About MRWP
What is the Mississippi River Watershed Partnership
The Mississippi River Watershed Partnership (MRWP) is a collaborative of organizations working across the watershed to protect, restore, and sustain one of the world’s most vital river systems. Our work centers on five interconnected focus areas: fish and wildlife, floods and droughts, navigation, recreation, and water quality.
The Mississippi River watershed spans 31 states and more than a third of the continental United States. It is the lifeblood of the nation—supplying drinking water to millions, fueling agriculture and industry, supporting navigation and commerce, offering recreation, and sustaining extraordinary fish and wildlife. The health of this watershed shapes the well-being of communities, the resilience of ecosystems, and the strength of our economy.
Unlike other major watersheds around the world, the Mississippi River lacks a formal structure to coordinate action across its vast geography. While there is valuable work happening in individual sub-basins, much of it remains fragmented. By working together, we can change that. The MRWP is seizing the untapped opportunity to integrate efforts, align priorities, and build a stronger, collective approach that meets the scale of the river itself.
Partnership Strategies
At our most recent workshop, members outlined four core strategies that guide how we work together:
Policy Education and Advocacy
Informing decision-makers and (eligible organizations) advocating for policies that strengthen the health of the watershed.
Communications
Sharing stories, resources, and progress to build awareness and engagement across partners and the public.
Science Execution and Data Synthesis
Advancing research, generating new knowledge, and bringing together data to inform action.
Coordination and Convenings
Creating spaces for partners to connect, collaborate, and align efforts across geographies and sectors.
Why We Work Together
The Mississippi River watershed spans more than 1.2 million square miles, covering over a third of the continental United States. While many organizations are doing important work at regional and local levels, few are addressing challenges across the entire watershed. Yet the river system is deeply interconnected—what happens in one place can have ripple effects hundreds of miles downstream.
Too often, issues have been approached in a piecemeal way, leading to missed opportunities and unintended tradeoffs. By working at a larger scale and sharing knowledge across boundaries, the Partnership helps accelerate progress and ensure efforts add up to meaningful change.
The MRWP also works across sectors—bringing together voices from conservation, navigation, recreation, agriculture, industry, and beyond. This broad perspective ensures that progress in one area does not come at the expense of another, and that solutions are stronger, more balanced, and more durable for communities and ecosystems alike.
By working together, we can also secure greater financial support. Funders are more likely to invest in efforts that demonstrate broad collaboration and impact at scale. Through collective action, the Partnership can attract and align resources that no single organization could secure alone—helping to sustain long-term solutions for the river and the people who depend on it.
Participating Organizations
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Charlotte Houston
Executive Chef
Jim Fox
Culinary Director
James Goodwin
Event Planner
What We’ve Done
To build the most effective and inclusive partnership possible, the convening partners—America’s Watershed Initiative and The Nature Conservancy—have co-created the MRWP alongside stakeholders from across the watershed. Over the past several years, we have grown the Partnership through a series of workshops, webinars, feedback sessions, and collaborative meetings.
This process has shaped the Partnership into what it is today: a broad coalition with shared priorities, clear goals, and a commitment to collective action.
July 2022-December 2023
Partnership Development
The convening partners, AWI and TNC, conducted initial outreach to federal partners including: DHS (FEMA), DOI (USGS, USFWS, BRD), DOT (MARAD), Commerce (NOAA), EPA, USACE, USDA
Met with Basin groups in the following sub-basins of the Mississippi River Watershed: Upper Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio Red, Lower Mississippi
January 2024-May 2024
Growing the Network
Conducted state specific calls to identify key agency contacts and state leadership and conduct outreach to NGOs, industry partners and other organizations. A contact list of over 300 potential partners was created and continues to grow.
June 2024
Initial Partnership Workshop
Held workshop in St. Louis, Missouri with over 120 partners to explore what a partnership could have to offer. The workshop addressed shared challenges and opportunities to work together. A workshop report, detailing the conversations and outcomes, can be found here.
July 2024-June 2025
Outcome Based Goals and Actions
The convening partners, AWI and TNC, hosted a series of virtual workshops in October 2024 with experts across the five focus areas to establish initial goals and actions. In December 2024, the convening partners held a webinar to share these draft goals with the broader partnership. A second round of virtual workshops took place in March 2025, this time organized by the five major basins of the Mississippi River Watershed, to further refine the goals. Following additional partner input and revisions by the convening partners, the finalized Goals and Actions along with Partnership Principles were released in June 2025.
January 2025-Present
Partnership Framework
The convening partners hosted a workshop in St. Louis, Missouri with over 60 participants. During that workshop participants reviewed existing watershed structures and evaluated options for an initial framework, deciding on a shared leadership structure with strong federal agency participation. Through review of workshop feedback and more partner conversations a design for the structure was created.
During the partnership workshop in August 2025, participants explored options for a near-term partnership structure that may be more feasible and have a shorter set-up time while allowing the partnership to strengthen and grow. The consensus was to begin with a leadership council and committee structure, which is currently being designed by the convening partners.
August 2025
Action-Oriented Partnership Workshop
In August 2025, partners from across the watershed gathered for a two-day workshop to help shape the future of the partnership. Participants developed roadmaps for priority actions that will guide and track progress toward partnership goals, and also discussed a leadership structure to support and build on these efforts.
The roadmaps are being refined by an external contractor to integrate all ideas and align them with the partnership’s core strategies to advance the identified actions. To learn more about the workshop, you can view the workshop report here.
What’s Next For The Partnership
In the year ahead, the Mississippi River Watershed Partnership is focused on turning plans into action. We are advancing 10 priority actions from our shared Goals and Actions document, while continuing to strengthen relationships across the watershed. At the same time, we are building out the structure needed to carry this work forward—creating a foundation that will allow the Partnership to grow, coordinate more effectively, and deliver meaningful results for communities, ecosystems, and the economy.
The Road Ahead
States
People
square miles
major tributaries
Testimonials
Let’s Work Together!
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