On Monday, Feb. 22, MinnPost’s Earth Journal Circle will present its fourth annual event focusing on substantive discussion of critical issues in the environment.

This year’s topic is “Land of 10,000 Lakes: Can We Achieve Water Sustainability?” The speaker is Dr. Deborah Swackhamer, former director of the University of Minnesota’s Water Resources Center, who will discuss issues threatening regional water quality and quantity. Earth Journal writer Ron Meador will moderate the Q&A session.

Swackhamer led the effort to produce the massive Minnesota Water Sustainability Framework – commissioned with funds from the Legacy Amendment to provide policy guidance for decision-making over the next 25 years – and has served in leadership roles on scientific panels advising the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the International Joint Commission. She now, because of her scholarship on chemical pollution of water sources, serves on a National Academy of Sciences panel focused on environmental science and toxicology.

The event will take place from 5:30 to 7:30 pm at Hell’s Kitchen in downtown Minneapolis. Registration for the program — which includes dinner, soft drinks, tax and gratuity — costs $28 for current MinnPost members and $38 for non-members.

Registration deadline is Feb. 15. Eligible members received the promo code for discounted tickets by email on Friday, January 15th. If you did NOT receive the promo code and believe that to be an error, please contact development director Claire Radomski at cradomski@minnpost.com.

Earth Journal Circle was created in 2012 to support twice-weekly environmental coverage on MinnPost. Circle members listed here pledged between $1,000 and $5,000 a year for three years to support Ron Meador’s Earth Journal. Earth Journal was MinnPost’s first beat to be funded by a group of major donors interested in the topic. More than 100 smaller donors have also supported this beat.

In May 2015, Earth Journal was named Best Independent Blog (on any subject) by the MN Society of Professional Journalists.