Carrie Jennings has spent her career piecing together how our landscapes came to be—and what’s happening to them now. A geologist by training and now Research and Policy Director at Freshwater, she’s spent decades mapping Minnesota’s glacial past, teaching at the University of Minnesota, and turning science into action to protect our rivers and groundwater.

In this episode, Carrie takes us deep into the story of the Minnesota River Basin. We start with the glaciers that carved it out thousands of years ago and then fast forward to today, where farming practices, drained wetlands, and tiled fields have transformed it into what she calls “an agricultural drainage ditch.” The result? Rivers running brown, biodiversity wiped out, sediment loads ten times higher than historical levels, and small towns struggling to keep up as floodwaters rise and infrastructure strains.

Carrie helps us connect these dots—how the choices we’ve made on the land ripple through everything from water quality and fish habitat to the cost of raising highways and dredging navigation channels. And she shares how her work has pushed past research into real change: new state programs to hold more water on the land, restore wetlands, and rebuild soil health; support for perennial crops that keep living roots in the ground year-round; and a growing recognition that this is a “Dust Bowl moment” for Minnesota, one that demands systemic change.

This isn’t just a conversation about rivers—it’s about how we live on the land, how federal farm policy shapes our choices, and what it will take for Minnesota to chart a different path. Carrie’s perspective brings both deep time (glaciers and plate tectonics) and an urgency grounded in the present: if we don’t act, we risk doubling down on the very patterns—corn, soy, and now biofuels—that are driving the problem.

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