Advancing Water Resilience through Corporate Stewardship: The Mississippi River Water Action Collaborative (MRWAC)

AWI is excited to partner with Pacific Institute and LimnoTech on the Mississippi River Water Action Collaborative (MRWAC), a new initiative aimed at accelerating conservation and water resilience across the Mississippi River Basin through corporate water stewardship.

MRWAC serves as a platform to connect project implementers and companies, supporting the implementation of projects that address shared water challenges across the basin. The initiative focuses on identifying high-impact opportunities where collaboration and investment can drive measurable outcomes, including the development of tools to track and quantify impact and ensure that resources are directed where they can have the greatest benefit.

As part of MRWAC, AWI is leveraging its expertise in watershed-scale science and partnership-building to help align the initiative with the broader goals of the Mississippi River Watershed Partnership (MRWP). Led by AWI in partnership with The Nature Conservancy, the MRWP provides a basin-wide framework of shared priorities, scientific guidance, and cross-sector coordination, ensuring MRWAC’s investments are aligned, strategic, and impactful at basin-wide scale. 

In turn, MRWAC supports MRWP goals by mobilizing private investment and partnerships to implement conservation practices that deliver measurable, on-the-ground outcomes, while also advancing corporate water stewardship. 

By aligning the shared priorities between MRWAC and the MRWP, this partnership has the potential to accelerate progress toward a healthier, more resilient Mississippi River, benefiting communities, ecosystems, and the economy alike.

Strengthening Collaborative Action Across the Watershed: Mississippi River Watershed Partnership Forms Leadership Council

America’s Watershed Initiative (AWI) has long recognized that protecting and restoring the Mississippi River Watershed demands coordinated, sustained action across a sprawling and diverse network of partners. To meet that need, AWI took the initiative to establish and build the Mississippi River Watershed Partnership (MRWP), growing it into a collaborative of more than 600 partners working across the watershed. Through years of leadership and facilitation, AWI has guided the Partnership’s development and helped align efforts across sectors, geographies, and interests. Now, that work is reaching an important milestone: the formal establishment of MRWP’s new Leadership Council.

The Leadership Council was created to provide strategic guidance and support decision-making as the Partnership advances its mission to improve the health and resilience of the Mississippi River Watershed. America’s Watershed Initiative, in partnership with The Nature Conservancy, convenes and guides the Council as it works to shape the Partnership’s priorities, align efforts across stakeholders, and guide its path forward.

Comprised of leaders representing the broad diversity of interests, geographies, and expertise across the watershed, the Council reflects MRWP’s commitment to inclusive and representative leadership. Its formation is part of a broader organizational structure designed to ensure the Partnership can continue growing in a thoughtful, coordinated, and transparent way.

By formalizing this leadership structure, MRWP is building the framework needed to support stronger collaboration, more strategic alignment, and greater collective impact across the Mississippi River Watershed.

AWI Developing New “Watershed Notes” Science Fact Sheet Series

America’s Watershed Initiative is developing a new educational resource series, Watershed Notes, to provide concise, science-based summaries of key issues impacting the Mississippi River Watershed.

Designed as accessible two-page fact sheets, Watershed Notes will synthesize peer-reviewed research and published findings into clear, comprehensible overviews for stakeholders, partners, and the broader watershed community. Each note will include a concise summary of findings, a curated list of references, and a visual element to help communicate complex information quickly and effectively.

Watershed Notes will cover a range of priority watershed issues throughout the year. By translating scientific research into practical, accessible resources, Watershed Notes will help strengthen understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing the Mississippi River Watershed.

Stay tuned for the release of the first Watershed Notes in the coming months.

This May, the Mississippi River Watershed Partnership will join with the Tulane University River-Coastal Science and Engineering Program to host River Connections, a three-day workshop designed to bring together researchers, practitioners, decision-makers, and watershed leaders from across the Mississippi River Watershed.

The meeting will provide a collaborative space for participants to share the latest science, exchange ideas across disciplines, and explore practical solutions to some of the watershed’s most pressing challenges. Discussions will center around five critical focus areas: conserving fish and wildlife, mitigating floods and droughts, sustaining inland navigation, enhancing recreation, and improving water quality.

Structured across three days, the workshop will move from research and collaboration to applied decision-making and, ultimately, partnership action. Attendees will hear about emerging science on river dynamics and restoration, work together to translate research into action, and help shape the future of coordinated watershed leadership through the Mississippi River Watershed Partnership.

Day three will place particular emphasis on advancing AWI-led partnership efforts, with participants invited to engage in committee formation and collaborative planning as the Partnership continues building its structure and action roadmaps.

You can find more information and register for the workshop here.