July 1993
the monthly newsletter for people who live, work or play on the Upper Mississippi River
Court Sends Nuclear Storage Decision to Legislature By Marc Hequet
The Minnesota Court of Appeals staved off expanded nuclear waste storage in the Mississippi River floodplain with a June decision requiring the storage plan for Northern States Power Company's (NSP's) Prairie Island nuclear plant to be approved by the state Legislature. NSP has appealed (see Big River, March 1993). The court decision is a win for the Prairie Island Mdewakanton Dakota Community and for antinuclear activists who opposed an expanded storage plan devised by NSP, the Minneapolis-based electric and gas utility. The plan calls for outdoor storage of spent fuel at Prairie Island, immediately upstream from Red Wing, in 16-foot-high steel casks set on concrete pads and surrounded by earth berms.
Attorney Richard Duncan of the Minneapolis firm Faegre and Benson, who won the case in the Appeals Court for the Mdewakanton Dakota, expects the state Supreme Court to decide by Labor Day whether to hear the appeal. Attorney Richard Duncan of the Minneapolis firm Faegre and Benson, who won the case in the Appeals Court for the Mdewakanton Dakota, expects the state Supreme Court to decide by Labor Day whether to hear the appeal. If it does, a decision would come six to eight months later. In its appeal petition, NSP argues that delaying expansion of storage jeopardizes operation of its Prairie Island plant and that replacing its generating capacity would cost $1.2 billion. NSP also calls the Appeals Court take on state law " "erroneous and unsupported," and faults the court for giving
(Prairie Island, continued on back page)
Vol. 1, No. 7
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Pelicans Roving River By Pamela Eyden
The first time I saw the Princess Winona statue in the center of a fountain in downtown Winona, I thought the pelicans along the edge were a strange touch. What would such big, .ocean-going birds with fish-pouch bills be doing paddling about in fresh water, alongside snapping turtles and catfish? It turned out the sculptor was not being fanciful - at least, not about the pelicans. These very large birds - with a wingspan as large as 108 inches and a body length of 62 inches - winter along the Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf of California, and nest at reservoirs and lakes in South Dakota, Nebraska and Montana. They are occasional visitors to the Upper Mississippi River Valley in early summer. In recent years more have been staying all summer. "Their productivity seems good on their breeding grounds, so they may be spreading out a little bit. We're seeing more of them, but there is no evidence that they are nesting here," said Eileen Kirsch, wildlife biologist at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, La Crosse. At the end of April, Kirsch counted 500 white pelicans between St. Paul and St. Louis. Most were below the Quad Cities at that time and were probably still migrating northward. In mid-June, pelicans were reported at Lynxville, Ferryville, and La Crosse, Wisc;,onsin; at Weavers Dunes, near Wabasha; and at the Trempealeau Wildlife What's inside. .. Refuge, just downriver from Winona. Biological Survey 2 Pelicans are interestProperty Rights 4 ing to watch. Contrary to Current Events 5 impressions gleaned Big Watershed 7 from Saturday morning River Calendar 8 cartoons, they do not use Coming in August (Pelicans, continued on •Mississippi Undammed next page)
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July 1993
Looking for Rare or Vanished Wildlife Minnesota County Biological Survey (Pelicans, continued from front page)
By Roger Lacher
their pouched bills to store fish, just to catch them. White pelicans scoop up water and fish, then tip their bills sideways, spill the water out and swallow the fish. (Brown pelicans dive into the water, but they don't come here.) Kirsch described their cooperative fishing technique: "They swim close together, just a few inches apart, in a raft formation . Once in a while one puts its head underwater to scout things out. Then the whole group gets excited and mills around, dipping their heads under the water and coming up with fish, or whatever they're eating - probably fish . Then they quiet down and swim off together to find another good place." To get airborne from the water is no easy feat for any bird. Geese and coots take off by running over the surface of the water. Pelicans shovel water backward with both webbed feet, like a paddle wheeler at full speed, while sweeping their great wings forward to cup the air beneath them and create lift (see illustration). They fly in wedge formation. On the Mississippi, pelicans are often found in the company of cormorants - a vivid sight, with the small black birds in startling contrast to the big white ones. Kirsch, in fact, counted pelicans this spring while studying cormorants. She flew in a small plane SOO feet above the river from St. Paul to St. Louis, counting cormorants to see if their numbers are increasing rapidly enough affect the numbers of fish in the Mississippi River. She's found about 6,000 cormorants in 600 river miles - "which is not that many birds," she said. Many of the pelicans seen here this year have a rusty color on their heads, which means they are juvenile birds, too young to breed. Others have a distinctive little horn on their bills, indicating they are mature birds who are just not breeding this year. "Nobody knows if they take a year off from breeding or not," Kirsch said. White pelicans like to nest on isolated islands with little vegetation. "They could nest on new sandbars in the river, but there is really too much boating activity for them here," Kirsch said . "If the Fish and Wildlife Service ever gets around to putting a sandy, rocky island in the middle of Trempealeau Refuge pool, pelicans could nest there, but most of the river habitat is too disturbed."+
There's an entire ark-load of critters along the
Pamela Eyden is assistant editor of Big River.
Mississippi, it seems, and some fancy greenery too . The rumors circulate: cougar sightings; a nine-foot cottonmouth chased college kids off Mosquito Island; an alligator snapper sunk a cigar boat with one bite; timber wolves transplanted by the DNR are eating up whole herds of heifers. But what's really out there? In 1987, Minnesota decided to find out. Three DNR programs worked together to initiate a comprehensive county-by-county inventory of scarce species and unique habitats. Experts from the programs for Natural Heritage, Nongame Wildlife, and Scientific and Natural Areas agreed to identify priorities for conservation, protect the best and the rarest, and promote public awareness. Four out of five Minnesotans believe protection of endangered species is important and should be a priority for the Environmental Trust Fund.
The Search People see flits in treetops, hear twits after dark, dodge creepy crawlies on highways and discover the odd fuzzies the cat drags home. To document uncommon life forms takes a certain kind of scientist. Off with the lab coat, on with the hip boots. Toss the time Blanding's turtle clock, grab a spotlight. The techniques of researchers looking for scarce stuff take turns in tune with the critters. Drift fences divert turtles and other determined travelers into an apex for capture. A board tossed strategically near good habitat gives snakes a Super 8 motel. Quiet canoeing where most people don't paddle may yield a moorhen. To locate lepus townsendii might require a slow night in pickup truck cruising back roads and disregarding 937 cottontails in search of
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the white-tailed jack rabbit. Ecologist Carol Dorff, reptile/amphibian survey coordinator, describes "herp searches" and "anuran surveys" with guarded enthusiasm. With the exception of the lined snake, counties in southeastern Minnesota bordering the Mississippi are "the place to be for herps" (reptiles and amphibians turtles, snakes, lizards, frogs, toads) . Rattlesnakes loom large in the public's mind and are targets of the ~~~in Houston and Winona counties. Timber rattlers - the large bluffs-to-bottom pit viper - are located occasionally, but not in the numbers prime habitat warrants. Development and human predation may have had a heavy impact on this species. Bounties were paid for dead rattlers as late as 1989. The smaller massasauga, or swamp rattler, has not yet been found in the survey. Specialists searched the lowlands along the river for this species of "special concern" in Minnesota. Will it next be listed as "threatened" and finally as "endangered?"
What sort of researcher cares enough to sit in a swamp until 2 a.m. tape recording half-a-dozen kinds of frogs? ,What sort of researcher cares enough to sit in a swamp until 2 a .m. tape recording half-a-dozen kinds of frogs? Elizabeth Baness pursues a master's degree at Drake University with a beheaded golf club bent into a catching crook. One day she's skunked looking for skinks or stink pots. The next, she scores big with a genuine bullfrog on Prairie Island, the first recent documentation of one in Winona County. On a steep goat prairie she leaves no stone unturned until grabbing a lizard before it races off. No skink this time, it's a six-lined racerunner, a blue-bellied male. Some specimens go into a bag in her pocket for a free vacation to the field house for a day of measurements and photos. All captured heq)s are released back to the wild. Ornithologist Pam Page is working on a veterinary degree and Ph.D. in wildlife biology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She's got it easy. No ''bird-in-hand" proof for the avian researchers. Just hours of eyeballs pressed to binoculars searching for Bell's vireos, loggerhead shrikes, yellowbreasted chats, cerulean warblers, maybe a Louisiana water thrush. On a clear day Page tries a "playback." Her boom box blasts a "keeer, keeer" to attract the first redshouldered hawks seen so far. They circle in over the bluffs for a positive ID. Who's identifying who? Jeff Davis was the kind of kid who brought home anything that crawled. Now, his work toward a masters degree in herpetology at Northern Michigan University involves radio tracking and the captive breeding of wood turtles; blood sampling toads for a parasitic condition; and this summer contracting with the MCBC to survey "herp Mecca" in this Driftless Area . One trick of the experts is to crawl out of the primordial swamps and check out the steel-
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lined trails. Railroad beds are ''lousy with snakes," so track walking is more productive than beating the bush. OORs (dead on roads) provide specimens that might take weeks to find in the wild . A blanding's turtle turned up on Highway 61 at Dresbach, near a dredge-spoil island that could be suitable habitat. They are also found at the mouth of the Root River. And, snappers seem to be holding their own on this and other Mississippi tributaries. Massasauga Appreciating Davis' work, elders of the Chippewa Turtle Oan once suggested he thank the Midwestern waters where he finds the shelled creatures. So, here and there, a tuft of sweet grass graces the currents downstream. The scientist of the 90s takes a second to acknowledge a thousand decades of human interaction with the big river.
