Big River - February 1994

February 1994

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

Accidents Waiting to Happen Preparing for the Big Spill By Pamela Eyden

Vol. 2, No. 2

$2

Future B &B Floats Into St. Paul By Bill McAuliffe

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At 1:05 a.m. on July 8, 1991, three engines pulled a 120-car freight train south along the west bank of the Mississippi River. Just north of Fountain City, Wis., the brakeman saw that the embankment had washed away at the edge of the track. He applied the emergency brake, but as the train passed over the washed-out area the track bed collapsed. The third engine and 14 rail cars plunged into the river, hitting a barge and a towboat, while the second engine and 15 more cars derailed. A fire started in a refrigerator car loaded with butter and spread to other cars. Hazardous materials were in at least one of the cars. According to the National Transportation Safety Board, the pilot of the towboat had lost control of the tow and gotten stuck in the river bank. While trying to push the barges back into the channel, turbulance from the tow boat propellers undercut the river bank and washed away the track bed.

Hundreds of millions of tons of hazardous material are carried by rail, barge, pipeline and truck on, under and near the Upper Mississippi River every year. Everyone who has studied the situation agrees that a major spill could threaten public safety and destroy river ecosystems. They also agree that a major spill is a distinct possibility, for which neither industries nor government agencies are prepared. Planning for all possible spill scenarios is nearly impossible because there are so many variables - what is spilled and how much; the weather, season and rate of river flow; whether the spill occurs in a backwater, on the Main Channel or near a city. "A spill on the river poses a unique problem," said Ron Kozel, Environmental Specialist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. "It's a big river, and it moves fast. It flows through a lot of remote, rural areas where access is

(Spill continued on page 3)

Soon a new bed and breakfast in st. Paul will offer a gently rocking retreat for river lovers and seekers of the urban outback. Tom Welna, a key operative for recently-departed St. Paul Mayor Jim Scheibe! and a long-time houseboat resident, wants to transform a 48-year-old defunct towboat into a floating bed and breakfast. He believes it will be the only one of its kind along the entire Mississippi River. And, while talk of a riverfront amphitheater or a new Science Museum of Minnesota remains just talk, Welna's project is already in place, even if it is, to most observers, just a blind, rusted hulk moored in the shadow of the Lafayette Bridge. "We're going to set the tone for development along the river," Welna predicted. "It's development that's related to the river, it's human scale, and it didn't cost $20 million." Welna believes his boat is the MV Covington. He knows it was built in 1946 by Nashville Bridge as something of a post-war victory statement - bigger, stronger, faster than its (B & B continued on page 2)

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(B & B continued from page 1) predecessors. For the most part the 110-foot, model-bow, 16cylinder diesel craft worked southern waters - the lower Mississippi, the Cumberland and the Tennessee-Tombigbee - and was the fastest craft of its kind on the inland waterway for many years. But all mighty things decline. Welna discovered the Covington while browsing one day last summer through the classified section of Boats and Harbors magazine. The ad for a drydocked river push boat suggested, "excellent conversion to live-aboard or dock-side business." At the time, Welna himself was chief of staff for a lameduck city administration and wondering what his next challenge would be. He had dreamed of a floating bed and breakfast, and now a vintage boat presented itself to him. Their eyes met. The ad asked $10,000, unless a charity would take it away for nothing. He offered $7,000 for it over the phone. Sold. Several times in the next few weeks, Welna flew to Pascagoula, Miss., to assess his classic boat as it rested in a gulf-side shipyard. He had it audio gauged for strength, and found that after 46 years of pushing barges, banging through locks and just plain rusting in the air, it was still sound. The thinnest spot on what had once been the half-inch-thick steel hull was 0.141 of an inch thick; more than half of it was still one-third of an inch thick. He had the thin spots reinforced, had the engines taken out and pumped out 5,000 gallons of oil and 3,500 gallons of diesel fuel, which he donated to some local shrimpers. Then he took on the complicated task of arranging to have it pushed and pulled more than 2,000 miles across the Intercoastal Waterway from Pascagoula and up the Mississippi to St. Paul. A Scott Paper Co. tow moved it west, at cost, to New Orleans, where a private tow, the Inez Andreas, hooked it up and brought it to Cairo, Illinois. From there, the Prairie Dawn brought it to St. Paul. The trip took nearly five weeks.

He had it audio gauged for strength, and found that after 46 years of pushing barges, banging through locks and just plain rusting in the air, it was still sound. Today the MV Covington is barely distinguishable from the low, metal buildings and stacked containers that surround its windy mooring across from downtown St. Paul. Aboard, it is a drafty steel dungeon, littered with stuff - fat, oily ropes and makeshift plywood walkways - an OSHA

February 1994

inspector's heaven. But Welna, 32, and his business partner, Ann Holt, vow it won't be that way for long. Their plans include inserting a new second level to make a 10-room, three-story craft. The former engine room will become a two-story common area, or living room, and the dining area will seat 30. Individual units will include a two-story suite and a pilot-house suite, surrounded by windows and alone atop the boat. Nautical appointments portholes and brass and wood fittings - will complement replicas of the original wood double doors, which had been replaced by steel seadoors. It will be rechristened The Raspberry Island Inn. Welna's faith in the $350,000 project is rooted in his long-term attachment to the river. He has lived on the Mississippi - on the water, not the bank - for 11 years in four different houseboats. His first was a houseboat he bought while a student at Macalester College, after he convinced school officials that he had a more cost-effective use for his scholarship housing money than a dorm room. For the last seven years, including four with his wife, Ann Hunt, he has lived in a tidy, rough-sided, two-story houseboat moored in a small community of live-a boards along Harriet Island, directly across the river from downtown St. Paul. Seen from the Wabasha Street bridge in the summertime, theirs is the one with the dock-side herb garden.

He has lived on the Mississippi - on the water, not the bank for 11 years in four different houseboats. Welna believes the Mississippi River, particularly in the metropolitan area, is a scene of conflict as industrial uses yield to recreational and other less intensive uses. The Raspberry Island Inn, when finished and moved to its final mooring, will serve as a literal and figurative link between industry and leisure, a former towboat now an urban hideaway, located between the working channel and the forested banks of upstream St. Paul "What we want to do is bring the working river to the people in a recreational way." Welna said. "It's a beautiful, historic towboat for recreational purposes. It's a way to educate people about the river, St. Paul and the history of the working river, in a way that's fun. People will see what founded St. Paul and the way it's connected to the rest of the world." If all goes well, the Raspberry Island Inn should be open for business in June 1995.@

Bill McAuliffe is a staff writer for the (Minneapolis) Star Tribune.

Febrnary 1994

First Responder: Fountain City, Wis., July 8, 1991 Gretchen Cook, who was one of the first people on the scene of the accident described on page 1, told her story to Pamela Eyden. "I was living in a house right next to the river and the tracks when the accident happened. It was about 1 in the morning. We heard a collision so big we could feel it. I was already up, getting dressed, when my pager went off. "As First Responders our job is to help people and get them out of the way. We haven't had any special training to deal with spills on the river, except for some training at the La Crosse Fire Department when the nuclearwaste trains went through here. "Five of us decided to go out in a small boat. As we went down river, the smell of fuel oil was very strong and we could see an oily sheen on the water. That was very scary. We saw fire - the flames were higher than any second story houses in town - but we didn't know what had happened. Later

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of the third and they'd gone south they said it was butter, but I don't as far as the pull-off near the know about that - I'm a cook and Midway Bar, where they caught a I know what burning butter smells ride into Winona. They sure didn't like! let the Fire Department know "We saw a tow boat angled everybody was safe. If they had, we out from the shore, so we swung would have stopped looking. around and asked the captain what "Meanwhile, Burlington had happened and if any people Northern started pulling cars away were in the water. He said he from the didn't know. derailment. We Later we asked We walked along the saw three him to shine his tracks in the dark, using propane tanker light beam on the cars, one of tracks so we our little flashlights to which turned could see if out to be anyone was hurt, look for people who empty and two but he refused. I might have been hurt. were full. Next think he must to that was a have been still stuck or he would have been out of car loaded with liquid sulphur. there. Then we got word over the radio "We walked along the tracks that we were to clear out of the area in the dark, using our little immediately. I don't know whose flashlights to look for people who order this was. We just left. "It's scary to see what they might have been hurt. One engine was derailed - it looked like it carry on those trains. If that one had derailed on the land side one mile had been picked up and put down off the tracks. Some cars were further south, it would have derailed right into my house! There submerged, but we didn't know that a second engine was in the aren't any public road crossings of river and a third one had already the tracks there, so they don't even left the scene. We found out later have to slow down. They go 45 to that the people in the first two 60 miles per hour right through this engines had gotten everybody out town."ÂŽ

