April 1993
the monthly newsletter for people who live, work or play on the Upper Mississippi River
Vol. 1. No. 4
Paddlefish - Ugly and Sensitive
Changing a Big River into Big Lakes
By Roger Lacher
By Ed Brick
Up a creek without a paddlefish? Be a sad day on a creek the size of the Upper Miss. It's a fish most of us never see, an ugly, antique creature from the deep. Polyodon spathula gets big, eats like a whale, yields caviar like its sturgeon cousins, sports a nose like a paddle and a tail like a shark. And, it still swims in parts of the Big River. A century ago paddlefish ranged over much of the vast Mississippi watershed, the Great Lakes and some rivers flowing into the Gulf of Mexico. Then homo sapiens started messing around with nets and dams and farming. Fishers harvested an all-time record 1,200 tons in 1899. A year later, a University of Minnesota zoological survey team netted over 1,000 pounds of paddlefish from Lake Pepin for research.
In 1929 and 1930, to prepare for the nine-foot channel
Good thing a paddlefish can live more than 30 years. Studies of this unique fish continued, sporadic at first, more focused since the 1960s. While paddlefish seem tough, like sluggish bottom-feeding bullheads or carp, they are actually quite sensitive to environmental factors - dissolved oxygen, current, toxins and spawning conditions. They reproduce in spring. Males mature at about 8 years old, females at 10. They need rising, 50-plus degree water over a gravel substrate, and the current and light have to be just right, too. If anything goes wrong, spawning is postponed for another year. Good thing a paddlefish can live more than 30 years. They keep growing: 40, 50, 60 ... 198 pounds. A neighbor swears he saw one draggin' tail out of a three-quarter-ton Ozark pickup truck, knows two guys drowned following
(Paddlefish, continued on page 6)
project, the Brown Engineering Company surveyed the Upper Mississippi River from its confluence with the Ohio River to the Twin Cities. Maps based on the survey show all the channels, islands, wing dams and closing dams as they existed just before navigation improvements were changed from "river training" devices to the lock-and-dam system that created a series of slack water pools. The Brown maps show a far different river than the one we see now, especially in the pools upriver from the dams. The entire river bottom between the railroad tracks was an ever-<:hanging maze of channels defined by wooded islands and lower, bare sandbars. The wooded islands reduced the effects of wind and waves. The trees kept the wind above tree height, reducing the wind "fetch," the distance wind blowing across the water surface has to build up waves. Previous efforts to improve navigation on the Upper Mississippi River - beginning with removal of snags, shoals and sandbars in the 1830s - caused only minor changes in the complex of channels and islands. These islands, most of which were wooded, sit atop a deposit of sand and gravel hundreds of feet deep, deposited here after What's inside. .. melting glacial torrents carved the river channel Current Events 4 out of stone. Letter to the Editor 6 Even construction Birds 7 of wing dams and River Calendar 8 closing dams, which began in 1878 to provide Coming in May first a 41/2-foot channel •Where Do the Fish Go? • Phosphorus in Lake Pepin
(Big Lakes, continued on page 2)
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(Big Lakes, from page 1) and then a six-foot channel in 1907, left the multi-channeled, wooded island complex intact. The wing and closing dams were designed to concentrate low flows into the navigation channel. All flows over the design low flow breached closing dams and spread throughout side and back channels. River stages rose and fell with seasonal fluctuations. Floods that covered wooded islands seldom lasted longer than a month. Earlier river bottom maps would have looked much like the the old Brown survey maps. River bottoms just downstream from the dams still look much as the river looked then. The nine-foot navigation channel on the Upper Mississippi was developed to accommodate tow boats and barges of that draft already operating on the Ohio River and the
April 1993
Mississippi below St. Louis. Congress authorized the Ninefoot Channel Project in 1930. It required additional acts of Congress in 1935 and 1937. Work was accelerated to stimulate the economy, then in the midst of the Great Depression. Lock and Dam Nine, at Lynxville, cost $3,800,000, typical of the cost of most of the structures. Almost all of the works were completed by January 1941. Construction of the locks and dams immediately changed the long-standing ecological setting for miles upstream from the dams. Some trees were cleared in pools where new depths covered wooded islands. The multi-channeled riverine setting was attacked by wave energy that increased with the higher water levels.
(Big Lakes, continued on page 4)
LowerPoo/4 Lake Pepin
1891
1989
Alma, Wis .
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Alma, Wis .
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April 1993
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LowerPoo/8 Brownsville,• Minn.
Brownsville,• Minn.
1891
1989
Lock& Dam 8
Lower Pool 13 •
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Water
D
Land
1891
1989
2 MILES
Maps provided by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Environmental
Management Technical Center, _ _ Onalaska, Wis.
Clinton, la.
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Clinton, la.
Lock& Dam 13
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(Big Lakes, from page 2) Larger expanses of open water increased fetch distances and wind waves, which eroded away many of the wooded islands. The sheltering effect they once provided was replaced by an ever growing wind fetch distance that led to further increases in wind wave energy. The areas upstream from dams have increasingly become large, shallow, turbid lakes. The ecology of these new habitats changed accordingly, often to ecosystems less valued by recreational river users.
Construction of the locks and dams immediately changed the longstanding ecological setting for miles upstream from the dams. Increased wave energy and turbidity damage submergent and emergent aquatic plants. These water fowl foods are gradually being replaced by algae. Sight-feeding predator fish, like bass, are being replaced more and more by bottom-feeding carp and sheepshead. Named islands that once provided roosting and nesting sites for numerous birds are gone, or nearly gone. The islands' forest soils are eroding, joining the fine silt from tributary watersheds to reduce light penetration and feed algae. Algae growth also reduces light penetration that large aquatic plants depend on for growth. Islands and other structures have been placed in Weaver Bottoms, near Wabasha, and in several other spots to reverse the environmental impact of the nine-foot channel project. These structures were designed to reduce wave fetch, which reduces wave energy and turbidity in the shallow bottoms. Using stone rip rap to protect island shorelines that face the navigation channel is costly, which limited its use in the past. Funding of remedial projects has improved, but is still meager when compared to habitat and diversity losses caused by the nine-foot channel. Keeping faith with the intent of the authorizing act will require a continuing effort to replace the big lakes upstream from the locks and dams with a reconstructed set of channels and islands - barren initially, but eventually covered with fast-growing cottonwood and willow trees. Then predator fish species will have clearer water to hunt in as they gradually bring carp and sheepshead populations back into balance. Waterfowl will find more celery and other foods growing once again in the quieter, clearer water. We will never restore the scenes shown on the Brown survey maps. But they should be recognized as a blueprint to help fix the big lakes created by the dams. Modern equivalents of the islands shown on the maps can help correct damage caused by the nine-foot channel project.+
Ed Brick is a land-use historian, consultant and civil engineer, wit!t graduate training in water resources management. He has worked for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Univeristy of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
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April 1993
J . uu
CURRENT EVENTS By Reggie McLeod and Tony Kolars
Dollar-a-gallon Tax The barge industry has sounded a call to arms to oppose an additional dollar-a-gallon fuel tax on towboats. The Clinton Administration proposed the tax increase to raise enough money to cover the cost of construction, maintenance and rehabilitation projects needed to maintain the inland waterways system. The current tax is 17 cents a gallon, which is already scheduled to increase to 19 cents in 1994. The proposal would raise the total tax to $1.19 a gallon in 1994. Fuel now costs about 60 cents a gallon, without the federal tax, according to The Waterways Journal. The weekly trade journal for the inland waterways shipping industry has published many editorials and articles opposing the tax. Most claim the tax will hurt consumers, farmers and grain exporters, in addition to the shipping industry. "An average towboat that uses 5,000 gallons of fuel per day would see its fuel costs, which are half of its operating cost, skyrocket by $5,000 per day," explained Joseph Farrell, president of the American Waterways Operators, in an article in The Waterways Journal (3-1-93). When it rains it pours. In addition to that proposed tax, the industry could face a higher fuel bill if Clinton's "btu" tax becomes law. Meanwhile, the river towboat operators are fighting attempts by several states, including Iowa, to limit hazardous cargos to double-hulled barges.+
Dial a Bird If it's too cool to open the windows or you work in one of those hermetically sealed office buildings, you can still hear the birds singing. Pick up your phone and dial (612) 645-6060, then dial "BIRD" (2473), then lean back and listen to three taped bird songs. The songs, which change every week, come from the Library of Natural Sounds at Cornell University's Laboratory of Ornithology. The service is provided by the St. Paul Pioneer Press' North Country Almanac through the newspaper's Cityline.+
Protecting St. Croix Mussels Mussel communities in the St. Croix River are being mapped and studied to better understand their importance to the health of the river and to protect them from extinction, according to a press release form the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Both the winged mapleleaf mussel and the Higgins' eye mussel have been placed on the Federal endangered species
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list. The winged mapleleaf mussel is not found anywhere in the world except in a 10-mile stretch of the St. Croix downstream from Taylors Falls. The St. Croix is a protected National Wild and Scenic River and, due to its high water quality, supports one of the nation's largest populations of freshwater clams, or mussels, according to Rich Baker of the Minnesota DNR. Baker also said that mussels are ".. .indicators of environmental health. The river supports populations of several mussel species that have disappeared from more developed parts of the region." Information on the mussels will also be important in protecting them and the river against the inevitable invasion of the exotic zebra mussel, which may do great damage to existing mussel populations.+
New River Coalition in Red Wing A new group is being created in the Red Wing area to focus on the Mississippi River, from the St. Croix River downriver to the bottom of Lake Pepin. The Red Wing Area Mississippi River Coalition held its first organizational meeting in March and scheduled its first annual meeting for April 29 (see River Calendar). The group hopes to promote river stewardship, organize an annual river cleanup, start a River Watch program for high school students and pursue other educational and resource protection programs. The McKnight Foundation has offered a $15,000 matching grant to help the organization get rolling. On March 9, the group organized a panel discussion about marina expansions that prompted the Mdewakanton Sioux tribe to reconsider its plan to build a 400-slip marina on Prairie Island.+
Navigation Study May Begin Soon A controversial, long-range planning study of the navigation needs of the Upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers may begin soon, despite protests from many environmental groups and state officials. The $22.74 million Upper Mississippi River-Illinois Waterway System Navigation Study would address navigation needs on the rivers through the year2050. Critics of the proposed study complained that it ignored other aspects of river use affected by navigation, such as wildlife habitat and recreational use. Some environmental groups even suggested that the study examine the broader transportation system and whether there is a need for the nine-foot channel and the locks and dams that maintain it. The River Register (Jan./ Feb. 1993) reported that Brigadier General Stanley Genega, director of Civil Works for the Corps, approved the study proposal with some modifications. Expected changes include $900,000 to evaluate the impacts of navigation on mussels, fish and aquatic plants, and $1 million to study the effects of recreational boating on side channels and backwaters. Another modification would allow some
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construction to begin before environmental studies are completed.+
Frog and Toad Count The first count of Minnesota's frogs and toads will be taken this spring. Because of their sensitivity to changes in water quality and quantity, the health of frog and toad populations is a good indicator of the health of their environment, according to Jill Jacoby, director of the St. Louis River Watch Project. In an article in TIDINGS of the Mississippi Headwaters, Jacoby said that "A serious decline in frog populations is a warning that something is happening in the environment which warrants further investigation." In the River Watch project, frogs are identified, monitored and recorded, by their calls, by volunteers trained to recognize the various frog calls. According to John Moriarty, of the Minnesota Herpetological Society, the study will establish baseline data on frogs and toads. He said about 10 to 15 of the monitoring routes are in ponds and backwater areas of the Mississippi River.+
Restoring Swamp Oaks Swamp white oaks, valued for their strength, the importance of their acorn crop as food for wildlife and their deep roots, which help prevent soil erosion, have been declining in numbers during the past decade. A project is currently underway to revive the swamp oak population upstream from La Crosse in the Black River Bottoms, according to a Fish and Wildlife Service news release. The idea to plant white oak seedlings near the Black River is that of Marc Schultz, of the Brice Prairie Conservation Association, and Army Corps of Engineers forester Randy Urich. They are working with the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge on the project. The planting project began in the fall of 1991, when 750 swamp oak acorns were gathered and placed in a closely monitored nursery. Since then the acorns have yielded 500 seedlings that will be transplanted this spring to protective sites on the Black River Bottoms.+
Adopt an Iowan Stream The Iowa Department of Natural Resources recently launched an "Adopt-A-Stream "program to encourage individuals, groups, schools and local governments to organize cleanup days and other activities to protect and enhance streams. For more information or an enrollment packet, write or call James Johrer, Department of Natural Resources, 900 E. Grand, Des Moines, IA 50319-0034.+
Reggie McLeod is editor and Tony Kolars is associate editor of Big River.
