About Northland NEMO
NEMO is a nationally recognized educational program for local elected and appointed decision makers addressing the relationship between land use and natural resource protection. NEMO stands for Nonpoint Education for Municipal Officials. Nonpoint source pollution, or polluted runoff, is the number one water quality problem in the United States. Because water quality is a reflection of land use in a watershed, and because land use is determined and managed at the local level, NEMO educational programs focus on the audience of local land use officials.
Northland NEMO is a collaborative of organizations in Minnesota and Wisconsin with groups currently working in the Twin Cities Metro Area and the Western Lake Superior Basin (Duluth & Superior regions). Northland NEMO partners work together to offer educational programming, provide resources, and create effective tools to assist and enable communities to make informed decisions regarding land use and natural resources. Northland NEMO is a member of the National NEMO Network. The National NEMO Network includes similar programs in 32 states, with the Network hub at the University of Connecticut.
Our mission is to help Minnesota and Wisconsin communities better protect natural resources while accommodating growth and redevelopment. This assistance is provided through non-regulatory, research-based education programs that emphasize natural resource based planning and low impact development. Our programs are designed to build local officials’ capacity to make environmentally-sustainable land use decisions based on knowledge of and vision for the future of their community’s natural resources and an understanding of the impacts of land use changes on soil, water, and related natural resources.
NEMO provides a variety of educational opportunities that focus on the impacts of land use changes on natural resources, with an emphasis on protecting and improving a community’s water and natural resources through the use of planning, practices, and policies. NEMO programs happen in informal, engaging settings that encourages dialogue among community officials. We provide customized programs that focus on community issues and needs.
Northland NEMO programs include:
• NEMO presentations cover topics including: Basic NEMO (Linking Land Use and Water Quality), Natural Resource Based Planning, What is Low Impact Development? Ordinances for Clean Water and others. NEMO presentations are often followed by a community discussion facilitated by the NEMO educator.
• NEMO workshops provide hands on, interactive learning, often in unique settings ranging from the boardroom to a bus or boat.
• NEMO provides tools and resources such as model ordinances, fact sheets, and the Watershed Game.
• NEMO trains local partners in developing and delivering educational programs for local officials.
• NEMO Train-the-Trainer workshops that build capacity and effectiveness of water resource and natural resource educators across the state and region.
• NEMO assists in efforts to plan and offer several annual conferences and summits such as the Clean Water Summit and the Minnesota Water Resources Conference.