with a twist. If your library doesn’t have a suitable outdoor space or access to water, we bring the outdoors to you by modifying these programs to indoor spaces. These modifications allow kids to be just as involved and hands-on as if they were knee-deep in the river looking for critters themselves.

Offerings for All Ages

When creating the activities for this program, we strived to make sure we covered a wide range of ages. Do you have primarily young children visiting your library? We offer arts and crafts activities and storytimes for younger audiences. Want to bring teens into the library? We offer a program called Conservation Careers, where teens can learn all the many ways to be involved within the environmental science field.

Interested in bringing Rivers Are Alive programming to your local library?