(Spill continued from page 1) difficult. People from all the agencies and spill response companies will usually have to come from metropolitan areas, which takes time. Besides, responding is a complicated business. If it means building roads through sensitive areas, clean up can be more damaging than the spill itself." The law requires industries and agencies to devise plans to take care of their own spills, either with their own personnel and equipment or by calling commercial response teams. A lot depends on how prepared they really are. Studies done in Minnesota and Wisconsin in 1990 and 1991, and updated in 1992, concluded that no one is prepared for a worst case scenario, even though Minnesota's Spill Bill requires all large handlers to be so prepared. The studies found that industries, mutual aid groups and commercial

(Spill continued on page 5)

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February 1994

Clean Up Gear, Barge Cargo, Pipelines and Railroad Tracks Twin Cities Metro Area

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Wisconsin Minnesota R.

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(in 1992) chemicals 1,703,700 tons petroleum products 272, 100 tons grain, coal, other 10,602,500 tons

Minnesota

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A booms, pads and one or more of the following - skimmer, vacuum pump, hose, boat, truck, other equipment A booms and/or pads only ........... railroad tracks within one mile of the river • •• •• •. pipeline crossing the river

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Lock 13 sources: Upper Mississippi River Spill Response Plan and Resource Manual (Upper Mississippi River Basin Association); Water Supply and Spill Response Management for the Mississippi Upstream of the Twin Cities (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers); and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers St. Paul and Rock Island districts.

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chemicals 2,211,249 tons petroleum products 521,512 tons grain, coal, other 21,996,635 tons

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Potential Sources of Big Spills:

(Spill continued from page 3)

PIPELINES: What they carry: crude oil, heating oil, gasoline, aviation fuel and other petroleum products. Eight-inch pipelines contain 14,028 gallons per mile; 12-inch pipelines contain 31,500 gallons. How many/where: 8 pipelines, buried 2 feet below the river bed, cross the river between St. Cloud and Bellevue. Another crosses the St. Croix River and three cross the Minnesota River. Newer pipelines have automatic, remotecontrolled valves every 8,000 feet.

spill response companies could handle small, but not medium-sized or large spills. Local and state agencies were relatively unprepared to deal with spills of any size. Firefighters and emergency government coordinators had little experience and no equipment. In recent years, more people have been trained and more equipment has been deployed. Oil is spilled more frequently than anything else, accounting for about 75 percent of the reported spills in Minnesota and more than half of all spills in Iowa. Because oil floats and is not soluble, it can be contained, skimmed up, removed and used.

RAILROADS: What they carry: Trains haul from 4 to 10 cars of hazardous materials (methanol, ethanol, phenol, benzene, styrene monomer, anhydrous ammonia, phosphorous dichloride, sulfuric acid, chlorine and pesticides, among others). Locomotives hold 3,500 - 5,000 gallons of fuel; fuel tenders and tank cars hold 20,000 - 30,000 gallons. How many/where: Thirty to 70 trains a day run between St. Cloud and Dubuque, crossing the river and its tributaries at 57 places. Safety: Tanker and box car contents must be listed on manifests and placarded on the car itself, but the contents of intermodal shipping containers and piggyback truck trailers do not. This lack of information slows and endangers emergency personnel. Federal Department of Transportation regulations may close this loophole soon. Railroad crossings are most vulnerable because of possible collisions, punctures and derailments. Nonetheless, few spills have been associated with the rail industry. BARGES: Safety: Eighty-seven percent of the tanker barges on the Upper Mississippi are double-hulled. Most spills occur as cargo is transferred to or from a barge. TRUCKS: What they carry: many hazardous materials, including gasoline and other petroleum products, and liquid chemicals - sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, bleach, acetone, toluene, anhydrous ammonia. Cargo tankers carry 6,000 8,700 gallons each. How many/where: State highways run next to the river in Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois. STORAGE AND TRANSFER FACILITIES: What they store: petroleum, chemicals and everything loaded into or out of barges, trucks and railroad cars How many/where: There are 70 medium to large bulk facilities from St. Cloud to Dubuque. Safety: Many facilities have berms and dikes to contain spills around tanks.@

In March 1991, when Grand Rapids, Minn ., firefighters went to investigate complaints about a petroleum smell in the air, they found a black geyser of crude oil shooting out of the ground near Itasca Community College. An oil pipeline had ruptured. The oil quickly pooled in a wetland area and ran into tile lines connected to a storm drain that opened into the Prairie River, a tributary of the Mississippi. Because the Prairie River was still frozen, oil collected on top of the ice and clean-up crews were able to vacuum up much of it. At 1.7 million gallons, it was the largest spill in Minnesota history. If the ice had melted or if the rains had come, the oil would have washed downriver into the Mississippi. The Upper Mississippi River Basin Association compiled a list of the spill containment equipment that is available up and down the river (see map on page 4). For example, the Army Corps of Engineers' Service Base in Fountain City, has 1,000 feet of boom and 770 pads. Booms are flotation devices made of polystyrene foam with one-foot-wide plastic aprons hanging below. They come in 10-foot sections, packed in crates that can be forklifted onto trucks and deployed by small boats. Pads are made of a material that soaks up oil and not water. "We are on call 24 hours a day, and we can be ready to go in 15 minutes," said Jack Grossell, Fountain City Army Corps yard superintendent. "Ten of us here have been trained to deploy the booms, and we've got the go-ahead to use them when needed." The Corps' equipment is intended primarily for mishaps involving the Corps' own barges. "If Trempealeau called and asked for help, we'd go, but we're not going to be first on the scene," said Grossen. Getting the people with equipment and know-how to cooperate and coordinate with each other is a complicated business. The Army Corps, the Coast Guard, U .S. Fish and Wildlife Service and a host of city, county and state agencies may have jurisdiction under different circumstances. In rural areas, firefighters are often first on the scene. "I feel frustrated about that," said Ed Krall, Chief of the (Spill continued on page 6)

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(Spill continued from page 3) Winona Fire Department. "All we have is a 14-foot flatbottomed boat. We'd be glad to use it, but we have no pads, no equipment and no training. The river really is not in our jurisdiction. If a barge of anhydrous ammonia ruptured and a cloud of gas came toward town, my problem would be evacuating people. If a tanker of gasoline spilled into the river, I'd just have to hope it kep~ on moving south." "In terms of responsibility, everybody points their fingers at everybody else," Krall said. John Hutchcroft, Training Officer for the Dubuque Fire Department, concurs that his department cannot do much on the river. It has equipment to respond to a small spill in the backwaters, and could call Canadian Pacific Railroad for more. "A spill in the Main Channel would be in Bellevue before we could do anything about it," Hutchcroft said. About 30 percent of an oil spill could be recovered if all went well. But water-soluble chemicals are a different matter. Fertilizers, pesticides, solvents, salts, etc., would either evaporate or dissolve and flow downstream into backwaters, city water intake pipes, the gills of fish and everywhere else that water goes. Little, if anything, could be done. "For chemicals that dissolve, we couldn't do much but count the dead fish," said Steve Lee, supervisor of spills and above-ground tanks for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA). "That's why the emphasis has to be on prevention. But it's easier to act in emergencies than to act to prevent the m. Pervention isn't so easily funded, either."

February 1994

CURRENT EVENTS By Reggie McLeod

Putting Zebras to Work To measure heavy metals, check the mussel's muscles and organ tissues. Measure chemical toxins in the fat . Radioactive elements concentrate in the shell. The zebra mussel invasion has created major problems for boats, water intake pipes and native wildlife in the Great Lakes and the Mississippi and Illinois rivers, but the tiny bivalves may prove useful to scientists monitoring pollutants in the water, according to an Associated Press story that appeared in the Dubuque Telegraph Herald (12-21-93) . Donald Lisk and Edward Mills, of Cornell University, are developing methods for using zebra mussels to measure pollutants. The mussels attach themselves to objects in the water and filter their food, and some pollutants, out of the water. The zebra mussel infestation of the lower Illinois River and the Mississippi River below its juncture with the Illinois increased dramatically last year. Densities as high as 70,000 mussels per square meter were found in the lower lllinois River. Divers also found a mat of zebra mussels "carpeting" silty river bottom, according to the Zebra Mussel Update (#19, 12-17-94).

"For chemicals that dissolve, we couldn't do much but count the dead fish," With the doubling of its staff from two to four this year, the MPCA will finally get to shift emphasis some. "We've always had to concentrate on the clean up end of things, which means we have seen a lot of needless, boneheaded spills that people were not prepared to deal with," Lee said. There have been 800 spills of hazardous materials on the Upper Mississippi River in the last decade, according to the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers. Minneapolis has a 24-hour reserve of drinking water. St. Cloud, which also depends on the river for its water, has very little reserve. Considering the sheer tonnage of hazardous materials involved, we have been lucky - so far . @

Pamela Eyden is assistant editor of Big River.

The mussels become rarer upstream on the Mississippi, but they were discovered at a Dairyland Power Cooperative hydropower facility on the Chippewa River near Ladysmith. This was the first sighting in Wisconsin other than in or near Lake Michigan, Lake Superior or the Mississippi River. In early autumn researchers were finding many more zebra mussels in the Ohio River and along the shores of Green Bay, in Door County, Wisconsin. The Update also reports that although Lake Erie fisheries biologists have reported sheepsheads (freshwater drum) as small as eight inches feeding heavily on zebra mussels, sheepsheads collected late last summer in southern Green Bay had no mussels in their stomachs. Phil Cochran, a biologist at St. Norbert College speculated that it may take drum some time to learn to eat newly available food . According to an article in the Quad-City Times, river biologists are considering whether to ban commercial clamming on

February 1994

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the Upper Mississippi to protect native clams, actually freshwater mussels, which are suffering from the zebra mussel invasion. Zebra mussels kill the native mussels by attaching themselves to them until they cannot open or close their shells. Zebras can Jive for up to six months without food and 14 days without water, according to the article, which was cited in an article in The Waterways Journal Weekly (1-17-94). (Zebra Mussel Update is available free from Advisory Services, UW Sea Grant Institute, 1800 University Ave., Madison, WI 53705-4094, (608) 262-0645.)@

recent Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources study. "Our study found that northern pike caught on what are known as 'Swedish' or pike hooks are Jess likely to survive if they are released," says Paul Cunningham, a DNR fisheries ecologist. "Almost one-third of the fish caught on pike hooks died within 48 hours after they were released." However, the study found that fewer than one percent of the northern pike caught on a treble hook- the hook most ice anglers use - died after being released.@

Miss Corridor Neighborhood Coalition

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is offering a new brochure to help landowners manage forest wetlands for wildlife. "Managing Your Woodland Wetland" identifies eight wetland types, benefits of each and practices to maximize these benefits. For a copy of the brochure call the DNR Information Center at (612) 296-6517 or 1-800-766-6000. @

There are more than 600 pollution sites along and near the riverfront from East Hennepin A venue to the north city limits of Minneapolis, according to a new coalition of neighborhood groups. The Mississippi Corridor Neighborhood Coalition, form.:d by 11 neighborhood associations in northeast and north Minneapolis, has mapped out an ambitious agenda of environmental, public policy and land use issues. Its first action endorsed a land-use study for the corridor and a moratorium on new development until the study is complete. "These are exciting times for river neighborhoods. A reclaimed river is no longer in the 'if' category; it's in the 'when' category. The faster we can move on it, the faster we will see revitalized neighborhoods along the corridor. Our frustration level at the inaction by government officials is offset by the energy and enthusiasm of our residents along the banks of the Mighty Mississippi. We may even see the city change its identification to a River City along with City of Lakes." For more information contact the Mississippi Corridor Neighborhood Coalition, 2427 Second St. NE, Minneapolis, MN 55418, (612) 788-5098. @

Grants for Environmental Projects Wisconsin nonprofit organizations, individuals and local government agencies are eligible for matching grants of up to $1,000 for environmental projects from the Small Matching Grants Program, sponsored by the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin. The grants are for environmental education, management, restoration or research projects that provide a public benefit. Private property improvements are not eligible. The application deadline is March 1. For application materials, contact Barb Barzen, Natural Resources Foundation, P.O. Box 129, Madison, WI 53701, or call (608) 266-1430. @

"Swedish" Hooks Deadly to Northerns Anglers who enjoy ice fishing for northern pike may want to reconsider the type of fishing tackle they use in order to help protect populations of this popular game fish, according to a

Managing Your Woodland Wetland

Refuge Operations Merged The administration of the Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge and the new Crane Meadows National Wildlife Refuge have been combined at an office in Zimmerman, Minn. The Crane Meadows Refuge is near Little Falls, Minn. The Sherburne Refuge is northwest of Zimmerman. @

