A stormwater system upgrade in Duluth was expanded with the help of an MPCA employee who tapped into available funding. It protects Lake Superior and can serve as an example for other cities and counties.
Throughout her life, Jen Widmer has felt a deep connection to wetlands. As a child, she played broomball on the ice of a wetland near her home. She once attempted swimming in the wetland but was joined by leeches. Despite finding the water “gross,” Widmer recalls fond memories spent along the water’s edge, where she watched geese and other waterfowl.
Now a water resources engineer and a board member of the Ney Nature Center, Widmer gets to restore some of those wetlands that had an influence on her.