June 1996
the monthly newsletter for people who live, work or play on the Upper Mississippi River
Vol. 4, No. 6
$2. 75
Towboat Monikers: What's in a Name?
River Fish Need to Travel
By Pamela Eyden
By Lee Kernen
There are all kinds of towboat names. They
Fish in most inland lakes can usually find
range from the romantic (Coral Dawn, Starfire, Scarlet Knight, Creole Lady) to the religious (Brimstone, Jesus Navigator, Nirvana) ; from hopeful (Prosperity, Onward, Cooperative Venture) to historical (Davy Crockett, Pioneer, Dixie Patriot). Some towboats are named for places: Cincinnati, Pebble
what they need nearby. They m ay spawn on the gravel on the east shore, feed all summer in a shallow weed bed and while the winter away in the deeper part of the lake. Everything they need - food, a safe place to hide and a gravel spawning ground - are within a few minutes' swim. Rivers are a different story. As Department of Natural Resources fishery biologists follow the movements of radiotagged fish in Wisconsin rivers, it is becoming very clear that these fish often need to swim many miles in order to find the different habitats they need to survive. Ross Langhurst, DNR fisheries biologist at Shawano, tagged more than 2,000 brown trout in the Oconto River system. He found that during the spring many of these trout traveled more than 40 miles upstream to smaller, cooler
Beach, Wisconsin, Itasca, Daytona, Crescent City, Minneapolis, Long Beach, Show Me State. Others are named for what they haul: Lime Rock, Coal Queen.
Watch the river a while and you'll spot a few animals: Bullfrog, Pony, Swan, The Owl, Kangaroo. Watch a while
longer and you'll discover boats with fond, polite nick-
Imagine having a tow named for every member of your family.
(River Fish continued on page 3)
names, as though they were children: Little Harry, Little Mike, Miss Jane, Miss Kathy. (The ten most familiar tows are all called This Little Piggy, but you'll never find one pushing a barge upriver.) Compared to boats with a higher glamour quotient, such as sailboats, many towboat names are remarkable only for their total lack of flamboyance. What could be more down-to-earth than a boat named the Bruce Brown or the Roy Claverie, the R.H. O'Neill or the Cindy Brent? If they were characters on the stage, such mundane names would promise no temperamental fireworks, just hard work and reliability. Which is probably what you want in a working river boat. There are families of towboats, too. Imagine having a (Towboats continued on page 2)
WHAT'S INSIDE •••
River Map Environment Scores
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Current Events Stroll Under the River, Nutrias
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River Calendar & Almanac Riverboat Buffs, Free Fishing
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BIG RlvER
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June 1996
(Towboats continued from page 1) tow named for every member of your family. Look for boats with last names of Ingram, Hagestad, Stegbauer and Eckstein. These families are well represented on the Upper River. Hugh and Floyd Blaske both have boats named after them. These men owned Blaske Lines, which was eventually bought by American Commercial Barge Lines, a giant in the towing industry, having taken over dozens of other companies. Tracking the changes in towboat names is a complicated business. Individual towboats usually get new names after they' re sold to new owners. Whole fleets of towboats may
be renamed when the company that owns them is sold to another company. And then there are unexplained name changes: A few years ago the Exxon Corporation renamed all of its towboats and tugboats. As you' ll see from the listings in The Little TowWatcher's Guide, some towboats have had so many names, they sound like reincarnated souls or criminals on the lam. When the Queen City was sold, she emerged as Jennifer Anne, who then metamorphosed into Angel Brooke, who next rode the river as Gertrude Beesecker, before taking up her latest identity as Penny Eckstein. The Inland River Record manages to record name changes from year to year, but if a towboat leaves the country it might just as well have dropped off the edge of the earth. The Terese Marie, for example, was sold to J.P. Knight, Ltd., of London and sent to Guyana. She hasn' t been heard from since.
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Pamela Eyden is assistant editor of Big River. This story also appears in her new book, The Little TowWatcher' s Guide.
'the Tigre
The Buf/f:..
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Photos courtesy of the Boat Photo Museum, Maryville, Illinois.