The Results The bio-surveyors are indeed an odd bunch. Fly-bitten, scratched and ragged, shining flashlights into stone tunnels, palpating turtles, fascinated by the sexual organs of snakes. The raw data they gather is the pure science that may sway public policy. Legislators of the next century may be motivated to preserve some of the untrammeled tracts providing habitat for scarce species. The MCBS tallies statistics that translate the creepy reality of critters into important tokens of biodiversity. Educators, sporting groups and county supervisors can use the information. Researchers can focus on specifics. Minnesota has seven major habitat types supporting over 2,000 different species. Ninety-six of 725 species of animals are listed as endangered, threatened of of special concern. The breakdown: 17 of 81 mammals; 27 of 242 birds; 17 of 48 reptiles and amphibians; 16 of 149 fish; 4 of 60mussels;15 of 145 butterflies. In the plant world: 287 of 2,430 are on the list. The time to act, or react, is now, or yesterday.+
Roger Lacher is a writer and naturalist wlw lives on the Root River watershed. Both illustrations by Vera Ming Wong, Š1988, State of Minnesota . They appear in the book Minnesota's Endangered Flora and Fauna, which is available from the Minnesota Bookstore, 1-800657-3757, for $17.95.
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Property Rights Group Protests Heritage Corridor By Pamela Eyden
Does the National Park Service want to take over all the land in the Upper Mississippi River region and tum it into a big park? That's what a group called Citizens for Responsible Zoning and Landowner Rights, Inc., thinks could happen if theUpper Mississippi is designated as a National Heritage River Corridor. Members of the group are circulating petitions, writing letters and speaking out in opposition to the potential designation. What do they object to about the Corridor idea? "We can't be specific, because they aren't specific," said group president Marilyn Hayman, Maiden Rock, Wis. "The Heritage Corridor Study sounds benign, but what it means is eventual federal control of the area ." According to literature from the Mississippi River Heritage Corridor Study Commission, corridor designation is a way to preserve and interpret large landscapes through partnerships of local, state and federal agencies, and private interests. It does not involve acquiring land or taking away landowner' rights. All land-use issues and restraints will be left in the hands of local government, except where federal and state agencies already exercise jurisdiction. Despite these reassurances, members of the group see the corridor designation as evidence of a gradual federal takeover of private land rights. "The study committee will tell you that they don't have the power to set guidelines, and that's true, but if the area becomes a Heritage Corridor, that's when the federal government starts making regulations. And, you know, what the federal government does, they do forever. If we lose control now, we'll never get it back." The group has few formal members, Hayman admits, but many allies in the "property rights movement."
'We are grassroots organizations that are concerned about excessive regulation coming from every level of government." "We are grassroots organizations that are concerned about excessive regulation corning from every level of government. We are concerned about civil and property
July 1993
rights - that people are losing their abilities to run their lives and their businesses. We are especially concerned about unelected officials who don't make Jaws and aren't responsible to the public. They are taking away our rights," Hayman said. At a public meeting in Winona in June, Hayman shared the podium with David Howard, vice president of a coalition of groups called Alliance for America. Howard told an audience of about 80 people that he owns land inside the boundaries of the Adirondack State Park in northeastern New York, where regulations impede his ability to make a living and to protect the land in his own way. Adirondack State Park was established in 1885 as a patchwork of public and private lands. The state currently owns only 42 percent of the 6 million acres inside the park boundaries. Private land owners own the rest, but they are regulated by state land use Jaws administered by a special state agency. Strict regulation of land use and development have been a source of conflict in the area for decades. Howard told the group that the Adirondacks Park was developed as a model for other areas. When asked how she thought the Mississippi River should be taken care of in the future, if not as a corridor, Hayman said, "Everyone agrees that this Mississippi River is a very beautiful place. It wouldn't be so beautiful if the people who live here weren't taking good care of it. Private property owners know how to protect their land." Citizens for Responsible Zoning and Landowner Rights, Inc., may be doing everyone a favor by asking questions. Some of the issues at hand here are part of a classic American debate over the rights of private property owners versus the need to regulate private citizens for the common good. It may be heating up again here in our own back yards, but it's been going on for centuries.+
Big River is published monthly by Big River, 267 E. Sanborn, Winona, MN 55987, (507) 454-6758. Reggie McLeod editor/publisher Pamela Eyden assistant editor
Subscriptions are $20 for one year, $36 for two years or $2 per single issue. Send subscriptions, single copy orders and change-of-address requests to Big River, PO Box 741, Winona, MN 55987. Application to mail at second-class postage rates is pending at Winona, MN. Big River, Volume 1, Number 7, copyright Š July 1993. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher is prohibited. Printed on recycled paper.
