December 1998
The monthly newsletter for people who live, work or play on the Upper Mississippi River
Floating Trains Across the River
Vol. 6, No. 12
$2.75
A Hard Act to Follow- Citizens Force Polluters to Clean Up
By John Sagan
By Bill Jacobs
. The pontoon bridge stretched from the Chippewa River Bottoms, on the left, to Reads Landing, Minn., on the right. (Photo courtesy of the Wabasha County Historical Soci~ty's River Museum in Reads Landing)
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On March 14, 1882, the 47th n old railroad embankment Congress was in its first session. follows the south bank of the Chippewa River from Among the many bills up for consideration was House Bill H.R. 4440, Durand, Wis., through the Tiffany Wildlife Area to the Mississippi granting permission to the ChippeRiver, where it ends. More than 100 wa Valley and Superior Railway Company to construct a railway years ago trains started crossing a bridge " ... across the Mississippi Rivlong, low bridge that stretched from er extending from a point between here to Reads Landing, Minn. When Wabasha and Reads Landing in a paddlewheeler approached, a Minnesota to a point below the floating section in the middle of the mouth of the Chippewa River in bridge swung open to let it pass. ' Wisconsin." Though the bridge is gone, its The bridge was built with a ponstory still lives in the Wabasha toon section in the middle of the County Museum in Reads Landing. channel that could be floated out of The museum has a pontoon bridge the way to allow the many steamdisplay donated by "Sternwheel Don" Fluetsch, a riverlore collector boa~rkboats and log rafts to from Cassville, Wisconsin, and sev- '- plss¡ t'llffough, then floated back so that trains could cross. The poneral other photographs of the toons were built in 1882 at Peters' bridge. (Bridge continues on page 2)
T
he environmental organization Mississippi River Revival might soon be in the odd position of going to court to challenge a state's order to a polluter to quit polluting. Because of the way the federal Clean Water Act (CWA) works, that may be the best way to clean up the river. The non-profit organization wants the river cleaned up and has begun using the CWA to get the attention of polluters and state agencies alike. The CWA has been the main force for cleaner water in the U.S. (Cleanup continues on page 4)
What's Inside ... The Lower Chippewa River A Natural Treasure ........ . . 3
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(Bridge continued from page 1)
Boatyard in Wabasha and then floated up to Reads Landing by steamboat. On November 9, 1882, the railroad line and bridge were deeded to the Chicago Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway Company. The trains traveled from Wabasha to Downsville, Wis., where they switched to another line connecting to Eau Claire, Wis.
Costly Maintenance Frequent floods and ice jams damaged the bridge, even though it was protected by "ice breakers" huge pointed timbers that jutted out from the sides to deflect ice and river debris. The original 400-foot-long pontoon section was replaced in 1891 with a new pontoon the same length. In 1907 it was again rebuilt 396 feet long and 40 feet wide. In 1931 the pontoon was rebuilt with creosoted timbers the same length and 50 feet wide. The 1939 edition of the Bridge Book Record says "The East approach consisted of 64 timber pile trestle spans 16' long for a total of 1,011' built in 1926, one span girder type 'B' 40' long built in 1907, one span pontoon 396' long built 1931, 17 spans timber pile trestle 16' long for a total length of 258' built in 1926, one span pony truss 105' long built 1914. The West approach consisted of 75 spans timber pile trestle each 14' long for a total length of 1050' redriven in 1939." The pontoon section was floated out of the way with chains drawn by a steam engine that kept steam up 24 hours a day. Three shifts of bridge tenders kept the bridge working to accommodate all the traffic. The pontoon was pivoted on a 10-inch, concrete-filled steel pipe. As the trains crossed over the pontoon, it sank 14 inches. To prevent derailing, the tracks between the pontoon and the bridge ends were hinged. According to one observer, "It is a queer sight to one standing on the barge to see the train sliding down the hill on one side and climbing up a hill on the other." In 1946 there were only a few
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"barge-bridges" in the world, with the Reads Landing pontoon the largest of all. Another pontoon bridge crossed the Mississippi from Marquette, Iowa, to Prairie du Chien, Wis., (see "Mike Spettel's Better Bridge - Part Bridge, Part Pontoon" Big River, December 1993). Sometimes the pontoon section was unhinged before the onset of winter and towed down to Wabasha to protect it from ice damage. On January 2, 1932, after a long thaw, the steamer Aquila was taken
"The pontoon section was floated out of the way with chains drawn by a steam engine that kept steam up 24 hours a day." from her winter quarters in Fountain City Bay, in Wisconsin, and went to Wabasha to tow the pontoon bridge back to Reads Landing. Another time, just before the river was closed, the Harry R. Harris towed the Reads Landing Railroad Bridge from its place to a point a short distance up the Black River at La Crosse, Wis. In the spring of 1936 an ice jam broke the pontoon loose, and caused considerable damage to her ice breakers. The pontoon was repaired. An ice jam broke the timber pile trestle on the East approach on April 13, 1951. Two day~ later the chain on the pontoon was broken and the pontoon could not be closed. Repairs on the chain were in progress when on April 16, at about 10 a.m., the west 32 spans of the east approach were completely washed out by high water and ice. At 4:45 that afternoon, the pontoon was unhinged for the last time and floated down to the harbor in Wabasha. Later in the year the railroad asked permission to abandon the structure. It was removed sometime after 1952 by the Brennan Bros.
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Contractors, then of Lansing, Iowa. A Wabasha salvage company bought the pontoon and removed the iron girders and many other parts, then sold it to Lake City, Minn., where it became a fishing float and pier. Some years later a man named Clem Hines bought the pontoon and brought it out to Cook's Valley Road, where he salvaged as much as he could, according to Ted Markey of Wabasha, who says that the bridge parts can still be seen along Cook's Valley Road.
A Rail Reborn A hobby group called the Chippewa Valley Motorcar Railway Association is restoring the old track that runs south out of Durand, Wis. In the three summers since leasing the right of way from Northern States Power Company, they've restored 10 miles of track by hand. Half of the 35 members own their own motorcars, small helper vehicles with 20-horsepower engines that are descendants of the old hand-pumped cars of the 1800s. "The other half of our members just like to work and ride. We call them 'gandydancers.' That's an old railroad name for laborers," said Dr. Na than Molldrem of Eau Claire, who co-founded the organization. The group offers rides to the public during Durand's Fun Fest in June. This summer they'll finish laying track through the streets of Durand to the old railroad depot. Eventually, they'd like to restore the depot and turn it into a railroad museum.
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John Sagan is a freelance writer living in Fountain City, Wis. He aspires to become the Austrian consul of that river town. His last article for Big River was "Holmes Landing Cafe" (June 1998).
December 1998
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The Lower Chippewa River · a Natural Treasure
• Menomonie
Natural areas along the Chippewa River Bottoms
Nine Mile Island Natural Area
By Pamela Eyden
P
eople who drive between Alma and Pepin on Wisconsin State Highway 35 may not know that are traversing one of the largest remaining wilderness areas in the state. The Chippewa River Bottoms, where the Chippewa fans out to enter the Mississippi, is indeed a wilderness of meandering sloughs and floodplain islands that change shape with the rise and fall of water levels. This forest extends up the Chippewa all the way to Durand, making it the largest contiguous floodplain forest in the Midwest. "You'd have to go south as far as Cairo, Illinois, to find another this large," said Randy Hoffman, management specialist with Wisconsin's Bureau of Endangered Resources. Hoffman is also the coordinator for the Lower Chippewa River State Natural Area Feasibility Study. The study team is investigating the feasibility of protecting the Chippewa River corridor from Eau Claire to the Mississippi River, the Red Cedar River corridor from Menomonie to the Chippewa River, and a large hilly area southeast of the Chippewa. Much of the corridor is already part of more than a half dozen county, state and federal wildlife and natural areas, the largest of which is the Tiffany Wildlife Area. What makes this area so special? • It includes not one or two, but many ecosystems that are rich in wildlife and plant diversity, including more rare species than in any December 1998
NOT TO SCALE
Tiffany
Wildlife Area
Wabasha• similar-sized area in the state: massasauga rattlesnakes, red-shouldered hawks, Kentucky and hooded warblers, cerulean warblers, and Acadian flycatchers, besides the brittle prickly pear cactus and a -spesial kind of mayfly previously thought to be extinct. -• The rivers are clean and healthy enough to harbor an enormous variety of fish, including paddlefish and blue suckers, both endangered species. • Boaters who picnic on the sandy beaches may be too busy to notice, but several distinct types of natural grassland prairies carpet the Big River
low, sandy islands and escarpment terraces above the Chippewa River. • It includes about 2,000 of the 8,000 acres of prairie remaining in Wisconsin (of the 2.2 million acres that were here before European settlers arrived). "If you drive north on Highway 25 toward Durand, you can see that virtually every south-facing slope has a prairie on it," said Hoffman. Some of the oak savanna prairies ' have been and still are being grazed by livestock; others are ungrazed woodlands; and some are on river islands. Dunn County has been try(Chippewa continues on page 5) 3
(Cleanup continued from page 1)
since it was passed 26 years ago. It required states to adopt water quality standards and enforce them by requiring anyone who discharges pollutants into a waterway to get a permit. The idea was to use the permit system to limit discharges, forcing polluters to pay attention to what they were dumping, build better wastewater treatment facilities and eventually quit discharging pollutants altogether. To keep states from using lax enforcement of the law as a bargaining chip in their competition for new industry, the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has the final say on whether states are doing what the act requires. Although the nation's waterways did get considerably cleaner, over time, the CWA got weaker. As the EPA's enforcement budget shrank, companies and state agencies began ignoring violations. Although, in theory, the EPA can rescind a state's permit authority if the state doesn't cut pollution, the legal machinery for that is so complicated and the political fallout so heavy, that it simply isn't done.
Power to the Person One provision of the act, however, is designed to get citizens and environmental groups involved. Called the "Citizen Suits" provision, it allows individuals or groups to sue polluters who violate their permits. "It allows us to be sort of private attorneys general," explained Sol Simon, director of the Mississippi River Revival. Groups have used that provision to force p9lluters to clean up. Some environmental groups are still doing that, but not many, and not on the Upper Mississippi River. Simon attributes the drop-off in citizen enforcement to the change in how public interest organizations are funded these days. Many now rely on grants rather than membership dues, and the foundations that hand out grants are notoriously sensitive to controversy. So River Revival, which is still
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funded by its members, has begun checking state permits and the monitoring reports polluters file to maintain those permits. The group didn't need to look far. In Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa it found hundreds of companies and cities that routinely sent to the river more chemicals than their permits allowed. "In Iowa, of 2,700 permits, we found 878 violators in one year," Simon said. Minnesota did a little better, and Wisconsin did better still, but it was clear that permit enforcement wasn't going to eliminate pollution anytime soon. So the group began sending out warnings, required by the Clean Water Act, to let polluters know that the group might sue them for noncompliance with their permits. Simon said the letters - generally called "60-day letters" because the group must wait that long after sending it to begin legal action are often enough to get polluters to mend their ways, at least as far as their permits require them to. "Probably two-thirds fix it" after getting a 60-day notice from the group, he said. "Then we've accomplished our goal. Of course, we'll continue to :inonitor their reports." Last spring Bellevue, Iowa, applied for a permit to build a new wastewater treatment plant just three weeks after getting a 60-day letter from River Revival. The Iowa
"It allows us to be sort of private attorneys general, " explained Sol Simon, director of the Mississippi River Revival. Department of Natural Resources (DNR) had told the city in 1987 that it needed to replace its plant. In a few cases large companies were let off the hook when state
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Sol Simon
agencies intervened and changed testing procedures or standards to bring an operation into compliance without cleaning anything up. This isn't fair to all the businesses that do a good job complying with clean water requirements, Simon claims. "If I were a small company I'd be mad." So far, the group hasn't gone to court to try to force compliance with a permit, but it was close to court action last year when a company backed off and agreed to cut its discharges. Simon believes it's only a matter of time before River Revival gets into a full-blown lawsuit. In preparation, the group has enlisted the aid of four law firms who have agreed to help either without pay or for a share of any damages a polluter might end up having to pay the group. Going to court is a last resort, though, because it's expensive, time consuming and risky. The law allowing citizen suits is as murky as the water they're fought over. An environmental group in New Jersey lost its case last year when an appeals court ruled that the group couldn't prove it was harmed directly by the pollution. Although other courts aren't required to follow that decision, it illustrates the risky nature of such suits. A San Francisco group, Communities for a Better Environment, recently ran up legal bills estimated at $2.87 million. Part of the out-of-court
December 1998
(Chippewa continued from page 3)
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settlement requires the defendants, Tosco and Exxon, to pay those bills. Sometimes, state agencies come to the aid of polluters threatened by such suits. Under the Clean Water Act, citizens can sue only when polluters continually violate their permit limits and the state agency that issued the permit does nothing to rectify the situation. That means a state could head off a citizens suit by issuing its own warning to the polluter. That's what might put River Revival into court, seeming to argue on the wrong side of the issue. "Sometimes states will jump in and issue a warning or something," Simon said, "then it's up to us and our lawyers to decide whether to challenge that." Still, Simon doesn't blame the agencies for lax enforcement and attempts to protect polluters. Most people in the agencies want to enforce the law, he points out, " but often the politicians that control the agencies are making political decisions."
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Bill Jacobs, a former assistant editor of Big River, lives in Davenport, Iowa. His last story for Big River was "River Aquari-
urns" (July 1998).
Big River™ Big River (ISSN 1070-8340) is published
monthly by Riverwise, Inc., 111 Riverfront, Suite 204, Winona, MN 55987; (507) 454-5949; fax:
(507) 454-2133; email: editors@big-river.com; web site: http://un.uw.big-river.com
I December 1998
ing to restore the prairie on some of its islands by burning them to clear away the woody vegetation. • It also includes historical and archeological sites - centuries-old Indian mounds, railway depots, and the remains of steamboat docking sites and old logging camps from the late 1800s. One old logging camp site occupies Round Hill just below Durand, Wisconsin. While some of the land in the study area is already public, most of it is privately owned. Since early summer, 1998, the feasibility study team
"It includes not one or two, but many ecosystems that are rich in wildlife and plant diversity, including more rare species than in any similarsized area in the state. " has sent out surveys and held open houses and public meetings, asking landowners and residents what they want to protect, if anything, and how they'd like to protect it. "There's been overwhelming general support for some kind of protection," said Dave Linderud, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) wildlife biologist, "but it's general, not specific. People say, 'Good, it's about time somebody did this." There's also been some general resistance. The Dunn County Farm Bureau recently passed a resolution to end all DNR land purchases in the state, he said. People have also voiced concerns about how the program would affect property taxes, hunting and landowners' rights. Some fear it would attract too many newcomers and tourists, boaters, jetskiers and airboaters. The feasibility study is currently proposing and getting feedback about five alternative protection strategies: 1. No new protective action. 2. Protect 15,000 acres within the original 250,000-acre study area. Protect the land by acquisition, easement, voluntary management Big River
by individuals or non-profit organizations, or any combination of these. 3. Protect 12,000 acres within a smaller area using the same means. 4. Protect 15,000 acres within a larger boundary that would include eastern Pepin and western Eau Claire County, where few biological surveys have been done. 5. Protect 27,000 acres within a larger boundary. "Land owners in the area today are doing well, but we're looking down the road 100 to 150 years," Linderud said. Some of the biggest future threats are the growth of rural subdivisions in scenic areas, and natural plant succession, as prairies are overwhelmed by woody vegetation. Many people favor the outright purchase of public land along the river corridors, as the DNR has done in the past. Outside that, protection of private land will depend on the attitudes and plans of indi- . vidual landowners. Some have already said they want to sell the land to the DNR. Others might prefer to sell easements, or agree to manage it in ways compatible with an overall plan, or agree to let a non-profit organization do that. One of the disappointments of the project is that, so far, no nonprofit groups have come forward to get involved, except for the Wisconsin Farmland Trust, which is working with a few farmers. "Without some coordinated management, we'll lose a lot here. But the job of protecting this area is really too big for government. It's going to take a lot of people, private groups and landowners," said Hoffman. Residents and landowners will have a chance to weigh in about these strategies at an open house scheduled for December 9 in Durand. For more information, call Dave Linderud at the DNR office in Alma, (608) 685-6222.
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Pamela Eyden is a contributing editor for Big River. Her last story was "Fall Birding
Spots on the Upper Mississippi" (October 1998).
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, By Mi Ae Lipe-Butterbrodt
Swan Shooters Clinton, Iowa - Two Maquoketa teenagers charged with fatally shooting three trumpeter swans in the Goose Lake Wildlife Area have pleaded guilty. Jake L. Arterberry and Nathan S. True pleaded guilty to three counts of taking a game animal during closed season and three counts of abandoning game, according to KZEG-KCLN News (10-28-98). In addition to losing their hunting licenses for 10 years, the teens must pay $675 in fines and $4,500 in restitution costs for the swans. A hearing on the forfeiture of the boys' guns will be held next month. The swans were among six released in April by the Iowa Trumpeter Swan Restoration Program (see Big River, November 1998).
NoEMP Washington, D.C. - The Environmental Management Program (EMP) will not be refunded for 1998 because of differences between the House and Senate over the Auburn Dam and a land transfer in the Missouri River basin. A Water Resources Development Act of 2000 will likely have to be enacted before the EMP is reauthorized, and the focus will probably shift to assuring that the EMP is fully funded for fiscal years 2000 and 2001 (The UMRCC Newsletter, September/ October 1998 ).
Savanna Army Depot Savanna, Ill. - After losing its bid to become a site for a new state prison, the future of the soon-to-bedecommissioned Savanna Army Depot still remains uncertain. In early November, Steve Haring resigned from his position as executive director of the Local Redevelop-
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ment Authority, the agency charged with planning the use of part of the depot. His resignation comes after internal disagreement among the authority's board led to the creation of an entirely new board, according to KZEG-KCLN Ne\Ys (10-30-98). Most of the 13,000-acre depot's valuable natural prairie and backwater habitat will be preserved. A site in the depot was considered last summer for a maximum-security, 1,000-cell prison, but the nearby town of Thomson was chosen instead (see Big River, August 1998 and September 1998).
Road Block La Crosse, Wis. - After years of debate, a proposed north-south road across the La Crosse River Marsh was decisively defeated on the November 3 election. The vote to block the road was 11,951 to 7,076, according to The La Crosse Tribune (11-4-98). By voting against the .Wisconsin Department of Transportation's (DOT) proposed road, called 5B-1, La Crosse city voters told the Common Council not to pay the city's share of the highway construction - about $8 million to $10 million of the total $80 million price tag. Supporters for the road argued that 5B-1 was necessary to keep La Crosse's economy growing. In recent years development north of Interstate 90 increased congestion on the city's three north-south roads. The DOT' s proposed highway through part of the city's marshland would also displace many homes and businesses (see Big River, "La Crosse Marsh, Dividing a City" June 1997). The referendum is effective for only two years. In the meantime, groups on both sides of the issue hope to work together on alternative
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solutions to the city's transportation needs, such as improving existing north-south roads and building awareness of mass transit, car pooling, biking and walking.
Stoddard Islands Stoddard, Wis. - After a twomonth contest attracted over 350 entries, five newly built islands and eight "seed" islands in Stoddard Bay now have names. The five islands are Eagle, Slingshot, Greenwing, Sunfish and Pasque; the eight seed islands are Mussel, Pelican, Sunset, Mudcat, Tadpole, Otter, Redwing and Crane. The Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge held the contest, with judges from the Chaseburg Rod and Gun Club, Stoddard Business Association, Stoddard Chapter of Ducks Unlimited, Friends of the Upper Mississippi Refuges, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Army Corps of Engineers. About 26 acres of islands and six seed islands were built to reduce flows through Stoddard Bay and to restore habitat for fish and aquatic vegetation. The $2.3 million-project was funded by the Environmental Management Program (EMP).
Storm Casualties Wisconsin and Iowa - A brutal storm hit the Upper Midwest on November 10, 1998, a day before the anniversary of the tragic Armistice Day Blizzard of 1940 (see Big River, November 1998). A falling tree killed Theodore Johnson of Belvidere, Ill., in Genoa, Wis. He and a friend were on the Mississippi River when their boat started taking on water. They made it to shore before high winds top-
December 1998
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pled the tree. About 20 miles north of Madison, Wis., a 50-year-old woman trying to help her husband load a pontoon boat on a trailer fell into the wind-whipped Wisconsin River and apparently drowned (Associated Press 11-11-98). The storm downed power lines and trees and tore shingles and roofs off buildings all over the state. It also broke the flagpole at the top of Grandad' s Bluff in La Crosse, Wis., caused a roof of a water tower in Kaukauna, Wis., to collapse and toppled a semi on Interstate 90. A La Crosse weather station recorded a 93-mile-per-hour wind gust at 2:20 p.m. "We took a photograph of it on our instrument," said Randy Breeser of the National Weather Service. "It was just a peak gust that probably lasted less than a second. That was pretty spectacular. Sustained winds of 75 m.p.h. is where a hurricane begins." Further south, in Thomson, Iowa, two duck hunters and their dog were stranded on an island in the Mississippi after high winds blew their boat away from their duck blind. One hunter, not realizing that a search was underway, swam through five-foot waves in 48-degree water to seek help. No one was injured in the incident (KZEG-KCLN News 11-11-98).
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Frog Deformities
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Agricultural chemicals, pesticides and their breakdown by-products may be partly responsible for rising frog and toad deformities throughout the world. A seven-year study by Martin Ouellet of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, of nearly 30,000 frogs along a 150-mile stretch of the St. Lawrence River Valley revealed that the rate of deformities rose 18 percent near farmland where pesticides, insecticides and fungicides were recently used (Associated Press 11-15-98). Ouellet' s information may affect investigations by Minnesota scien-
December 1998
tists next year, according to Judy Helgen, a wetlands biologist at the Minnesota P_o llution Control Agency. Deformed frogs in that state were first noticed by schoolchildren in 1995 in a farm pond about 55 miles southwest of Minneapolis. Scientists worry that the worldwide decline and disappearance of amphibian populations may be a sign of environmental problems affectinghumans. In a related article published in November by the Environmental Research Foundation in Annapolis, Maryland, researchers studying amphibian deformities in the United States and Canada are exploring a group of chemicals called retinoids as likely culprits. Several of these retinoids are among the breakdown products of chemicals that in themselves are not considered harmful to animals. One such chemical, S-methoprene, is used in mosquito insecticide, flea powders and livestock feed. Exposing it to the ultraviolet light in sunlight for even just a few hours creates a toxic chemical that causes the type of limb deformities scientists are seeing in frogs. This research points out the failure Df the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to test the breakdown by-products of pesticides the agency "previously deemed safe enough to allow as residues on our _ dinner plates," according to the artide. It also means that thousands of chemicals whose breakdown effects are unknown may be contaminating the environment, while the EPA, by its own estimate, is at least 15 years behind schedule in testing the safety of pesticides now in use.
New Treatment Plant Bellevue, Iowa - Bellevue' s new $2.5 million municipal wastewater treatment plant project is scheduled to begin this month. Bellevue' s largest municipal project ever calls for replacing the existing treatment plant with an activated sludge process plant and con-
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structing a main pumping station and flow equalization basin. The old plant will operate until the new plant is in service, according to The Dubuque Telegraph-Herald (11-6-98). The new plant must be completed by April 2000. After numerous permit violations by the old plant, the Mississippi River Revival threatened the city with a lawsuit for river pollution. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources then ordered the city to replace the plant as soon as possible (see also A Hard Act to Follow" in this issue). II
Less Phosphorus St. Paul - Phosphorus levels in discharge from the Metropolitan Wastewater Treatment Facility at Pig's Eye Lake will substantially drop, thanks to a agreement announced November 13 by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. The five-year discharge permit will reduce phosphorus levels to 1 milligram per liter by the year 2005; limit ammonia-nitrogen, mercury, and polychlorinated biphenyls; provide greater protection of the river during low-flow periods by further limiting discharges; and test whether plant discharges have any long-term or immediate toxic effects on various species. The Pig's Eye facility processes 50 percent of the state's wastewater and is the largest single source of phosphorus into the Mississippi. Too much phosphorus promotes excessive algae growth, which in turn depletes oxygen in the water. Excess phosphorus is one of the causes of the large "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico. The agreement was reached only after the Minnesota Center for Enviroiunental Advocacy (MCEA) dropped a request for a contestedcase hearing. The Metropolitan Council and the MCEA also signed an agreement that establishes a $7.5 million "Metro Environment Partnership" initiative to improve regional water quality.
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Special Events & Festivals December through 31 Holiday Light Display, 5 p.m. 10 p.m., daily, Riverside Park, La Crosse, Wis., (608) 784-9993.
2 Storytime at Hixon Forest Nature Center, 10:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m., La Crosse, Wis., (608) 784-0303. 4-6 Ice Fishing and Winter Sports Show, RiverCentre, St. Paul, Minn., (612) 9229000. 8 Trumpeter Swan Fly In, 10 a.m. - noon,
photograph, tag and count swans, Monticello, Minn., reservations, (612) 470-4300.
15 Storytime at Hixon Forest Nature Center, 1:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m., La Crosse, Wis., (608) 784-0303. 17 Propeller Club Holiday Party, The Dock, Quad Cities, (319) 324-1418. 19 Christmas Bird Count, Minneapolis, Minn. 19 Christmas Bird Count, 7:30 a.m., Lake Park Lodge, Winona, Minn., (507) 4528904. 31 A Capital New Year, fireworks over the Mississippi, St. Paul, Minn., (612) 9209054.
(814) 259-3628. Jan. 2-3 Le Claire, