Issuu

June 1994

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

By John Sagan

In 1545, in the Bolivian An dies, conquering Spaniards discovered what was to become the richest mountain ever mined. By the 1950s, the silver, copper, lead, tin, tungsten and bismuth mined from it had surpassed any other mountain. One of the world's highest cities, Potosi. can be found there among the peaks. The name "Potosi" soon became synonymous with great and unlimited wealth, after Miguel Cervantes wrote the phrase "worth a Potosi" in Don Quixote de la Mancha. Towns around the world named themselves after Potosi, including a small town in Wisconsin near the Mississippi River, and Potosi Station, a little down the valley from it, right on the river. Here the Potosi Canal carried huge amounts of lead mined from the nearby hills to the river. In the middle of the 18th century the French learned of the lead mines when they obtained some fine lead for ammunition from the indigenous people, who were later called the Winnebagoes. These mines were jealously guarded by the Winnebagoes, who worked them for barter

By Roger Lacher

Wading barefoot in muddy backwaters, or knee deep in a trout stream you stub your toe on something that moves! Your reaction is as predictable and primitive as the creature you picture- Jurassic jaws clenched on your calf, its small eyes intent in a huge head, neck stretched and wrenching the bone out of your leg, shell like a filthy fossil, cold-blooded claws imbedding the bottom to drag you down. Our image of the snapping turtle is right down there with snakes. Indeed, "chelydra serpentina" translates to "turtle snake," no doubt based on the long flexible neck capable of lightning strikes at food or fools. A more typical encounter occurs from the comfort of a car on highways along the Mississippi. The critter's crossing the road, of course, to get to the other side. Egg-laying sites are select habitats that often parallel our rail and auto

Snappers are more mellow in the water, but watch out for muskrats! "They slash, bite, and chew. You'll surely need stitches."

corridors. Some turtles get flattened, and some get picked up for supper or sale as fish-market delicacies - $3.99 a pound at a popular rivertown outlet. This summer mortality of mature females is a factor in Minnesota designating snappers a species of "special concern." John Moriarty of the Minnesota Herpetological Society, suggests that concerned motorists assist road-shoulder

(Snapper continued on page 2)

Worth a Potosi

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Vol. 2, No. 6

(Potosi continued on page 3)

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BIG R.lvER

June 1994

(Snapper continued from page 1)

snappers by carefully carrying them across, toward their destination, corning or going - careful not to get bit and gentle not to scare the pee out of them. Lugging a turtle by the tail often causes voiding of the bladder. Since liquid is needed to lay eggs, a shocked snapper may need to go back to the river for a refill in order to complete the annual process, more stress. Moriarty, co-author of a forthcoming book on native amphibians and reptiles (University of Minnesota Press), also cites climatological effects on reproduction. The high water and cool temperatures of 1993 resulted in a hatch "close to total failure on the upper Mississippi." This year, this month, let's hope the monster-moms have better luck. The female can be identified by a plastron (belly shell) bulging out instead of indented like a male. At about seven years of age, with a ten-inch shell, she excavates a hole in the appropriate habitat and lays a dozen or more eggs. About two months of sun heats the invisible underground nest to incubate silver-dollar-size progeny who use their unique "egg tooth" to open rubbery ping-pong shells. Recent research suggests that temperature levels during the middle of this period affects the sex of the hatchlings: hotter for females and vice versa. Perhaps it relates to future food supplies. Regardless, the tiny girls and boys dig their way out then run for the water, to disappear. Predators keep a keen eye for a turtle treat. Overhead, herons and crows scan the shoreline. On land, raccoons, skunks, foxes and coyotes will gobble up a whole batch, if they didn't dig up the nest earlier. Underwater, big fish or a bigger turtle may gulp a neophyte. The few that survive the early years get pretty hard to kill by anything but people and their technology. Snapping turtles have evolved to take full advantage of most aquatic environments. They can stay out of water for days, under water long enough to test the temper of the best waiter or way up in spring creeks where other turtles fear to tread. Their diet is catholic: a third vegetation, some fish, a fifth carrion, a few insects and other invertebrates, and occasional vertebrates, such as ducklings. In a restricted habitat, like a pond or narrow trout stream, a big snapper can pull down a brood of mallards or wood ducks, one at a time over a week. In Edmund Wilson's classic 1942 story "The Man Who Shot Snapping Turtles," duck-lover Asa Stryker spends hours on his porch over the pond, obsessively aiming his rifle an inch below the telltale triangle of nostril wake to kill the surfacing enemies. Asa didn't eat them, wished them to simply sink lifeless to the bottom . "Lifeless" is a questionable term to anyone who's ever butchered a snapper for its delectable flesh, seven sorts of meat in one carcass: chicken, beef, shrimp, etc. With the momentum of millennia, they don't know they're dead. Beheaded bodies crawl fish-market concrete to hit the wall like bumper cars, turn to continue for hours on pure