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(River Fish continued from page 1)
streams. After spawning in October, the trout dropped back downstream 40 miles to their winter quarters in larger, deeper water. Another study found that smallmouth bass in the Embarrass-Wolf River system needed very different places to live in summer and winter. Like the Oconto River trout, these bass moved almost 50 miles upstream in the summer. Why do these fish go to all that work to spend the winter in bigger water? It's likely that ice conditions in the smaller streams make winter survival more difficult for bass. The trout, unlike bass, continue to feed all winter and there is more food in the larger rivers. Not surprisingly, some of our healthiest river fisheries thrive in extensive river systems that do not have dams, which impede fish movement. The Mississippi River is a good example of a large river with dams that sometimes let fish pass. The big river has 10 dams scattered along its 230mile reach on Wisconsin's border, and each of these dams has numerous gates that open during high water in the spring. Unfortunately they don't open at the same time. Some dams are open almost all spring almost every year. Some dams only open about one year in 10. When the dam gates are open, strong swimmers like walleye have little trouble passing through the dam. For instance, a walleye was radio-tagged in the fall in the backwaters of Pool 8 at La Crosse. This fish moved about
Not surprisingly, some of our healthiest river fisheries thrive in extensive river systems that do not have dams, which impede fish movement. 44 miles upstream through three locks and dams to spawn in the Whitman wildlife area, below Lock and Dam 5. After she spawned she slowly moved back to La Crosse and by fall was back where she was tagged. The next spring this same fish again moved upstream three dams to spawn, again below Lock and Dam 5, the last dam to open. This dam only opens one year in 10, on average. Has this area become a spawning area for walleye because nine times out of 10 that is as far as they can get? Would they go farther upriver if they could? Perhaps the most undisturbed and beautiful stretch of river in Wisconsin is the 90-mile stretch of the Wisconsin River from the dam at Prairie du Sac downstream to the Mississippi River at Wyalusing State Park. This stretch supports an excellent and increasingly popular sport fishery for a wide range of species, two of the favorites being channel catfish and walleye.
Over the last 10 years, DNR biologists studied the movement of adult channel cats and walleyes. Their findings reveal that both species travel a lot, particularly during certain seasons. In the summer, catfish and walleye disperse widely throughout the entire stretch of river in feeding and resting areas. During the fall, they begin to move toward their win-
Has this area become a spawning area for walleye because nine times out of 10 that is as far as they can get? ter habitats, which tend to be in deeper and slower moving areas. Deep and slow areas are relatively uncommon on the Lower Wisconsin, so fish may have to swim long distances to find appropriate conditions. Most catfish actually leave the Lower Wisconsin for the Mississippi. For some fish this requires a 90-mile swim! Interestingly, not all fish use the same wintering area each year; some migrate different distances to winter in different places in different years. We still have a lot to learn about what fish need to thrive, but one thing is clear: river fish need to be able to move around, and impassable dams can be a major problem to them. Lee Kernen is Director of Fisheries Management for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
BIG RIVER Big River (ISSN 1070-8340) is published monthly by Big River, 70 1/2 East Fourth Street, Suite 203, Winona, MN 55987; (507) 454-5949; fax: (507) 454-2133; Email: bigriver@ aol.com; web site: http://www.luminet.net/ ~bigriver. Reggie Mcleod editor/publisher Pamela Eyden assistant editor Molly McGuire assistant publisher Mary Feathergill bookkeeping Jayne L. Stokke graphic artist Subscriptions are $28 for one year, $50 for two years or $2.75 per single issue. Send subscriptions, single copy orders and change-of-address requests to Big River, PO Box 741, Winona, MN 55987. Second-class postage paid at Winona, MN. POSTMASTER: send change-of-address requests to Big River, PO Box 741 , Winona, MN 55987. Big River, Volume, 4, Number 6, copyrightŠ June 1996. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher is prohibited. Printed on recycled paper.
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Environmental Scores of U.S. Senators and Representatives on the 8th Dist. Rep. James Oberstar (D) 77% Upper Mississippi 7th Dist. Rep. Collin Peterson (D) 15%
4th Dist.
3rd Dist. Rep. Jim Ramstad (R) 77% 2nd Dist. Rep. David Minge (D) 62%
Wisconsin Sen. Russell Feingold (0) 100% Sen. Herb Kohl (0) 100%
5th Dist. Rep. Martin Sabo (D) 92%
1st Dist. Rep. Gil Gutknecht (R) 0%
Minnesota Sen. Rod Grams (R) 0% Sen. Paul Wellstone (0) 100% 3rd Dist. Rep. Steve Gunderson (R) 31 %
Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley (R) 7% Sen. Tom Harkin (0) 93%
2nd Dist. Rep. Jim Nussle (R) 8%
16th Dist. Rep. Donald Manzullo (R) 0% The League of Conservation Voters, a Washington, D.C., group, has been publishing the National Environmental Scorecard since 1970. This year it scored senators based on how they voted on 14 bills covering issues that included drinking water, endangered species and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It scored House members on their votes on 12 environmental bills, with issues including the weakening of the Clean Water Act (scored twice for its potentially harmful effects on the environment) funding renewable energy, and cutting back the EPA.
1st. Dist. Rep. Jim Leach (R) 46%
17th Dist. Rep . Lane Evans (D) 100%
Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun (0) 93% Sen. Paul Simon (0) 100%
June 1996
BIG RIVER
CURRENT EVENTS By Pamela Eyden, Molly McGuire and Reggie McLeod
Stroll Under the River Bloomington, Minn. - Soon you'll be able to see what the Mississippi River looks like from the fish's point of view. UnderWater World, at the Mall of America, features a 1.2 million-gallon fish tank with a 400-foot acrylic tunnel winding through four recreated underwater environments: the Mississippi, a Minnesota lake, the Gulf of Mexico and the Great Barrier Reef. The Mississippi section will include catfish, walleye and other river fish. No word on whether it will also include zebra mussels, empty barrels or silt. UnderWater World is scheduled to open June 14.
Up with the Birds Northeast Iowa - Researchers will soon know a lot more about the connections between birds and plants in northeastern Iowa, thanks to a three-year study now underway. The $200,000 project involves the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Iowa State University, Trees Forever and the Iowa Chapter of the Nature Conservancy, according to the Iowa Conservationist (May /June 1996). Researchers are in the woods by 5 a.m. to monitor 200 census sites in 45 areas. Because of thick cover, about 90 percent of the birds are identified by call. At 10 a.m. researchers turn to identifying and measuring plants. The study will make connections between the types and variety of plants, trees and birds, with a special interest in neotropical songbirds, such as tanagers and warblers, birds that spend the winter south of the U.S. border.
"We're finding our greatest diversity of bird species in the undisturbed woodlands, which, in turn, offer the greatest diversity of plant life," said Lisa Hemesath, DNR wildlife biologist and project leader.
High Water, Short Stacks St. Louis, Mo. - The Poplar Street Bridge and a rapidly rising river shortened the Mississippi Queen on April 29, according to an article in The Waterways Journal (5-6-96). The river was rising at the rate of about a foot an hour when the sternwheeler's stacks hit the bridge,
One stack fell on the deck and the other went overboard. Nobody was injured. about a half mile below the St. Louis Arch. One stack fell on the deck and the other went overboard. Nobody was injured. The stacks can be retracted, but they were extended when they hit the bridge. On October 29, 1993, the Mississippi Queen's stacks hit the I-94 bridge in St. Paul, Minn. On October 28, 1995, the America n Queen's stacks hit power lines at Genoa, Wis., cutting power to more than 5,000 people.
Tougher Trespass Law Minnesota - Soon you could get in trouble for trespassing, even if you don't see a "No Trespassing" sign. A new Minnesota law that takes effect on August 1 considers land to be posted if signs are posted once a year,
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even if vandals have removed the signs. The law applies to all activities, not just hunting. Berry pickers, anglers, bird watchers and skiers should get permission before entering property. The only exceptions apply to a hunter who needs to enter unposted private land to retrieve a wounded animal that was legally shot or an unarmed person on foot who is retrieving a dog.
Tough New Barge Law La Crosse, Wis. - Towboats face stricter regulation in Wisconsin's waters. Governor Tommy Thompson signed legislation in La Crosse last month requiring some tank barges to either be double hulled or escorted by a tug. Department of Natural Resources officers will be able to board vessels to check compliance. The law also lowers the legal blood alcohol concentration for commercial boat operators from 0.1 percent to 0.04 percent and prohibits open burning on commercial vessels.
National Rivers Hall of Fame Dubuque, Iowa - Betty Blake, president of the Delta Queen Steamboat Company, and Stephen Long, an explorer and engineer during the last century, were inducted into the National Rivers Hall of Fame, on Dubuque's riverfront, on May 17, 1996. (Current Events continued on page 6)
Adopt a Library Many libraries operate on a tight budget these days. Why not help out and give your local public or school library a gift subscription to Big River? Send your name and address and the address of your c hosen library along with $28 for a one-ye ar subscription or $50 for a two-year sub to: Big River, PO Box 741 , Winona, MN 55987.
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(Current Events continued from page 5) Many give Blake much of the credit for keeping the Delta Queen afloat, both literally and financially. She also led the campaign for the company to acquire the $24 million paddlewheeler Mississippi
Queen. Long, a New Hampshire native, explored western rivers in 1819 and 1820 with the Western Engineer, working for the U.S. Corps of Topographical Engineers. He later reported on navigation conditions and obstructions on the Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Long held the position of Chief of Engineers from 1861 until his retirement.
Minnesota Splits Up the River St. Paul, Minn. - Anglers downriver from the Twin Cities now have a better gauge for judging how many fish from the Mississippi they can eat. The Minnesota Department of Health's Fish Consumption Advisory used to lump 180 miles of the river from St. Anthony Falls, in Minneapolis, to the Iowa border - into one region, even though river fish were more contaminated immediately below the Twin Cities. This year the advisory divides that stretch of the river into five regions, with the fish generally getting safer the farther you get from the Twin Cities. PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) are the worst contaminant in fish in the Mississippi downriver from the Twin Cities. The manufacture of PCBs was banned years ago, and levels in fish are dropping, especially below Lake Pepin. For a copy of the advisory visit a Minnesota Department of Natural Resources office or call 1-800-657-3908 or (612) 215-0950.
Dam Operations Minnesota - The effects of dam operations on landowners, wildlife, and recre-
ation are coming under closer scrutiny across the country. Soon agencies and industries operating dams on the first 400 miles of the Mississippi River will ask the Army Corps of Engineers to take a hard look at who and what benefits from the operation of their dams, according to an article in Tidings (April 15, 1996), the newsletter of the Mississippi Headwater's Board. If accepted, the study would begin
in late 1997. The Corps of Engineers, two power companies, Blandin Paper Company, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the Chippewa National Forest operate d ams on the headwaters.
Refuge for Whom? Washington, D.C. - President Bill Clinton has added hunting and fishing to the list of priority activities in the 92.3 million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System, according to River Crossings (March/ April 1996). Previously, refuge managers permitted hunting and fishing when they did not interfere with safety or harm wildlife populations. Some accuse Clinton of pushing the bill to head off support for a House bill, the National Wildlife Refuge Improvement Act, which would put hunting and fishing "on an equal footing with conser-
Critics of the House bill claim that it would open refuges to powerboats and jetskis. vation." Critics of the House bill claim that it would open refuges to powerboats and jetskis.
Resources • Biologists are surveying the St. Croix River Valley to document its remaining natural habitats and rare species. For complete maps of these last remnants in the north Twin Cities counties of Washington, Chisago, and Isanti, or for the book, Minnesota's St. Croix River
Valley and Anoka Sandplain: a Guide to Native Habitats, call the University of Minnesota Press, 1-800-388-3863. The Environmental Protection Agency has released its National Water
Quality Inventory: 1994 Report to Congress, documenting how each state is reaching its Clean Water Act goals. For a copy, write the Water Resources Center, EPA, G0995 Headquarters Facility, 401 M Street S.W., Washington, D.C. 20460 or call (202) 260-7786. • Migratory birds may be blissfully unaware of how they are managed, but we can learn more from a new publication, The Great River Flyway, describing stategies being used to develop a management information system for birds and wildlife on the Upper Mississippi. For information call (608) 783-7550 or (507) 452-4232. • For river nostalgia, try Those Roaring Riverboat Years, new audiotapes that entertain with stories based on Mark Twain and others. The two 60-minute cassettes sell for $14.99 from Living History Publishing, (817) 391-5095. • An updated list of navigation data is available from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Waterborne Commerce Statistics Center. The Navigation Data Center Update includes bound volumes, CD ROMs, Web site and E-mile options. Contact the center at P.O. Box 61280, New Orleans, LA 70161-1280, or call (504) 862-1424. • An updated Iowa Trout Fishing Guide is available at state trout hatcheries, trout stamp outlets, or from the DNR, (515) 281-3474.
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â&#x20AC;˘ Do you know what your watershed address is? The Know Your Watershed Campaign by the Conservation Technology Information Center will help you discover more about the watershed in which you live. Write them at 1220 Potter Road, Room 170, West Lafayette, IN 47906. Also, The River Network out of Portland, Oregon is sponsoring Watershed 2000, a national program to tackle water issues on a regional level. For more information call (503) 241-3506.
Sheriff SWATS Dikedigging Rodents Jefferson Parish, Louisiana - Exotic rodents are plaguing the bayous, tunneling through dikes, stripping vegetation and even frightening people. Their be-
In 1940 a storm damaged the nutria cages, and they headed for the swamps. havior has finally provoked law enforcement officials, according to an article in Outside (June 1996). Louisiana's 30 million nutrias are the progeny of 13 imported from Argentina in 1937 by a Tabasco-sauce tycoon. In 1940 a storm damaged the nutria cages, and they headed for the swamps. The burrowing, acquatic rodents can grow as large as 25 pounds. They can strip an area of vegetation, leaving native animals without food, and they tunnel under roads or through dikes, causing millions of dollars worth of damage each year. When the fur market crashed and trappers stopped trapping them, the nutria population and damage increased. People have considered many solutions - including poison gas, poisoned sweet
potatoes and concrete dikes. The sheriff of Jefferson Parish takes his SWAT team out on nutria sweeps, sometimes shooting hundreds during a night raid.
Fish Feelings Washington D.C. - People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is stepping up its anti-fishing campaign with survey results showing that anglers would consider not fishing based on the fact that fish suffer when they are caught and that fish contain saturated fat, cholesterol and PCBs. "'Gill' the fish, one of PET A's sixfoot mascots, begins a national 'baitand-switch' tour this spring, visiting lakes and piers to ask fishers to scale back on cruelty and get hooked on compassion," according to a PET A press release.
Harborboat Disappears in High Water St. Louis, Mo. - A harborboat sank suddenly in the St. Louis Harbor on May 16, with three crew members. Witnesses said they saw the Valley Sunshine at about 8 p.m., and the next moment it was gone, according to The Waterways Journal (5-20-96). The Mississippi River was about five feet above flood stage at the time.
Staying Flush Washington County, Minn. -To keep up with the rapidly growing population in Washington County, to the east of the Twin Cities, the Metropolitan Council is looking for a site for a new sewage treatment plant, according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press (5-18-96) . The council has narrowed the field to five, 100-acre sites along the Mississippi River from Grey Cloud Island to just east of Hastings. The site for the $60-million plant will probably be picked later this year.
Fixing Weaver Bottoms Some More Weaver, Minn. - A sharp turn and tricky currents on the Main Channel below Weaver Bottoms presents a challenge to the skills of towboat pilots. The Army Corps of Engineers is considering widening the outlet structures or adding another outlet structure on the downriver side of the bottoms in order to improve navigation. Water flowing into the bottoms from the Whitewater
The construction of islands and other projects in the bottoms were designed to reverse the decline, but they failed dramatically. River takes between five and six days to reach the Mississippi. After the proposed change it would take only four or five days, according to articles in the Winona Daily News (5-23-96 and 5-24-96). Plant growth - and with it wildlife - have declined steadily in Weaver Bottoms, which is across the river from Buffalo City, Wis. The construction of islands and other projects in the bottoms were designed to reverse the decline, but they failed dramatically. The possible effects of the proposed project on Weaver Bottoms' plants, fish and waterfowl is unclear. ~
Visit the Big River on the Web Our World Wide Web site includes stories from past issues of Big River, an updated River Calendar, River Forums and links to other interesting resources. http://www.luminet.net/-bigriver
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RIVER CALENDAR Special Events & Festivals June (American Rivers Month) 1 National Trails Day 1 Wisconsin parks and campgrounds begin taking campsite reservations by phone. 1-2 Wisconsin Free Fishing Weekend 2 Wisconsin and Minnesota State Parks Open House 3-9 National Fishing Week 7-9 Iowa Free Fishing Days 8 Bay City (Wis.) Daze 8-9 Take a Kid Fishing, Minnesota. 15 Summerfest Day, Maiden Rock, Wis. 15-16 Stone Arch Festival of the Arts, Minneapolis, (612) 378-1226. 21-23 Catfish Festival, Dubuque, Iowa 22 River cleanup, Winona, (507) 4521375. 28-30 Water Ski Days, Lake City, Minn., 1-800-369-4123. 29 Mayor's Family Fishing Day, Hidden Falls Park, St. Paul, Minn., (612) 266-6361. 29-30 Stars & Stripes River Days, Guttenberg, Iowa. 29-30 Heritage Days, Bellevue, Iowa. West Coon Rapids Dam programs, Brooklyn Park, Minn., (612) 424-8172. June 1 Pond walk, 1 p.m., reservations 1 Full moon walk, 8:30 p .m ., $2, res. 2 Minnows, 1 p.m. - 4 p.m., ongoing. July 4 Turtles of Minnesota, 1 p.m. - 4 p .m., ongoing 7 Birds in the floodplain, 8 a.m. Backyard birds, 1 p .m. - 4 p .m . 8 River rats day camp, 9 a.m. - 4 p .m., $100, reservations 21 Waterbirds, 1 p.m. - 4 p.m. 28 Mosquitoes, 1 p.m. - 4 p.m. 30 Full moon walk, 8:30 p .m ., $2, reservations Effigy Mounds National Monument programs, Harpers Ferry, Iowa, (319) 873-3491 . June 1 - Sept. 2 Fire Point hikes, daily at 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. June 1, July 6, Aug. 3 Moonlight hikes, 7:30 p.m. June 15, July 20, Aug. 17 Bird walks, 8a.m.
Mines of Spain Recreation Area, Dubuque, Iowa, (319) 556-0620. Sundays in June, hikes and special programs, 1 p .m . Wisconsin DNR Field trips, reservations, (608) 266-1430. June 17 Canoeing on Lower Wisconsin, Gotham, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. July 13 Mississippi backwaters, La Crosse, 7:30 a.m. or 9:30 a.m. July 20 Goat prairie hike, Hager City, 9:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. July 27 Merrick State Park, Buffalo County, 10 a.m . - 4 p.m. July 24 & 27 Alternative Lawn Tours, Twin Cities, non-polluting lawn care, spons. by Friends of the Mississippi River, (612) 222-2193. August 4 - 17 Iowa 150 Mississippi canoe trip from Allamakee County to Lee County, Iowa, (319) 652-5229. Mississippi River Revival flotilla and community celebrations August 4 - 7, Lansing to Bellevue, 1-800-957-4837.
Meetings & Hearings June 6 Minnesota-Wisconsin Boundary Area Commission, La Crescent, Minn., 9:30 a.m., (612) 436-7131. 7-8 Midwest Riverboat Buffs, La Crosse, Wis., (608) 781-3333. 11 Citizens board meeting on
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Kondirator metal shredder, public comments, 9 a.m.; board meeting, 1 p.m., 520 Lafayette Road North, St. Paul, Minn., (612) 296-6300. 13 Lower Wisconsin State Riverway Board, Mazomanie, 1-800-221-3792. 20 Mississippi River Coordinating Commission, Mpls., Minn., 10 a.m ., (612) 290-4160.
Workshops & Conferences June 12-13 Zebra Mussel Conference for Inland Water Users: Control and Prevention for Municipalities and Industries, St. Louis, (614) 292-8949. 13 Project WET educators workshop, Monona, Wisconsin, (715) 346-3366. 20-24 Beyond the Banks, symposium on river management and planning, Columbus, Ohio, (406) 549-0514. 20-23 Steamboat History Conference, Louisville, Kentucky, Steamboat Masters & Associates, (502) 778-6784. July 10 Cannon River Summit, Planning and Zoning to Protect Natural Resources, Faribault, Minn., (507) 332-0488. July 12-13 Spirit of Survival, annual Mississippi River Basin Alliance Conference, St. Louis, (314) 822-4114. August 4-9 Rivers Curriculum, teacher training, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, (618) 692-3788. August 13-15 Exploration of Mississippi River, Project WILD workshop, Wyalusing State Park, Prairie du Chien, $40, (515) 747-2200. By Eric Nelson, USFW biologist
By June, the nettles and poison ivy have grown high enough to restrict people, but not critters. In wetlands, you'll hear leopard and pickerel frogs starting to call in the morning and evening. Tree frogs are at their peak. On the river, you'll see carp jumping, and the sunfish, crappies, largemouth and smallmouth bass spawning, as the water temperature warms into the 60s. Fish are temperature dependent for their spawning. White bass wait for the upper 60s, and channel catfish won't begin until the water is in the 70s. June is a busy time for all kinds of birds. On the refuge, we'll do sora rail surveys this month, going out early in the morning to locate the males by their territorial calls. If you've never heard the eerie waterdrum-like call of the bittern, June is the month to get out and listen. Mallards will try nesting a second time if they lost their first nests to predation or flooding . Herons will spend the month feeding their hungry, growing young, in large twig-and-stick nests in the tops of trees. Young bald eagles are getting big. By the Fourth of July, they'll be fledged .
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