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April 1993
(Paddlefish, from page 1)
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their last inch of line into deep South snagging waters. Just couldn't give up on spoonbills longer than they were tall. Spoonbill, or "spoonbill catfish," are common terms for paddlefish. A big female may bulge with 20 pounds of eggs. When the roe market pays near $.30 a pound, that's one valuable fish to a snagger casting a treble hook into the current. With genuine sturgeon caviar increasingly rare, prices for paddlefish eggs are bound to go up - a real concern to conservationists. Some Southern states allow commercial netting as well as sport-snagging seasons. Upriver, stricter regulations apply. Minnesota lists paddlefish as "protected," Wisconsin, "threatened" since 1989. But biologis,ts are optimistic about the fish's future in certain areas of its northern range, like the St. Croix, Chippewa, lower Wisconsin and Mississippi below Lake Pepin, especially Pool 11, upstream from Dubuque.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Kim Graham, of the Missouri Department of Conservation, has studied these odd fish and their propagation for years. While paddlefish "don't get enough grub in the Mississippi because plankton's moving too fast in the current," he predicts progress off the Main Channel due to environmental awareness and stocking artificially spawned fish in appropriate waters - a process pioneered in Missouri. Other researchers also express hope. John Lyons and Dr. Phil Cochran monitor populations below the Wisconsin River's Prairie du Sac dam. They stress preservation of spawning areas and prevention of illegal poaching. Lyons writes, ''Public interest in the paddlefish can foster greater commitment to protect and enhance paddlefish populations." Soil erosion and siltation are perennial problems affecting hundreds of species. There's also bass boat and barge traffic. Veteran commercial fisherman Bud Ramer, of Winona, who has emptied nets for decades, sees "a lot of spoonbills marked up. When they're feeding on top, especially in cool water, a fast boat'll hit 'em, feel a bump through the prop, keep on going." Biologist Calvin Fremling concurs. Paddlefish are just too slow to get out of the way. He recalls spoonbills stacked like cord wood at Keokuk years ago, maybe headed for the smokehouse. More recently, John Sagan, of Fountain City, Wis., found the severed head of a fish estimated to have been six feet long. So life is not easy for a bulky, beady-eyed, mostly boneless and scaleless behemoth nosing through the river eating tiny plankton. From the murky recesses of history it swims up the center of our continent, doing its best.+
Roger Lacher is a writer and naturalist who lives on the Root River watershed.
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This letter is in response to the article from the January 1993 edition of Big River (Vol. 1, No. 1), entitled, "Tracking Birds in Aoodplain Forests and River Wetlands" by Pamela Eyden. I would like to provide your readers with some additional information in reference to cultivating and logging floodplain forests. While researching the history of bottomland forestry and floodplain forest conditions along the Mississippi River, we located information that documents the harvesting of timber on both Corps of Engineers and Fish and Wildlife Service lands within the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge. Although many areas have not been cut in recent years, large amounts of timber were harvested from the Mississippi River floodplain during the last 60 years. Timber sales were administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; the Corps of Engineers; and scattered private landowners. In addition, the Corps' Rock Island District has numerous photographs documenting the condition of the floodplain at the time lands were purchased for the Nine-Foot Navigation Channel Project in the 193G>. These photographs show numerous dwellings, farm buildings and agricultural fields in the river floodplain. After purchase by the government, these areas were vacated and then, if not inundated following construction of the locks and dams, revegetated naturally to floodplain forest or other wetland species. Settlers, farmers, loggers and river boat lines all may have altered the forest resource in one way or another long before the government purchased these lands. Both the Rock Island and the St. Paul Districts of the Corps are implementing forest management programs on Corps-owned lands from Mississippi River Pool 3 (near Hastings, Minn.) through Pool 22 (near Saverton, Mo.). Through this program, Corps foresters are working with other river resource managers from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the state natural resource management agencies to sustain and improve the floodplain forest for a variety of benefits. These benefits include wildlife habitat, recreation, scenery, a supply of forest products, forest pest control and watershed protection. Ttmber harvesting is a management tool that can be used to meet various management objectives. One objective might be to encourage the growth of bottomland tree seedlings that require lots of sunlight. Another objective might be to provide areas of forest where the sizes and ages of trees are different than the adjacent area. This creates a variety of forested habitats where different kinds of wildlife can live and feed. Tree thinnings can allow extra space for acorn and nut producing trees (also known as mast trees) to grow. As these trees grow larger, they produce more mast for wildlife to eat. Tree planting may also be used to provide more food producing trees for wildlife as well as nest and roost sites for bald eagles and other birds. Mississippi River floodplain resources have a long history of human use. The forest we see today has been shaped significantly by man, as well as many natural influences. However, it continues to provide a multitude of benefits for wildlife and people. The Corps forestry staff is working closely with state and federal agencies, as well as local volunteer individuals and groups, to implement the forest management program. We are working together to create, improve or maintain fish and wildlife (game and nongame species) habitat through the use of accepted forestry practices. The forestry program can be an integral part of the conservation of resources associated with the Mississippi River. Sincerely, Randy Urich, Forester U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Mississippi River Project Office La Crescent
April 1993
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BIRDS A Poet's Cliche, A Biologist's Mystery By Pamela Eyden
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In early April, prothonotary warblers, each weighing about as much as a 25-cent piece, will fly 600 miles across the Gulf of Mexico. Even if they flew five miles high, the curvature of the earth would prevent them from seeing more than a third of the way across. But, like most birds, they fly at altitudes below 3,000 feet, and they fly at night. How do such small birds find their way from Venezuela to the Mississippi River? How do young birds know where to go? In spite of a century of research, many mysteries remain, including the essential one - why fly such distances at all. Provocative research during the last decade shows that some birds have a genetically inherited urge to move, as well as a programmed sense of direction and a timer that tells them when to stop. But they aren't robots. Adult birds also navigate by geomagnetic forces, landmarks or the positions of the sun and the moon. Some birds depend on seeing the direction of the sun at sunset, just as they are getting ready to fly. If the sky is heavily overcast they are more likely to become disoriented.
This change in speed may have something to do with the way spring comes all in a rush to the North, but hormones might have something to do with it, too. The Mississippi River, one of North America's four major migratio n flyways, is a great landmark and a source of food and water. Some impressive long-distance migrants fly through and stop to rest along the river. Lesser golden plovers, who winter in the Argentine pampas and summer in the high Arctic, have been spotted resting on the river near La Crosse. Stop-over places are so important that birds may d epend on the same places, and even the same trees, year after year. A.R. Weisbrod, a research zoologist for the National Park Service, caught one Tennessee warbler in the same alder swamp on the St. Croix River seven times in four years, during spring a nd fall migrations. Tennessee warblers nest in the pine forests farther north. Birds may dawdle at stop-over places waiting for spring, and then come north in a hurry. In fact, some birds go faster the farther north they go. In one study, researchers recorded
the flight speed of all species of birds flying up the Mississippi River Valley. The average speed was 23 miles per day. From southern Minnesota to southern Manitoba, however, 16 of the species sped up to 40 miles per day. From there north to Lake Athabaska 12 species covered 72 miles per day, while five other species raced for the Great Slave Lake at 116 miles per day, and another five species sped on to Alaska at 150 miles a day. This change in speed may have something to do with the way spring comes all in a rush to the North, but hormones might have something to do with it, too. Migrations are a source of concern for bird watchers and researchers, because bird populations have declined. Radar stations on the Gulf Coast of Louisiana detected a SO-percent drop in the numbers of bird flights across the Gulf between the 1960s and 1980s, according to biologist John Terborgh in the May 1992 issue of Scientific American. The Partners in Flight program is promoting May 8 as Neotropical Migratory Bird Day this year. Call biologist Carol Burns at the Upper Mississippi Wildlife and Fish Refuge, (507) 452-4232, for information. Watch for events, but even more important, watch for the birds and welcome them back. They've come a long way. For instance, the prothonotary warbler is five and a half inches long and travels 3,500 miles. The equivalent trip for a five-foot-six human would be 42,000 miles. Try that in the dark.
Flyway Update In mid-April, great blue herons return from the mangroves and marshes of Belize and Panama; cormorants return from the Gulf states; yellow-rumped warblers come back from Chiapas and central Mexico; and black terns return from Central and South America. Throughout April and early May, purple martins will be arriving from the Amazon basin. Rosebreasted grosbeaks will get back from Ecuador in late April, early May.+
Pamela Eyden is assistant editor of Big River. Big River is published monthly l1y Big River, PO Box 741,
Winona, MN 55987, (507) 454-6758. Subscriptions are $18 for one year, $35 for two years or $2 per single issue. Reggie McLeod editor/publisher Pamela Eyden assistant editor Tony Kolars associate editor Big River, Volume 1, Number 4, copyright <O April 1993. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher is prohibited. Printed on recycled paper.
