Big River - January 1999

January 1999

The monthly newsletter for people who live, work or play on the Upper Mississippi River

Full-Circle Development Shopping Center to Wetland

By David Hennessey

R

oger Curtis, who is now an assistant to the mayor of St. Paul, recalled a vivid childhood memory of the day the lake began to disappear.

"I was about eight years old in the late 50s and was fishing one day at Ames Lake, which was basically a swamp with a lot of open water," he said. "I was sitting there fishing,

It's the first time in the nation that a commercial property will make way for a wetland. and all of a sudden I looked up to see this big old dump truck about fifty feet away. It backed up to the water and dumped in a load of dirt.

I thought it was kind of strange to be putting dirt into a lake. Lo and behold, that lake became a shopping center and eventually the parking lot actually had cattails growing out of it!"

Now, 40 years after that fishing trip, the dump trucks are back on a very different mission.

"When I say they' re demolishing a shopping center to put in a wetland park, it just makes people gasp," said Joan Nassauer, professor of landscape architecture at the Uni-

versity of Michigan. "It's such a powerful image, it communicates the idea instantly."

In St. Paul, about 3.5 miles northeast of downtown, in an area known as Phalen Village, a three-tofive-year project will restore a ¡wetland habitat in a neighborhood once dotted with lakes, ponds and marshes. It's the first time in the nation that a commercial property will make way for a wetland.

"The~ have been some projects (in other places) where parts of large commercial areas have seen stormwater systems 'daylighted,"' said Nassauer, who started working on the project when at the University of Minnesota. "That's where they construct a stream to flow through a parking lot. The Phalen project is at a whole different order of magnitude. It's retrofitting a shopping center site into a wetland."

The site is only a part of a larger restoration that will include approximately 15 acres of wetland curving from Lake Phalen in the northwest to a potential stormwater-cleaning site to the southeast.

Eventually, most of the wetland network will be connected by streams where possible and by conduits where necessary. Water will flow from Lake Phalen, through all (Development continues on page 2)

Vol. 7, No. 1

$2.75

More Tows, Bigger Locks?

Stay Tuned

By Reggie McLeod

A

study that may expand shipping on the Upper Mississippi River will probably miss its December 1999 deadline. Meanwhile, a preliminary report is likely to stir controversy over how to predict the demand for river shipping into the next century.

In 1992, Congress told the Army Corps of Engineers to forecast the needs of the shipping industry to the year 2050 in the $SO-million "Upper Mississippi River-Illinois Waterway System Navigation Study."

Farm groups and the barge industry want the study to predict a high demand that will, in turn, jus(Navigation continues on page 3)

What's Inside ...

Book Review Around the Bend ............ 5 Current Events Falls Museum, Naked Chicks? 6

River Calendar & Almanac Bird Counts, Eagle Watches . .. 8

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(Development continued from page 1)

but one wetland and then into the Mississippi River about three miles to the southwest. Stormwater from nearby streets will drain into the remaining wetland which will act as a filter to clean the water before it also drains to the river.

Rebuilding Nature The project aims to filter water, create a habitat for animals and develop a park that will enhance property values and serve as a neighborhood amenity.

"We wanted to establish diverse plant life to support an ecosystem of animals and birds, since this area is part of a flyway for waterfowl

grass.

The first phase of the project has already restored about four acres of wetlands near the lake. Dubbed Phalen Wetland, it includes a boardwalk for people to walk out over the water. Constructing the second phase, called Ames Lake, after the lake that used to be there, began this fall at the shopping center site and should be completed in 1999. By 2000, the third phase should be complete, providing a wetland that will hold stormwater and two smaller wetlands.

"These areas will not be intended for fishing," Kassan said. "We don't want fish to survive because they

post doctoral associate in the Department of Horticultural Science, University of Minnesota.

The restoration has encountered other challenges, and researchers expect more, since they are attempting something that has never been done before. For one thing, years of commercial use changed the area's hydrology, starting more than a century ago when the railroad sliced through the district.

Kassan noted that the shopping center and other development compressed much of the soil underneath. "Compressing these wetland soils squeezes the peat to make it less porous," he said. "That porous

The restored Phalen Wetland includes a boardwalk on the water.

going north," said Mike Kassan, a Civil Engineer at the Saint Paul Department of Public Works. "And we want a corridor for animals to migrate through. Also, since it's part of a park system, we're trying to select beautiful as well as functional plants. We have flowers, grasses and many textures. It's not just cattails."

Some 60 plant species have been planted and 60 more are planned, including prairie sage, purple coneflower, black-eyed Susans, wild roses, wild iris, switchgrass and Indian

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eat tadpoles and amphibians, which we want to encourage in the habitat. So at the Ames Lake site, we'll be putting in pretty tall grasses by the shoreline to discourage people from wading or trying to fish."

But keeping fish out of the wetland is already a problem. Phalen Lake is connected to the adjacent Phalen Wetland by a conduit that provides a flow of freshwater. "Fish are coming into the wetland through the conduit valve, and the city will probably have to put up a fish barrier" said Rachel Budelsky, a

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quality doesn't always spring back.

So we need to see how much the peat has been compressed and if the water is still flowing."

Meanwhile at one place in the Phalen Wetland the water level is very unstable, Budelsky said. "Over a very short period of time - within days - the water level will 'bounce' vertically as much as four feet. That can be a serious obstacle to plants taking root. In the next year we should know if plants can withstand it."

"The water table varies from site

January 1999

(Navigation continued from page 1)

to site," said Allan Torstenson, planner at the Saint Paul Department of Planning and Economic Development. "In one area, when the excavators dug down they almost lost a cat [earth mover] because they were right on the water table. But in a nearby location that didn't happen."

Another challenge is making sure freshwater flows through the wetlands. "We want moving water so it doesn't become stagnant," Torstenson said. "And we have to be careful about what water to let into the wetlands. Should we just let a nearby parking lot drain into Ames Lake or not? We think not, because of the oil likely to be in the drainage."

Ideas Converge Perhaps its time had come, because the idea of tearing down the shopping center to create a wetland originated with two separate groups working unaware of each other.

In 1992 two representatives of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) asked Nassauer, then working in landscape ecology at the University of Minnesota, to help them explore how to manage natural resources based on a community's natural watershed. They thought that the Lake Phalen area provided an interesting case study.

Among other things, they noted that the troubled Phalen shopping center was 13 feet below the lake's water level.

"That set my wheels turning," Nassauer said. So, she gave two of her graduate students an assignment: Make a proposal to "demolish the Phalen shopping center and design a wetland park."

It was an academic exercise, but Nassauer knew nothing of discussions taking place almost simultaneously in the Phalen neighborhood.

In 1991 a neighborhood group had asked the city to help develop a plan for revitalizing the area, focused especially on the failed,

blighted shopping center. During the planning process, Torstenson and others at the city brainstormed about what could be built on the site once the mall was torn down.

After exhausting several ideas, they suddenly had a radical one: could the site be converted to a small lake?

At about that time, one of Nassauer's graduate students heard about the neighborhood plan and contacted Torstenson. By July 1992, both students went to a neighbor-

"Also, since it's part of a park system, we're trying to select beautiful as well as functional plants. We have flowers, grasses and many textures.

It's not just cattails." hood meeting to present their ideas for restoring a wetland on the shopping center site. The neighborhood responded enthusiastically, especially those residents who remembered the original Ames Lake. With the neighborhood's backing, the wetland. project grew into a unique collaboration between the neighborhood, the city, the university, the DNR and the watershed district.

"Everyone involved in this project has been an innovator in his or her own setting," Nassauer said.

"It's a collaboration where many players all started moving in the same direction. And the neighborhood residents have been utterly essential. The original idea for restoring the wetlands may have come from the professionals, but the citizen activists gave that idea life."

David Hennessey is a freelance writer who lives in St. Paul.

tify expanding the lock-and-dam system, probably at the taxpayers' expense. Many environmentalists and people who use the river for recreation worry that expanding shipping on the river will speed up the deterioration of the river ecosystem caused by the lock-anddam system.

Missing Pieces The preliminary economic report released by the Army Corps last fall does not consider the possibility of the demand for shipping slowing or decreasing during the next 50 years, and it cautions that the final report may not be completed by the December 1999 deadline.

The Preliminary Economic Evaluations focuses on "four potential investment strategies:" 1. adding moorings to UMR (Upper Mississippi River) locks 12, 14, 18, 20, 22, 24 and 25 and La Grange Lock on the IWW (Illinois Waterway), and approach channel improvements at UMR locks 15 and 22 and Marseilles Lock on the IWW; 2. extending guidewall at UMR locks 20 through 25; 3. doubling the length of UMR locks 20 through 25; and 4. doubling the length of UMR locks 20 through 25 and extending guidewalls at UMR locks 14 through 18.

Construction costs run from $50,000 for a mooring buoy, $500,000 for a mooring cell, $36 million for upstream and downstream guidewall extensions, and $127 million to double the length of a lock. Rough estimates of the environmental costs are included in the overall costs.

The report then looks at the performance of each "potential investment strategy" under four possible scenarios for the 50-year period from 2000 to 2050: 1. mid-line traffic and relatively elastic demand; 2. mid-line traffic and somewhat (Navigation continues on page 4)

January 1999

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(Navigation continued from page 3)

inelastic demand; that our estimates were too low," 3. high traffic and somewhat in"-2oyke said. elastic demand; and Over the last 50 years, shipping 4. mid-line traffic and inelastic detonnage on the Illinois and Mississippi increased an average of about mand.

An elastic demand means that 2 or 3 percent a year. The Navigation Study will probably assume an shipping rates would have a very increase of about 1.5 percent per strong influence on whether grain year, he said. is shipped by barge. An inelastic However, volume can change demand means that price has little dramatically year to year. Two maweight in a shipper's decision. jor floods and the Asian crisis have From its inception the Navigation Study has been criticized for being designed to cinch the results in favor of expanding the locks.

From its inception the These Preliminary Economic FindNavigation Study has been . ings appear to reenforce this notion by skewing the data to make excriticized for being designed panding the locks look like a good to cinch the results in favor "investment strategy."

In the most glaring example, of expanding the locks. none of the four scenarios considers the possibility of slow or no growth of river shipping during the next 50 cut deeply into river shipping three years. Scenario 4 assumes the bizof the last eight years. arre possibility of absolutely inelastic demand, which would mean Environmental Costs that tow companies could charge Better estimates of the environany price for shipping, without afmental costs of increasing shipping fecting the volume of commodities will soon be possible, according to Ken Barr, environmental leader of shipped by barge. the Navigation Study.

Ignoring Scenario 4, the only plan that offers a clear benefit withComputerized models for meain these parameters is the first one: suring the impacts of increased adding adjacent moorings at UMR shipping on fish and plants are allocks 12, 14, 18, 20, 22, 24 and 25 most ready to use. The model for and the LaGrange Lock on the ~sels is in the review stage.

IWW, and approach channel im1 "We have pretty much all of our provements at UMR locks 15 / tools finished and working," said through 22 and the Marseilles Lock Barr.

The models measure the cost of on theIWW. However, these are preliminary environmental damage caused by increased tow traffic. Then they deresults. The difficulty of making termine the cost of avoiding the projections may take longer than damage. If the damage cannot be expected. The final report will conavoided, they calculate the cost of sider a wider range of shipping minimizing the damage. If the damprojections, according to Paul age cannot be minimized, they figSoyke, chief of the economics branch of the Rock Island District of ure the cost of compensating for it, perhaps by building new habitat the Corps of Engineers. elsewhere.

Farm groups, the tow industry Scheduled for release in Februand some independent technical reviewers have been pressuring the ary, another piece of the Navigation Study will look at the cumulative Corps to use higher shipping proimpact of the lock-and-dam system jections. on the rivers from 1939 to 1989. A \ "We were getting more criticism

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team of geomorphologists, hydrologists and biologists studied aerial photographs and historic data to measure the changes.

Anyone who has spent time on the river over a period of decades can chronicle the sedimentation of the backwaters, the erosion of islands just above each dam and the disappearance of plant beds.

Barr says it appears that the river began reaching a new equilibrium in the 1970s. It seems probable that only another 4 or 5 percent of backwaters will be lost in the next 50 years, in part, because the water flowing into the Mississippi from rivers and streams is cleaner, mostly because of better farming practices.

This is a mixed blessing, because the cleaner water will probably erode islands faster than sedimentladen water would, he added.

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Reggie McLeod is editor of Big River.

