Patrick Krawec is the Executive Director of Save Our Seine River Environment Inc., known as SOS, a volunteer-powered nonprofit dedicated to protecting and restoring the Urban Seine River Greenway in Winnipeg. When SOS first formed in 1990, the river was in rough shape, choked with garbage, concrete rubble, and debris, written off by many as little more than a neglected ditch.
Describe your charity/non-profit/volunteer work in a few sentences.
Save Our Seine River Environment Inc. (SOS) is a Winnipeg-based, volunteer-powered environmental nonprofit dedicated to protecting, restoring, and enhancing the Urban Seine River Greenway. Through habitat restoration, environmental education, stewardship programs, advocacy, and community partnerships, SOS works to improve river health, biodiversity, and public access along the 26-km Urban Seine River corridor.
What problem does it aim to solve?
The Urban Seine River Greenway faces ongoing pressures from invasive species, habitat loss, pollution, erosion, and urban development. SOS works to protect and restore this important urban natural corridor while helping people reconnect with nature and understand the ecological importance of the river system.
When did you start/join it?
I joined SOS as Executive Director on September 22, 2025.
What made you want to get involved?
I have always believed that urban natural areas matter deeply for both environmental and community well-being. The Seine River Greenway is one of Winnipeg’s most important ecological corridors, but it is also a place where people learn, gather, paddle, walk, volunteer, and build relationships with the land. The opportunity to help strengthen and grow that work was very meaningful to me.
What was the situation like when you started?
When Save Our Seine first formed in 1990, much of the Urban Seine River was in terrible condition. In many places, the river had become heavily polluted, clogged with garbage, concrete rubble, shopping carts, tires, and debris. Some sections were described by early SOS members as little more than a “mosquito-breeding cesspool and a lifeless ditch.” Water flow through the river had been severely impacted, large portions of the corridor were neglected, and many people had largely turned their backs on the river. Early volunteers spent countless hours physically pulling garbage and concrete out of the river by hand and canoe.
How has it changed since?
Over the past 35 years, SOS, alongside thousands of volunteers, partners, and community members, has helped transform the Urban Seine River Greenway. Together, we helped save Bois-des-Esprits, one of Winnipeg’s largest remaining urban forests, from development. SOS advocated for improvements to the Floodway siphon system to help restore healthier river flow, supported cleanup and remediation efforts connected to the former IKO industrial site, developed Winnipeg’s first rain garden demonstration project along the Seine River, helped create accessible river access points, expanded trails and public access, and built long-running stewardship programs like the SOS River Keepers.
Today, the Urban Seine River Greenway is cleaner, healthier, more accessible, and far more valued by the community than it was in 1990. We have preserved important wild spaces, restored habitat, improved public awareness, and built a strong culture of community stewardship around the river. But there is still much more to do, and in many ways, we are just getting started.
What more needs to be done?
There is still significant restoration and stewardship work ahead. The Greenway continues to face pressures from invasive species, climate impacts, habitat fragmentation, pollution, and development pressures. Long-term restoration, ecological monitoring, public education, Indigenous partnership-building, and sustainable funding remain essential to protecting the Seine River for future generations.
How can our readers help?
People can help by volunteering at land care events, becoming SOS members, donating, attending public programs, participating in cleanups and restoration projects, and simply spending time learning about and caring for the river. Community stewardship is at the heart of everything SOS does.
Do you have any events coming up?
SOS regularly hosts guided walks, volunteer land care activities, educational workshops, stewardship events, and community programs throughout the year. Upcoming activities and events are regularly posted on our website and social media channels.
Where can we follow you?
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