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RIVER CALENDAR
April 1993
22-23 Mississippi River Research Consortium, Holiday Inn,
La Crosse. Call Dr. Joe Wlosinski, Fish & Wildlife Service, (608) 783-7550, ext. 56. 28-30 Inland Rivers, Ports & Terminals, Inc., annual
meeting, Radisson Read House, Chattanooga, Tenn. Call Cynthia Rehagen, (314) 634-2028. APRIL 1 Fundamentals of Illinois Environmental Law Compliance Course, Le Meridien Hotel, Chicago. Call Government Institutes, Inc., (301) 921-2345. 1-2 The Interdependency of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, Fourth Missouri River Constituency Conference, St. Louis. Call Charles Hays, State (Missouri) Water Plan Program, (314) 751-2927. 3 Spring Watershed Fair, sponsored by the Cannon River Watershed Partnership, Rice County Fairgrounds, 4H Building, Faribault, 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. 5 Conservation Congress annual meetings take place in every Wisconsin county to review fish and game rules. Meetings begin at 7:30 p.m. Check with local officials for meeting location.
29 Red Wing Area Mississippi River Coalition, first annual meeting, Red Wing Public Library, 7:30 p.m. Call Terry Loomis, (612) 385-2554. 30 ArborDay
MAY 3-6 Fish & Wildlife Service GIS Workshop, Lafayette, La. Call Marcia McNiff (318) 226-8572. 8 Seegwan: A Celebration of Spring, Wild River State Park, Center City, Minn. 8 Neotropical Migratory Bird Day, Partners in Flight program. Call biologist Carol Burns, Upper Mississippi Wildlife and Fish Refuge, (507) 452-4232. 8-9 Take a Mom Fishing Weekend, Minnesota.
1 Lower St. Croix Management Commission, Technical Committee meeting, City Hall Council Chambers, Prescott, Wis., 9 a.m. to noon. Call (612) 436-7131 or (715) 386-9444.
13 Lower Wisconsin State Riverway Board meeting, Spring Green. Call 1-800-221-3792 or (608) 739-3188.
8 Minnesota-Wisconsin Boundary Area Commission meeting, St. Mary's College, College Center Lounge, 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Call (612) 436-7131 or (715) 386-9444.
Fishing Night is every Thursday night in April, 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., at SkipperLiner Marine, 621 Park Plaza Dr., La Crosse. Programs include question & answer sessions, videos, demonstrations, instructions and prizes.
8 Lower Wisconsin State Riverway Board meeting, Prairie du Chien. Call 1-800-221-3792 or (608) 739-3188. 10 Downriver Alliance, monthly meeting includes both Wisconsin and Minnesota groups, Boatworks Restaurant, Wabasha,11 :30 a.m. 12 St. Croix Valley Sierra Club, executive committee meeting, Stillwater Library, 223 N. Fourth St., Stillwater, Minn., 6:30 p.m. All members and interested persons are welcome. 14 La Crosse Area River Biologists and Managers meeting, "Does the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers follow Its Water Level Management Plan for the Upper Mississippi River?" Heilemen Hall, 1111 S. Third St., La Crosse, 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., $2. Call Pam Thiel, (507) 452-4390. 18 Prairie Island Coalition Against Nuclear Storage meeting, Prairie Island Community Center, noon. 19 Bluff Land Environment Watch meeting, Winona Senior Friendship Center, Fifth & Main, Winona, 6 p.m. 21 Long Term Resource Monitoring Program Analysis Team Meeting, Holiday Inn, La Crosse. Call Bill Bertrand (309) 582-5611 or Bob Delaney (608) 783-7550, ext. 51. 22 Mississippi River Revival meeting and potluck d inner, Winona Art Center, Winona, 5:30 p .m. to 7 p .m. 22 Earth Day River Art Show, Winona Art Center, Winona, opening reception 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. For info about dropping off and picking up entries call Kristen Almo, (608) 687-3225.
Dec. 1, 1992 to May 15, 1993 History Beneath the Waves: The Archaeology of Pike's Fort, is a new display that tells the story of the U.S. Army expedition led by Lieutenant Pike from St. Louis to the headwaters of the Mississippi River in 1805-1806. The video "Archaeology Beyond the Walls: Tracing Zebulon Pike's Travels in the Mississippi Headwaters" is being shown with the exhibit. Fort Snelling State Park, Pike Island Interpretive Center, St. Paul, (612) 725-2389. Feb. 5 to July 31 Exhibit of Mississippi River Photos from a Century Ago are on display at the North Lobby of the Landmark Center, 75 W. Fifth St., St. Paul. Henry Bosse took these stunning photos between 1883 and 1891, when he worked as a draftsman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. They show steamboats, log rafts, early bridges and scenes of the Corps maintaining the navigation channel. When these blue cyanotype photographs were discovered recently experts praised their artistic quality. The exhibit is free.• Send press releases, letters to the editor, news clippings and meeting notices to Big River, PO Box 741, Winona, MN 55987.