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Big River™ Big River (ISSN 1070-8340) is published

monthly by Riverwise, Inc., 111 Riverfront, Suite 204, Winona, MN 55987; (507) 454-5949; fax: (507) 454-2133; email: editors@big-river.com; web site: http://www.big-river.com Reggie McLeod editor/publisher Molly McGuire assistant editor Mi Ae Lipe-Butterbrodt associate editor Kathy Delano design/marketing Mary Feathergill office manager Subscriptions are $28 for one year, $50 for two years or $2.75 per single issue. Send subscriptions, single copy orders and change-ofaddress requests to Big River, PO Box 204, Winona, MN 55987.

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Big River, Volume 7, Number 1, copyright Jmmary 1999. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher is prohibited. Printed on recycled paper.

January 1999

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Around the Bend

By Madelon Wise

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ast fall Big River featured a story on photographer and naturalist C. C. Lockwood's 1997 journey down the Mississippi River. Around the Bend: A Mississippi River Adventure is an attractive coffee table book telling the story of that 2,320-mile, 79-day journey.

After canoing from the river's source at Lake Itasca to Coon Rapids, Minnesota, Lockwood

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MISSISSIPPI

RIVER

ADVENTIJR R

C.C . Lockwood

made the remainder of the journey in the Huck Finn, a raft normally used on the Colorado River, "like no other ever seen on the Missis-

sippi," made of three nylon-reinforced neoprene tubes. The Huck was stocked with clothing, food and film for two months of travel.

The craft was also outfitted with a "floating press room," including a digital camera, a cellular phone and a laptop computer. With these and other accessories, Lockwood could submit stories online to his hometown newspaper, the Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Advocate. These capabilities earned Lockwood the name of "High Tech Huck" as he made frequent submissions that were displayed on the Internet, allowing schoolchildren and others to follow his progress.

"I believe it's become a sort of cult adventure to go the entire length of the Mississippi," he says and tells of at least six other groups making this trip simultaneously.

Readers will enjoy meeting Upper Mississippi River characters, such as Billy Curmano, and familiar sights, such as Latsch Island and Trempealeau Mountain. I experienced both the thrill of recognition and appreciation of the ways in which Lockwood paid homage to our area while describing threats to its ecological balance. Understated, ac'tessible and skillfully woven into the narrative, Lockwood advocates planning for and recognition of this priceless resource.

Additionally, I learned a number of things about the big river that I didn't know: for instance, each of

the 28 locks and dams on the Upper Mississippi were built by the Army Corps of Engineers "by a waterfall or rapids that formerly impeded river transportation."

The book is divided between the upper and lower Mississippi, "the latter a river of greater breadth and more full of man's work." Lockwood, who grew up in Fort Smith, Arkansas, found the Lower Mississippi "a more familiar river, one that I have experienced with some regularity since childhood."

I enjoyed learning more about the lower river and the river as a whole by such observations as, "It's ironic Louisiana marshes are starved for sediment while Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin have too much of it."

The showpiece of the this book is the over 100 pages of photographs, many of them two-page spreads.

Clear, colorful and beautifully composed, these photos are well worth the price of the book, which would make a fine present for a confirmed river rat or an aesthetically pleasing way to raise the consciousness of the lesser informed.

Photographs and text by C. C. Lockwood, Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge, 1998, 158 pages, $39.95.

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Madelon Wise is a former writer and editor for the USGS Environmental Management Technical Center and the current managing editor for the Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy.

camping, carp, ducks, eagles, floods, herons, cattails, locks, barges, otters, gizzara sniiiJ,

Share your love of the river...

You can enjoy the river even, month of the year from the comfort of your easy chair.

And when you·re on the river. you·u remember the stories YOU read in B1G RIVER. Give yourself, a friend, relative, library or school a subscription to Big River.

1 year - $28 2 years - $50 write: Big River, PO Box 204, Winona, MN 55987-0204 call: 800 303-8201 fax: (507) 454-2133 email: editors@big-river.com

we·u send a aiff card and beain your B1G R1vER subscriPtion immediately. 'sr/uwrns 'saJJJ-nf 's8o.if_ 'SfvoqJ-aaµ 'Sf'IJO rno1 '8uJUJUJJrns ' 'SJflro 'SfU'IJJ-OUJJ-O:J 'sa r/'IJUJ J-aa JS 'uonn or/ January 1999

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By Mi Ae Lipe-Butterbrodt

Two Floods, You're Out Folks who repeatedly build in flood-prone areas may no longer be able to file flood insurance claims, if Congress approves a new proposal by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Facing skyrocketing flood-damage costs, FEMA plans to cut federally subsidized flood insurance to homeowners who have filed two or more claims that total more than the value of their home, and who refuse to follow other preventative measures, such as elevating their homes or accepting buyouts.