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By Reggie McLeod
Hitchhiking Zebras
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Trumpeter Swan Recovery Program's goal is to establish a migratory and breeding population of at least 20 trumpeter swan pairs by the year 2000. This spring nine swan pairs were sitting on about 50 eggs. Both states support the swan and other nongame wildlife programs with voluntary contributions made on state income tax forms.+
Black Hawk War Video
Barges have been hauling more than freight recently. Researchers believe that commercial barges have been an important, if not the primary, means by which zebra mussels have spread throughout much of the Mississippi River basin. According to an article in River Crossings (May /June 1993), maintenance workers reported finding more than a thousand zebra mussels on the hulJ of a barge in dry dock in April 1992. Investigators from the Army Corps of Engineers found that the clumps of mussels were always attached to seam welds. From measurements of the mussels they concluded that they were about a year old. During that year the barge and zebra mussels had traveled about 15,884 kilometers (9,870 miles) between Winona and Louisiana on the Mississippi and on the IJJinois rivers. The mussels have spread into most of the commercially navigable waterways in the Mississippi River basin, including the Ohio, Illinois, Cumberland, Tennessee and Arkansas rivers. The notable exception is the Missouri River, perhaps because the river is swifter and muddier and has Jess commercial traffic, according to the article. The mussels are also making their way up smaller rivers without commercial traffic, including the Upper Iowa River, near Decorah, Iowa.+
A new exhibit on the Mississippi River and steamboating recently opened in the Riverside Museum in La Crosse'sRiverside Park. The display includes artifacts from the War Eagle, a steamboat sunk by a fire, upstream from the park in 1870. The Riverside Museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily through Labor Day.+
Watch for Trumpeters
River and Recreation Area Review
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources wants your help to keep tabs on trumpeter swans. Spotting the largest waterfowl in North America shouldn't be too tough; they weigh as much as 38 pounds and can have a wingspan of eight feet. Adults have black biJls and feet, and white plumage. Cygnets have gray feathers until they are about 1 year old. The DNR is raising and releasing the swans as part of its Nongame Wildlife Program. "The restoration continues to show signs of success," said Katie Haws, regional nongame wildlife specialist at Bemidji. "During the past five summers, program swans have successfully hatched at least 102 and fledged at least 67 cygnets in the wild. This season we expect at least 12 pairs will be nesting." The swans have nested in nine Minnesota counties and have been sighted in more than 25 counties and in 10otherstates. If you spot a trumpeter swan, record the date, location, total number of swans and, if possible, tag or collar numbers of marked swans. Call Katie Haws or Bruce Lenning at (218) 7552976 or Steve Kittelson, DNR swan project officer, at 1-800-7666000. Wisconsin, too, is restoring trumpeter swans. The Wisconsin
The Mississippi RiverCoordina ting Commission will release the Draft Comprehensive Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement for the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area on July 5 (see Big River, February 1993). The MNRRA, a unit of the National Park System, covers the stretch of river between Dayton and Hastings, Minn., which includes the Twin Cities. The draft contains three alternative plans affecting commercial navigation, recreation, preservation and other issues. The plan will be available for review until September 10. Four public hearings on it will be held on the evenings of July 26 through 29 at different locations near the corridor.