Nuclear Waste Battle Heating Up The Minnesotans for Nuclear Responsibility announced a grass-roots campaign to counter Northern States Power's (NSP) ad campaign pushing for legislative approval for nuclear waste storage on Prairie Island, upriver from Red Wing (see Big River, March 93, July 93 and August 93). NSP' s ads feature people who work at its nuclear plants on Prairie Island endorsing the plan to store spent nuclear waste near the plant. The Minnesotans for Nuclear Responsibility includes several environmental groups and the Prairie Island Sioux tribe, which Jives near the plant and proposed waste storage site. The Minnesota Legislature is scheduled to consider the plan this winter.@

Marina Expansion The city of St. Paul has asked the Army Corps of Engineers for a permit to expand the Watergate Marina from 139 boat slips to 297 slips. The permit asks permission to excavate and dredge 80,000 cubic yards of material, creating an additional two acres of surface water. The marina is on the north shore of the Mississippi River, across the channel from Pike Island . The comment period for the application expires February 9. @

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February 1994

RIVER CALENDAR FEBRUARY 1 Sustaining the Ecological Integrity of Large Floodplain Rivers, deadline for abstracts, conference July 12-15 in La Crosse. For abstract information call Jody Millar, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, (309) 793-5800.

10 Lower Wisconsin State Riverway Board meeting, 5 p.m., Kratochwill Building/Village Hall, Muscoda, Wis. Call 1-800-221-3792 or (608) 739-3188.

4 Candlelight Ski, Willow River State Park, Hudson, Wis., 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Call (715) 386-5931.

15 Fish houses in Minnesota must be off ice at night north of highways 2 and 200.

6 Mississippi River Revival, annual board meeting, 1 p.m . to 3:30 p.m ., Winona Arts Center, Fifth and Franklin. Call Sol, (507) 454-7943, or Mary, (407) 452-9323.

15-17 Upper Mississippi River Conservation Committee, annual meeting, "50 Years with Old Man River: Challenges, Decisions and Actions for the Future," Radisson Hotel, La Crosse. Call Charles Theiling, Ill. Natural History Survey, (618) 259-9027.

9-ll World Coal Conference, Mississippi Valley Coal Exporters Council, Westin Canal Place Hotel, New Orleans. Call MVCEC, (504) 566-1001. 9-13 Greater Northwest Vacation Show, Minneapolis Convention Center. 10 Lower Wisconsin State Riverway Board meeting, 5 p.m.,

Kratochwill Building/Village Hall, Muscoda, Wis. Call 800-221-3792 or (608) 739-3188. 11-15 Mardi Gras North, Bemidji, Minn. Festivities include fish fry, fiddle jam session and pow wow. 14 Sierra Club, St. Croix Valley Interstate Group, meeting will focus on regional environmental legislation, 7 p.m., Stillwater (Minn.) Public Library. 15 Legislative Initiatives, Izaak Walton League program, 8 p.m. to 9 p .m ., White Bear Lake (Minn.) Library. 17 La Crosse Area River Biologists and Managers, 7 p.m., Heileman Hall, La Crosse. Forestry on the Upper Mississippi River. 24-25 Congress on Sustainable Development, Minnesota Environmental Quality Board, Minneapolis. Call (612) 2972377. 26-March 1 First Annual Meeting of the Lower Mississippi River Conservation Committee, Camelot Hotel, Little Rock, Ark. Contact Mike Armstrong, Ark. Game & Fish Commission, 2 Natural Resources Dr., Little Rock, AR 72205. 28 Fish houses in Minnesota must be off the ice at night south of highways 2 and 200.

MARCH 1 Minn. DNR hunting and fishing license year begins. 5 Eagle Watch, Winona. Call (503) 452-2272 or 800-657-4972. 7-10 International Zebra Mussel Conference, Holiday Inn, Madison, Wis. Registration fee $250 before Dec. 17. Call Clifford Kraft, (414) 465-2795.

12-13 Maple Syruping, Fort Snelling State Park, St. Paul.

17-20 St. Cloud Sportshow, Civic Center. 19-20 Maple Syruping, Fort Snelling State Park, St. Paul. 25-April 3 Northwest Sportshow, Minneapolis Convention Center. 26-27 Maple Syruping, Fort Snelling State Park, St. Paul. February 26 - May 15 Wildlife Art in America, Bell Museum of Natural History, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. An exhibit of more than 100 works by great historical artists, modern masters and the finest of the present generation of wildlife artists . Roger Tory Peterson and Robert Bateman will be guests at the opening. For information call Byron Webster, (612) 624-0225.@