"Basically, what we're saying is if you're in a risk area, you build in a risk area, you know it's a risk area, then you should pay for the price of being in that risk area," explained FEMA Director James Lee Witt.

Illinois stands out, with 476 repetitive-loss properties that cost over $19 million on 1,637 claims (Associated Press 11-30-98). A report by the National Wildlife Federation states that owners of 200 Illinois homes collected more in insurance than their properties are worth; the same report also found that although repetitive loss properties make up only two percent of all property in the federal insurance program, they receive 40 percent of its payouts.

Granted Wishes Illinois and Iowa - Grant monies will help improve a river park in Illinois and restore a steam-powered riverboat in Iowa.

The Conversation 2000 program of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is donating $40,000 to the Gramercy Park Foundation to build a pavilion and a Mississippi River scenic overlook in the park in East Dubuque, Ill. Vol-

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unteers have restored the park since 1995, and the foundation plans to apply for additional DNR money soon (Telegraph Herald 11-24-98).

The State Historical Society of Iowa awarded a $200,000 grant to restore the steamboat William M. Black, one of the last of its kind left in the country and one of the 23 national historic landmarks in the state of Iowa.

It will cost about $775,000 to restore the steamboat, which includes a maintenance staff and an educational program in which students and educators would spend a night on the boat.

Polluted Welcome Keewatin, Minn. - The Mississippi River Revival (MRR) has filed a federal lawsuit against National Steel Pellet Co. for allegedly polluting tributaries of the Mississippi.

The MRR accuses the company's Keewatin iron mining and taconite operations oi discharging excessive amounts of oil, grease, iron, nitrogen, fecal coliform and ammonia into Welcome Creek and Welcome Lake, which flow into the Mississippi. National Steel Pellet's mining operations, near Hibbing, Minn., have been discharging over 6 million gallons of mining wastewater a day into these tributaries, according to the MRR. National Steel Pellet has a permit from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to monitor and measure the discharges, but the MRR says the permit was violated repeatedly since 1996.

"We are particularly concerned about the duration of these violations and want to focus attention toward solving the problems," said Sol Simon, executive director of the MRR. The MRR claims the compa-

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ny has had chronic problems controlling the levels of suspended solids and turbidity in its discharges, both of which can disturb aquatic life.

Gary Cerkvenik, a spokesman for National Steel Pellet, said the company improved its wastewater system and is working with state authorities on other issues. "The bottom line is that most of this stuff has been taken care of," he said.

The Mississippi River Revival is a non-profit environmental group with members in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois. Throughout 1998, it has used the citizen lawsuit provision of the Clean Water Act to encourage polluters to cut pollution (see Big River, "A Hard Act to Follow" December 1998).

Falls Museum Minneapolis, Minn. - The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has awarded a $625,000 grant to the Minnesota Historical Society for the St. Anthony Falls Heritage Center, a new museum and educational center to be built on the Minneapolis riverfront.

The Center will be located within the ruins of the Washburn 'P.: Mill, a flour mill and National Historic Landmark, and overlook St. Anthony Falls, the only major falls on the Mississippi. The falls provided the power that made Minneapolis the milling capital of the world for 50 years.

The 30,000-square-foot facility will house exhibitions, classrooms and educational programs, telling visitors about the world's 19th-century flour milling capital and industry. The Flour Tower, a multimedia elevator ride to the top of the 'P.: Mill, will feature interesting facts and history about Minneapolis' in-

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dustrial past, and the center's exhibits will tell stories about the people for whom St. Anthony Falls was a gathering place - entrepreneurs, workers, farmers, railroad builders and Dakota Indians.

The St. Anthony Falls Heritage Center's estimated cost is $22 million. The NEH grant requires the Minnesota Historical Society to raise $4 in matching funds for each federal dollar received; with the NEH grant, $7.7 million has been raised, including $4 million in state funds, $1.5 million from the U.S. Congress through the Department of Transportation and $1.5 million in private contributions. The center is slated to open in 2002.

Shredder Or Not?

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Minneapolis, Minn. - Four days before the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) gave its environmental blessing to the Kondirator metal shredder proposed for the west bank of the Mississippi River, the city of Minneapolis imposed a riverside industrial development moratorium.

The MPCA approved permits for the Kondirator, declaring that no further study of the shredder's potential environmental effects is necessary. But the city of Minneapolis has not yet issued its permits, based on opposition to the five-story machine. Scrap-metal recycler American Iron has filed a lawsuit against the city for damages for income lost because of the delay. A trial is scheduled for February.

The one-year moratorium will halt industrial development on the Mississippi River from Broadway north to the city limits. It will freeze industry expansion until a master plan for the upper riverfront is finished. Planners are trying to decide whether to shift riverfront land usage away from industry toward parks and housing.

Council Member Steve Minn welded the only vote against the moratorium, charging that it is a back-door attempt to stall the

January 1999

Kondirator. Businesses along the river may need to relocate if the plans call for a dramatic conversion of the riverfront, but Council Member Barbara Johnson said they will be paid a fair price for relocating if necessary. "No one's job is going to be displaced by this moratorium," she said (Star Tribune 12-5-98).

block, Thimgan was puzzled: "I said that there might be some naked chick pictures, but they're of swans," he joked.

Thorstad discovered the filter didn't care for the "anal" part of the address. "That's one of the filter's banned words," said Thimgan.

Overlooking a Junkyard

The nation's two biggest grain exporters plan to merge in a $300 million deal, raising concerns by the U.S. Department of Agriculture of "far-reaching implications" in the shipping and export market.

Minneapolis-based Cargill Inc., the world's largest grain-trading company, announced November 10 that it will buy New York-based Continental Grain, which has grain storage, transportation, export and trading operations in North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia.

The two companies handle 42 percent of U.S. corn exports, a third of overseas soybean sales and at least one-fifth of the wheat exports.

The combined company would control less than eight percent of the storage capacity in the United States, but the company's resulting power might drive out competition at key distribution points, such as along the Mississippi River (Associated Press 12-7-98).

This might "force farmers to transport great distances to competing warehouses," according to Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman.

The Justice Department has 30 days to investigate the merger.

Dubuque, Iowa - Conservationminded citizens and friends of the Mines of Spain are trying to block a proposed junkyard that would store about 2,000 cars on the valley floor at the base of the Julien Dubuque Monument.

The junkyard would be visible and audible from the scenic overlook of the monument, adjoining park land along Monument Drive and a residential area on the Northern bluff. The Monument is a National Historic Landmark that attracts 200,000 visitors annually.

The Riprow Valley Committee wants the mayor and city council to reinterpret the municipal code's requirement to eliminate "the visual impact of the junkyard contents by obscuring it from view outside the premises." As required by law, salvage operations owner Roger Kunde is working on a site plan that includes screening, but committee members disagree that the proposed plantings of evergreen trees and hedges will adequately mask the salvage area (Telegraph Herald 12-2-98).

Nude Chicks?

Fergus Falls, Minn. - Students and their teachers had a hard time tracking information about the tundra swans in Alma, Wis., because the birds are involved in a pornography ring.

Well, not really. But try convincing the Fergus Falls school's Internet filter, which blocked access to www.mwt.net/-swanalma/. When the school's technology coordinator Jesse Thorstad told bird-loving English teacher Dan Thimgan of the

Big River

Cargill Merger

U.S. 30 Bridge Fulton, Ill. - Starting February 1, 1999, the town of Clinton, Iowa, will have just one bridge spanning the Mississippi River. The U.S. 30 bridge will be closed for renovations until December 1, 1999. The renovations include widening and resurfacing the U.S. 30 and 3rd Street intersection, new medians and turn lanes. Illinois and Iowa are sharing the construction costs.

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Special Events & Festivals January

1 Bird Count, Whitewater State Park, Elba, Minn.

2 Trempealeau (Wis.) Bird Count 2 Audubon Society Christmas Bird Count, 8 a.m., Dubuque, Iowa, (319) 582-2077.

2 Snowshoe Race and Family Day, 10 a.m.

- 3 p.m., West Coon Rapids Dam, Brooklyn Park, Minn., (612) 424-8172.

15 Upper Mississippi and Trempealeau Refuges Photo Contest Deadline, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, Exchange Building, Winona, Minn., (507) 452-4232.

15-17 Cabin Fever Days, Onalaska, Wis. 16 Trumpeter Swan Fly In, 10 a.m. - noon, Monticello, Minn., reservations, (612) 472-4911.