The Black Hawk War started in 1832 when Black Hawk Jed a party of Sauk and Fox Indians across the Mississippi at Rock Island (see Big River, February 1993). It ended with a massacre on the banks of the river, near what is now Victory, Wis. A new, half-hour documentary video, "Battle at Bad Axe," tells the story of the conflict. The video was produced at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, with a matching grant from the Wisconsin Humanities Committee and support from the Burlington Northern Foundation and the St. Paul District of the Army Corps of Engineers. The video is expected to air on public television, but if you can't wait, order a copyfor$25 plus $2 for shipping and handling from the Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center, UW-La Crosse, La Crosse, WI 54601, (608) 785-8463.+
New Steamboat Exhibit
Do you have river information to share? Let Big River help. Send press releases, letters to the editor, news clippings and meeting notices to Big River, PO Box 741, Winona, MN 55987. And remember, the deadline for calendar information is the 15th of the month before the meeting or event.
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For copies of the draft or information about the River and Recreation Area, write: Superintendent, Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, 175 Fifth St. E., Suite 418, St. Paul, MN 55101-2901, or call (612) 290-4160.+
Avoiding the "Circle of Death" Few boaters would ever worry about getting hit by their own boats, but it happens, warns the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Here's how: The boat operator releases the wheel or the handle on the outboard motor. "Steering torque" caused by the propeller's clockwise rotation pulls the motor to the right. The boat makes a hard right turn, throwing the victim into the water. The boat keeps turning to the right until it returns to run over the victim, causing severe propeller wounds. "For years, many of these accidents were labeled as just plain flukes," said Tim Smalley, DNR boating safety specialist. "Then boating accident investigators, in some cases, noticed that clamp-on boat chairs fastened to standard bench seats had been torn off towards the rear of the boat. That started people wondering if there weren't some unusual forces involved."
1. Boater ref eases grip, boa~ cuts hard right ejecting him
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3. Boat returns to strike victim The DNR suggests several precautions to reduce the likelihood of a ''.circle-of-death" accident: • don't release your grip on the steering wheel or motor handle until the boat has ceased all forward motion; • although some steering torque is unavoidable, if it takes an extra effort to hold your boat on a straight course, have it serviced immediately by a qualified technician;
July 1993
•on some smaller outboards, repairs can be as simple as tightening a bolt to make it more difficult for the motor to turn from side to side; •for larger outboards and inboard-outdrive craft, corrective measures may involve resetting the motor's trim tab (the small adjustable fin mounted just behind the propeller); • if the motor is equipped with an automatic kill switch, fasten the lanyard to your life jacket or some article of clothing, such as a belt loop. If you do fall out of the boat, the lanyard, which is attached to the motor's electrical system, will disable the motor to prevent the boat from circling back.+
Slow It Down A reminder: During high water the river shoreline is especially vulnerable to erosion from the wakes of boats. It looks like high water will be with us for a while, so take your time and enjoy the river.+
Rocking the River The big rock quarry on the bluff above Prairie du Chien has become a landmark for airplanes and a "welcome sign" for visitors driving across the bridge from Iowa. State Representative DuWayne Johnsrud, R-Eastman, says he and a number of his constituents are concerned about the unsightliness and environmental damage from open-faced quarrying on the bluffs facing the Mississippi River. In a press release Johnsrud says that, while he is not opposed to quarrying, "It would be a shame to see the Upper Mississippi River Valley turned into a bunch of exposed rock quarries." It seem likely that the Wisconsin Legislature will work on new rules and regulations for non-metallic quarries this summer. Johnsrud, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Secretary George Meyer, the Minnesota-Wisconsin Boundary Area Commission and others have expressed concern that a plan to quarry rock from near the river and store it in the river will cause environmental damage. Pattison Brothers, Clayton, Iowa, is quarrying much of the rock to use as rip rap to stabilize river shorelines.+
Corrections Last month, in the article "Mississippi River Heritage Corridor Study" we incorrectly identified Evan Zantow as chairman of the Mississippi River Heritage Corridor Study Commission. Zantow serves on the commission, but does not chair it. On the River Map "How Many Boats?" the numbers of registered boats in Minnesota counties are too high by about 37 percent, because the data we received included expired registrations.
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Big Watershed Where does the Upper Mississipppi River Come From?
People used to think of a river as something that carried away waste and other unwanted stuff. Now we realize that rivers bring together eroded soil and other material from the watershed they drain. This map shows the area drained by the Upper Mississippi River and its tributaries upriver from the Quad Cities. The shaded area shows the origin of most of the sediment that enters the river valley.+ This map is from the Refuge Master Plan for the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge.