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reflex. Across the river, a shore-lunch of fresh stew is served. The fisherman notices the heart beating in the gut pile, slows to once a minute, then, to pumping only when prodded with twig at sundown. Yum! The latest of the Minnesota Department of Health's Fish Consumption Advisory recommends eating snapper caught in the Mississippi from.the Cities to the Iowa border no more than once a week, due to PCB levels in the critters. At fall's first freeze-up, when bubbles in clear ice over certain backwaters are a sign of hibernating turtles, a homemade hook on a probing pole pulls whole congregations, sometimes a boatload, of sluggish snappers up out of the mud. Stories of 20,000 pounds taken by a single riverman Illustrations by Vera Ming Wong, from the book Minnesota's Endangered Flora and Fauna.

June 1994

BIG RlvER

in the early 1960s are possibly true. Unfortunately, these special environments tend to be traditional, so over the years a hibernaculum can be "fished out." Others may "noodle" for snappers. This has nothing to do with pasta, you wade waist deep and reach under the river bank to grab the turtle and haul it out at arm's length. Old-timers claim it's fun, effective and safer than you think. One says he caught over lSO with only three bites. Snappers are more mellow in the water, but watch out for muskrats! "They slash, bite, and chew. You'll surely need stitches." Bobby Drazkowski of East Burns Valley, Minnesota, is a third-generation outdoorsman with a wealth of "hands on" experience along the Mississippi - like hands on the tail of a turtle too big for the hole in the ice, so a buddy chops gingerly around the freezing wrist to allow exit and harvest. Or, more recently, hand-building nest guards to protect eggs from digging predators. He may personify a generation of river folk adopting a new attitude and ethic regarding natural resources. The Gopher State is ahead of Wisconsin and Iowa in protecting snappers. A minimum size limit of 10 inches across the shell is intended to control harvest to "adults only," but Minnesota's Endangered Flora and Fauna recommends increasing this dimension by two inches and restricting the season to July 1 to October lS, in order to help protect this vulnerable species. Many commercial fishers agree that the population is down in certain spots. Some view snappers like ginseng or rattlesnakes, as part of an ecosystem overharvested in the recent past and maybe more valuable live than dead. Scary, gross, repulsive, hard to get much uglier, reflects our reactions to a creature so bumpy and beak-faced, especially a big one with moss and snails on its back and bloodsuckers in its armpits. A big one is 30 pounds but much larger versions are reported, especially if the scales are weighted in favor of a good story. "Minn," in Hollings C. Holling's famous Minn of the Mississippi (Houghton Mifflin), finished the book at 46. Wisconsin Department of Natural Resource's Scott Craven reports a SS-pound specimen found dead in a Madison lake. Jim Drazkowski got one weighing 68 near Winona. Outdoor writer Byron Dalrymple cites an 86 pounder. And "Minnesota Fats" awed State Fair viewers at a hulking 6S pounds, four feet from nose tip to tail tip. Longevity doesn't hurt - 40 years, 60, rumors of 100! The behemoth you spot crossing the road or sunning on a riverside log is apt to weigh about 10 pounds. It's not going to snap you without provocation or try to crawl up your pant leg. This turtle is here to teach patience and adaptability, to once again inspire a contemporary equivalent to totem mounds that took a lot longer to build than, say, the lock-and-dam system or Great River Road. With a little help, its got time on its side. ;;;;;;

Roger Lacher encounters snappers in the tributary headwaters of Money Creek-Root River. 24 miles upstream from the Mississippi.

(Potosi continued from page 1) with the French and later the British. In 1810, they traded over 400,000 pounds of lead with Nicholas Boilvin, the United States Indian agent, upriver at Prairie du Chien. In 1822, the newspapers in St. Louis featured the mines in several stories. These articles helped attract a surge of prospectors, mostly from the South. When word traveled back to the South about the abundance of ore, the surge grew into a rush. When the miners first came to Potosi buildings weren't much use, because the Indians burned them down. So the miners dug holes in the hillsides, in which they made small sleeping quarters. From a distance these holes, which looked like badger holes, came to be called "badger huts." Since the miners were among the first settlers to Wisconsin, the state soon came to be called the "Badger State." Before long, troops from Prairie du Chien and Rock Island arrived to discourage the Indians from taking action against these intruders. In 182S, the estimated population of the Potosi area was 200, and 489,000 pounds of lead was

Since the miners were among the first settlers to Wisconsin, the state soon came to be called the "Badger State." mined. By 1828, only three years later, the population had increased to 10,000, including SOO women and about 100 freed slaves, while the production of lead had climbed to 12,9S7,100 pounds.

(Potosi continued on page 4)

BIG RlvER

BIRDS Engineering Nests By Pamela Eyden

Birds accomplish amazing nest-building feats using just their beaks and feet. The variety of nest form and construction has fascinated birders for centuries. The naturalist Arthur C. Bent spent years traveling all over the country, compiling his and his colleagues' observations of birds, their mating displays, diets, eggs and nests. These were published in a series of Smithsonian National Museum Bulletins and make good reading, in part because his descriptions are so full of minute detail that they read like poems. The following nest descriptions were condensed from or inpsired by Bent's Life Histories: Yellow warblers build compact, finely felted nests. I have one in my collection made of sheep's wool with five soft, white chicken feathers woven into the lining. I have another made of white cotton and pale plant fibers, with a few green poplar leaves fastened to the outside. The whole nest was spun round with spider silk and bound to the upright crotch of a small poplar. It was the same color as the tree bark. I almost overlooked it. The ideal place to search for a golden-winged warbler's nest is in a meadow with a creek flowing through it, with briers, grass and a fresh growth of goldenrod scattered in profusion, with birches and wild grape vines growing near the edges and all this bordered by tall oak and maple trees. [This, of course, is an ideal place to search for anything.] Horace 0. Green found one hidden in a clump of grass near St. Croix Falls (1929). Its cup was made of dry grass and light reddish-brown fibers, which he at first mistook for pine needles, although careful examination proved them to be the inner layers of grape vine bark. This fine, flexible material had been pressed down on the inside by the weight of young birds. It was smooth and firm like a mat, whereas the grass on the outside wall protruded loosely in all directions, producing a disorderly, unkempt appearance, like a handful of hay. Virginia rails nest in the marsh, in loose sworls of coarse grass blades and bent stems cunningly concealed inside circles of cattails on hummocks of mud, just a few inches from the water. Chimney swifts lay their eggs in little hammocks, which they make out of twigs and glue to the inside walls of hollow trees or chimneys with their own glutinous saliva. The saliva hardens so firmly that it easily withstands the strain of a summer rainstorm .

June 1994

Yellow-billed cuckoos build shallow, slovenly nests in thick bushes overrun with wild grape, on branches so small that the bird's extremities stick out on both sides and there is little to keep the eggs from rolling out, even in moderate windstorms. Great blue herons pick up sticks as thick as a thumb and carry them to the tops of tall trees, where they build ramshackle nests in great colonies, as close together as they can get and still fold their six-foot wings. Each year they return to improve their homes. Each year their nests become more substantial. Accumulated filth helps glue the twigs together. s

Pamela Eyden is assistant editor of Big River.

(Potosi continued from page 3) In 1836, Potosi was flourishing and even aspired to become the capitol of what was soon to become the state of Wisconsin. For awhile, Potosi Station rivaled Galena, Illinois, as a river port. Although Potosi lost out i.n its bid to become the capitol, the mining continued until the discovery of gold

So many left, in fact, that in a mere two years, the population of Potosi dwindled from 10,000 to 3,000. in California drew the miners west. So many left, in fact, that in a mere two years, the population of Potosi dwindled from 10,000 to 3,000. Today, Potosi meanders along the narrow valley floor, a sleepy village with houses nestled in the coulee banks. Many a cool root cellar with its arched ceiling sets deep in the hillsides behind the houses. The Potosi Brewery still stands on some of its original stone foundation, although it closed 22 years ago. Peg Walsh, of Walsh's Hardware, is a descendant of the Schumacher family who started the brewery after arriving here from Germany in the 1860s. She and others tried unsuccessfully to restore the old building, which is beginning to come apart. Now, Peg is taking part in an effort to revitalize the area around Potosi Station. "The catfish capitol of the USA" holds a big celebration on the second weekend of August. The St. John Mine, started in the 1820s by Willis St. John, is open for tours from May until October.

John Sagan, is a freelance writer living in Fountain City. He aspires to become the Austrian consul to that river town .

BIG RlvER

June 1994

Population Changes Recent and Predicted Population Growth in River Counties

Stearns 1980-91 11.8% 1991-96 4.5%

Benton 1980-91 23.5% 1991-96 7.7"/o

Wisconsin 1980-91 5.2% 1991-96 3.6% Pepin 1980-91 -5.0% 1991-96 0.0%

Trempealeau 1980-91 - 3.3% 1991-96 1.6%

Minnesota 1980-91 9.4% 1991-96 4.6%

La Crosse 1980-91 8.9% 1991-96 4. 1% Houston 1980-91 1.2% 1991-96 2.2%

Vernon 1980-91 0.2% 1991-96 1.6% . - - - - -

Iowa 1980-91 -4.7% 1991-96 1.1%

Statistics from "Survey of Buying Power, " Market Statistics, S&MM 1992, via 1993 Commercial Atlas & Marketing Guide, Rand McNally

Illinois 1980-91 0.7% 1991-96 2.2%

BIG RlvER

June 1994

CURRENT EVENTS By Reggie McLeod

Cargo Flows Upstream

ypically a lot of empty barges are pushed up the Mississippi and very few are pushed downstream. However, this year, largely because of last year's poor harvest and the current weak demand for grain exports, the river is floating more cargo upriver than down, according to an article in The Waterways Journal (5-9-94). Steel, fertilizer and salt fill many of the northbound barges.

Rec Survey on Pools 7 & 8

n order to collect useful information about how people use the river for recreation, workers from state and federal agencies will survey river users in pools 7 and 8 (from Trempealeau, Wis., to Genoa, Wis.) from Memorial Day weekend to August 15. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Wisconsin DNR, Minnesota-Wisconsin Boundary Area Commission, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service and the Army Corps of Engineers are designing and testing a survey that they hope will reveal a comprehensive view of recreational uses and needs on the Mississippi River. The information will be used to prepare "... a Comprehensive Recreation Management Plan that will seek to balance water and land surface recreational uses with other designated or recognized uses, including commercial navigation and biological resources ... "

Redesigning the American Lawn: A Search for Environmental Hannony, by F. Herbert Bormann, Diana Balmori and Gordon T. Geballe (Yale Press), makes a detailed study of the purpose of lawns, the social pressure to maintain a good lawn, the growth of the lawn-care industry and the environmental impact of lawns. For instance: • Turf grass cover 25 million acres, or 40,000 square miles, an area almost as large as Pennsylvania. • Between 5 and 10 percent of fertilizer sold in the U.S. goes on lawns, however this market provides 25 percent of the industry's profits. • Lawns in this country received more synthetic fertilizer in 1984 than did all the food crops grown in India. • In 1988, about 67 million pounds of pesticides were sold for use on U.S. lawns. • Up to 30 percent of urban water on the East Coast is used to water lawns. In the West, 60 percent of the urban water irrigates lawns, according to estimates by the National Xeriscape Council. • A lawn mower running for one hour emits as much pollution as a car driving 350 miles. Annual pollution from California's lawn utility machines is equivalent to that produced by 3.5 million 1991 model cars driven 16,000 each, according to California's Air Resources Board. • Homeowners use up to ten times more chemical pesticides per acre than do farmers, according to the National Academy of Sciences.

Cut the Grass

ischarge pipes gushing chemicals or sewage present an easy target for efforts to clean up rivers and lakes. Those efforts have been so successful that now nonpoint sources of pollution make up a larger share ofthe problem. Though much of the silt, pesticides, nitrogen and phosphorus that finds its way into the Mississippi has washed from farmland, a new book blames lawn care a lot of pollution.

lkes Blast Corps Fees

he Izaak Walton League of America (IWLA) challenged the fairness of recreational user fees that recently went into effect for swimming beaches and boat launching ramps on the Mississippi River (see Big River, May 1994). "Taxpayers already pay the full $430million cost of operating and maintaining the inland waterway system - $82

million on the Mississippi alone - and all but 13 percent of new construction costs," said Paul Hansen, director of the IWLA Midwest Office, "while the barge companies do not pay a penny for operating or maintaining the system. The IWLA is not opposed to user fees, but we think thatit is grossly unfair to ask recreationists to pay to launch a boat or go for a swim, while continuing to give the barge companies a totally free ride."

Smoother Ride for Rough Fish

isconsin's commercial fishers no longer have to dispose of rough fish on the shore. Anew law, whichtookeffectinMay, allows commercial fishers to return rough fish to the river, with the exception of chub, alewife and smelt. "Commercial fishers have complained for years that mandatory disposal of rough fish is an expensive requirement that has not had much of an effect on the rough fish populations," said Wisconsin Senator Brian D. Rude, RCoon Valley. "Officials in the Department of Natural Resources agreed and as a result asked that I introduce legislation which would eliminate this unneeded requirement."

Eagle Reward Soars to

$10,000

n anonymous benefactor has upped the ante to $10,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons who may have poisoned 17 bald eagles near Fish Lake in Burnett County, Wisconsin. The eagles were killed by Carbofuran,a pesticide used to kill worms in corn, strawberries and potatoes. Officials are suspicious because of the high "levels of pesticide and the fact that few crops are grown in the area. Information can be forwarded to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Poacher Hotline, 1-800-TIPWDNR; Conservation Warden Dave Zeug, Spooner, (715) 635-4151; or Special Agent Richard Dickinson, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, St. Paul, (612) 290-3889.

BIG RlvER

June 1994

Great River Rood Moves West

section of the Great River Road in Grant County, Wisconsin, has been rerouted closer to the Mississippi River. The section from Cassville to the Wisconsin River used to pass through Bloomington, more than six miles from the river. The old route followed main highways, but the new route follows smaller roads while sticking closer to the river, for a more scenic, though slower, drive.

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River and Recreation Area Pion Adopted

fter three and a half years of work, the Mississippi River Coordinating Commission has unanimously adopted a Comprehensive Management Plan for the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area (MNRRA). The MNRRA is a 72-mile corridor on both sides of the Mississippi from Dayton, Minn., through the Twin Cities to Hastings (see Big River, Feb. 1993 and Aug. 1993). It will involve federal, state and local governments, with the National Park Service providing technical help and coordination. The plan took considerable effort to hammer out because of the large array of business and recreational interests in the river and the number of cities and counties along the river. Major points of the plan include: • a long-term goal that the water quality in the river be made as clean when it leaves the metropolitan area as when it enters; • National Park Service acquisition and development grants to local units of governments; • work with local agencies to complete open space and trail connections to provide a continuous open space and trail system along or near the river; •continuing commercial navigation, while protecting natural, cultural and economic resources; • establishing five interpretive centers along the corridor; • improving land use management along the corridor.

State Senator Dale W. Schultz, RRichland Center, authored the legislation, which the governor signed in April. "A route closer to the river will invite those who normally cross into Prairie du Chien to stay here and see what southwest Wisconsin had to offer," Schultz said.

After the governor reviews and comments on the plan, the Secretary of the Interior will be responsible for its final approval, which is expected this year. For more information write to, Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, 175 E. Fifth St., Suite 418, St. Paul, MN 55105-2901; or call (612) 290-4160.

New Fishing Videos from MDNR

nglers may want to catch and re lease two new videos by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. The 30-minute video Fish for Tomor-

row explains catch-and-release techniques, including what sizes to let go, how to ensure released fish will survive and proper handling techniques. Bringing Back the Lunkerexplains why fish are getting smaller, how experimental fishing regulations hope to increase fish sizes and how anglers can help. Both videos are available for loan at local DNR fisheries offices.

Giant Beaver Shrinks

he giant beaver that was wantonly attacking trees on the Moline, Ill., riverfront was captured and moved, according to an article in the Quad City Times (3-30-94). Frightened citizens had reported seeing a five-foot tall beaver that weighed about 50 pounds. After failing to trap the creature with conventional traps, city officials captured it with a new style trap shaped like a giant clam. Perhaps the effort of avoiding the traps and the stress of being spotted by panicked citizens took its toll on the beaver, because by the time it was captured it weighed only 35 pounds and was about three feet long.

Wearable Life Jackets for Wisconsin

t least one wearable life jacket must be on board for each person on board any kind of watercraft in Wisconsin waters, beginning May 1, 1995 The requirement already applies to boats longer than 16 feet. A similar law took effect in Iowa this year. Although the new law only requires that the life jacket be readily accessible, fatality investigations show that about 70 percent of people who died in boating accidents might have survived if they had on life jackets. "People tend to say 'It will never happen to me' but hundreds of people here in Wisconsin go overboard accidently each year. When they're knocked unconscious or fall into frigid w~ters, that life jacket often makes the difference between drowning and surviving," warned Bill Engfer, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources boating safety administrator. =

BIG RlvER

June 1994

RIVER CALENDAR JUNE American Rivers Month 3-4 Midwest Riverboat Buffs, spring meeting, Best Western Riverview, Davenport, Iowa.

National Biological Survey, (608) 783-7550. 18-19 Applying Ecological Integrity Principles to the Management of the Upper Mississippi River System, Radisson Hotel, La Crosse. Call Ken Lubinski, National Biological Survey, (608) 783-7550.

4 Muskie Opener, Minnesota. 4-5 Free Fishing Weekend, Wisconsin. 5 Minnesota State Parks Open House. 5-11 National Fishing Week. 5-11 National Safe Boating Week. 10-12 Free Fishing Days, Iowa, state residents. 11 Take A Kid Fishing Day, Minnesota. Adults with children under 16 do not need a license.

Floodplain Assessment Open Houses hosted by the Army Corps of Engineers to introduce the public and public officials to its floodplain policies and to solicit feedback. Each open house will have two identical sessions, 1 p.m.-4 p.m. and 6 p.m.-8 p.m. June 13 St. Paul, Radisson Hotel, Kellogg Blvd. June 14 La Crosse, Radisson Hotel.

11-19 State Park Week, Iowa.

June 15 Moline, Ill., Holiday Inn.

12-14 Multidimensional Approaches to Reservoir Fisheries Management, Chattanooga (Tenn.) Marriott and Convention Center. Fax (601) 325-8726.

June 21 Alton, Ill., location to be determined.

14-15 Mississippi River Corridor Study Commission, meeting, Convention Center, Davenport, Iowa. 17 Midwest Area Rivers Coalition 2000, Economic and Environmental Assets of the Inland Waterways, Adam's Mark Hotel, St. Louis. Call MARC 2000, (314) 436-4224. 17-19 Creating a Circle of Understanding, reaffirm land/ faith connections, learn about Native American spiritual and environmental perspective, Camp Ripely, Minn. 18 Management of Bluff Prairies Along the Mississippi River, Rush Creek State Natural Area, Ferryville, Wis., 9 a.m.-noon, limited to first 40 registered. Call Natural Resources Foundation, (608) 266-1430. 18 Dedication of Melvin Price Locks and Dam, Alton, Ill. Call MARC 2000, (314) 436-4224. 20-23 Restoration of Aquatic Ecosystems: Developing a National Agenda, Radisson Hotel St. Paul. Call Association of State Wetland Managers, (518) 872-1804. 25 River Cleanup, Mississippi River Revival, Latsch Island, Winona. 25 Adopt-a-River Mississippi River Clean Up, from downtown Minneapolis north. Meet at Camden Boat Launch or Edgewater site at Marshall-Lowry, 8:30 a.m.-11 a.m. Call (612) 781-3952, (612) 782-0780 or (612) 522-6992. 25 Tour of the St. Croix Falls Fish Hatchery, St. Croix Falls, Wis., 10:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m., limited to first 30 registered. Call Natural Resources Foundation, (608) 266-1430.

JULY 12-15 Sustaining the Ecological Integrity of Large Floodplain Rivers, international conference, La Crosse Center and Radisson Hotel, La Crosse. Call Ken Lubinski,

June 22 Burlington, Iowa, Ramada Inn. Minn.-Wis. Boundary Area Commission meetings. For information call (612) 436-7131 or (715) 386-9444. June 9 Full commission. July 5 St. Croix River Regional Committee. July 14 Miss. River Regional Committee, La Crosse. Sierra Club, Coulee Region, monthly meetings, 7 p.m., Trane Employees Credit Union, La Crosse. June 28 Pam Thiel, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the impact of commercial navigation on the Mississippi. Sierra Club's St. Croix Valley Interstate Group, monthly meetings, 6:30 p.m., Stillwater (Minn.) Public Library. June 13 monthly meeting. July 11 monthly meeting. Metropolitan Waste Control Commission, breakfast meetings to discuss the proposed 1995 budget, 7:30 a.m.9 a.m. For reservations call Sarah Kline, (612) 229-2129. June 1 Maplewood, Maplewood Inn. June 2 St. Paul, Metro Wastewater Treatment Plant, tour 9 a.m.-11 a.m. June 3 Ridgedale, Ramada Inn. June 9 St. Paul Civic Center. Lower Wisconsin State Riverway Board meetings, 5 p.m. Call 1-800-221-3792 or (608) 739-3188. June 9 Lone Rock, Wis. July 14 Wauzeka, Wis.