29 - Feb. 7 Winter Rec-Fest, La Crosse, Wis.

February 6 Candlelight Cross Country Ski, 5 p.m. 8 p.m., Perrot State Park, Trempealeau, Wis., (608) 784-9047.

6-7 Winona (Minn.) Winter Carnival.

6-7 Winterfest, Lake City, Minn.

16-17 Keokuk, Iowa, programs, Keosippi Mall; viewing near Lock and Dam 16, (319) 263-7913.

23-24 Muscatine, Iowa, program, Muscatine Community Center; viewing, Lock and Dam 16, (319) 263-7913.

Meetings & Hearings January 7 Regulating feedlots at county and township levels, 7:15 p.m., Community Center, St. Charles, Minn., (507) 523-3366.

9 Construction of a 5,000-foot dike below L&D 3, public meeting, 3 p.m. - 7 p.m., Red Wing, Minn., Public Library.

10 Lower Wisconsin State Riverway Board, 5 p.m., Kratochwill Memorial Building, Muscoda, Wis., (608) 7383188.

11 Environmental Project Funding Available in Southeast Minn., 1 p.m., Heinz Center, Rochester Community College, Rochester, Minn., (507) 280-5058.

15 Wisconsin Mississippi River Parkway Commission, Environmental Management Technical Center, 10 a.m.- 3 p.m., Onalaska, Wis. (608) 786-0774.

30 Recent Trends in Bird Populations: Indicators of Environmental Qualities, 10 a. m, Arboretum, Dubuque, Iowa.

February 14 Dubuque Audubon Society, 7 p.m., American Trust & Savings Bank on JFK, Dubuque, Iowa.

Workshops & Conferences February 6, 11, 20 and 25 Big River Workshops for educators, river-related learning activities, Ft. Snelling State Park, St. Paul, Minn., (651) 290-4160, ext. 231.

26-27 State of the Rivers, 9 a.m. - 4 p.m., Friday; 9 a.m. - 1 p.m., Saturday; Law and Grad School Conference Center, Hamline University, St. Paul, Minn., (651) 676-1745 or email info@riversmn.org

Visit the Big River Web Site (www.big-river.com) for updated Calendar Information and links to resources mentioned in this issue.

27 Grumpy Old Men Festival, Wabasha, Minn.

28-Mar. 5 Winged Wonders: Bald Eagles, Birds and Bats; Elderhostel, Winona State University, Winona, Minn.

Eagle Watches January through March, Wabasha, Minn., city deck staffed Sundays 1 p.m. - 3 p.m. (612) 565-4989. through Feb. 14, Mississippi River Visitor's Center, Rock Island, Ill., (309) 794-5338.

Almanac

2 Clinton, Iowa, programs and exhibits, Community College; viewing, Lock and Dam 13 near Fulton, Ill., and Albany, Ill. boat landing, (814) 2593628.

2-3 Le Claire, Iowa, programs, Mississippi Welcome Center; viewing, Lock and Dam 14, (319) 289-3009.

By Kenny Salwey

9 Dubuque, Iowa, program and exhibits, Marshall School; viewing, Lock and Dam 11, (319) 556-4372.

9-10 Quad Cities, programs and exhibits, Expo Center; side trips for viewing, (309) 794-5338.

9 & 16 Sauk City, Wis., 1-800-68-eagle.

16 Cassville, Wis., (608) 725-5855.

January 1999

January brings the sounds of snow shovels clearing backwater skating rinks, the clack of hockey sticks, children's laughter, crackling fire and barking dogs.

January is one of the quietest months of the year, when most wild things are down to the deadly serious business of survival. Some, like the white-tailed deer, herd up to beat down trails and bedding yards in the deep snow. Wild turkeys form gangs for easier predator detection and more feet to scratch for food. The ducks and geese that stay in the North flock together in the few spring holes and open water patches. Songbirds, grouse and pheasants also form flocks. Coyotes hunt in small packs as well.

Other critters, like foxes, rabbits, squirrels, mink and otters live alone or with a very small family group. Raccoons, skunks and possums semi-hibernate.

Each wild thing has its own time-proven method of dealing with winter. Yet all have one thing in common: food is energy. Energy means warmth and life. They spend as little energy as possible to find their food and their kitchens are usually quite close to their bedrooms. This time of year I find that concept very appealing indeed! How about you my friend? i=

Big River

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