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(Prairie Island, continued from front page) authority back to the Legislature that lawmakers have already given over to state utility regulators. Those regulators earlier approved the expanded storage at Prairie Island. Prairie Island provides about 20 percent of the electricity generated by NSP. Its two pressurized water reactors, fueled by rods of enriched uranium, are highly rated by the nuclear industry for efficient production of low-cost electricity. NSP has been storing its spent fuel rods in an indoor pool at the Prairie Island plant. But the plant will run out of storage space by 1995, a deadline that threatens operation of the plant. The fulcrum of the case has been Minnesota's Radioactive Waste Management Act, which prohibits permanent storage. The state Appeals Court found, essentially, that given the federal government's inability to find a promised permanent storage site, the Prairie Island expansion amounted to permanent storage and, therefore, would require a change in state law. In a related matter, the Mdewakanton Dakota at Prairie Island have rejected the idea of becoming a permanent nuclear storage site. Earlier, the community accepted a U.S. Department of Energy grant to study that prospect. But the Mdewakanton Dakota backed off and returned the unspent balance of the $100,000 grant when a tribal survey revealed sharp opposition to permanent storage.
It's Not Over. .. Nobody assumes the Dakota have won. Indeed, tribal leaders are following a time-honored Indian tradition: looking for a new place to live, just in case the white and powerful get their way. "There are those that are pushing the council to find other lands for people that want to leave," says Edith Pacini, a member of the Tribal Council. "But there are also those that would not leave under any circumstances."
"There are those that are pushing the council to find other lands for people that want to leave." Wanted: 500 acres, probably on the Mississippi River, for a Dakota community. Residents would be the households 20 at least - that want to escape outdoor nuclear storage at Prairie Island and community members who want to move back to the community from other locations. The 1990s twist on this centuries-old displaced peoples theme: The Mdewakanton Sioux now are perceived as rich because of their lucrative bingo and casino operations. Everywhere they turn, land prices go up. Pacini won't disclose where they're shopping.•
Marc Hequet is a freelance journalist based in St . Paul and a regular contributor to Time.
JULY 3-5 Dakota Conflict video presentation, Ft. Snelling State Park, Pike Island Nature Center. Call Mark Cleveland, park naturalist, (612) 726-9247. 8 Minnesota-Wisconsin Boundary Area Commission, committee meetings. Call (612) 436-7131 or (715) 386-9444. 8 Lower Wisconsin State Riverway Board, meeting, Arena, Wis. Call 1-800-221-3792 or (608) 739-3188. 13-17 Mississippi River- Past, Present, and Future is the theme of the Izaak Walton League of America National Convention, Holiday Inn, Davenport, Iowa. 17 River Clean-up, Mississippi River Revival, Winona Chapter, Latsch Island beach, 9 a.m . to 4 p.m. Bring boats and work gloves if you have them. Another clean-up crew will leave Fountain City at 10:30 a.m. Kids events at the beach, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., live music 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. 17-18 Native American Vegetable Garden tour and discussions, Ft. Snelling State Park, Pike Island Nature Center. Call Mark Cleveland, park naturalist, (612) 726-9247. 20-22 Dredged Material Assessment and Management Seminar, Army Corps of Engineers and Environmental Protection Agency, Holiday Inn, Ann Arbor, Mich. Contact Larry Bird, (601) 634-4148, fax (601) 634-4298. 26-29 Mississippi National River and Recreation Area draft plans will be reviewed at a series of four public meetings in the Twin Cities area. Call (612) 290-4160. 28-.30 Ports, Inland Waterways, Intermodal Distribution and Intermodal Trade conference, Transportation Research Board, Portland Hilton Hotel, Portland, Ore. Contact TRB (202) 334-2934, fax (202) 334-2003.
AUGUST 3-5 Wetlands Engineering Workshop, Adams Mark Hotel, St. Louis, Mo. Contact Chery Lloyd, (601) 634-3711. 6-10 Mississippi River Parkway Commission, annual meeting, Natchez, Miss. Call (612) 224-9903, fax (612) 2249413. 12 Minnesota-Wisconsin Boundary Area Commission meeting. Call (612) 436-7131 or (715) 386-9444. Feb. 5 to July 31 Exhibit of Mississippi River Photos from a Century Ago at the Landmark Center, 75 W. Fifth St., St. Paul. Henry Bosse took these stunning photos between 1883 and 1891, when he worked for the Anny Corps of Engineers. They show steamboats, log rafts, bridges and the corps maintaining the navigation channel. When these blue cyanotype photographs were discovered recently experts praised their artistic quality. The exhibit is free.•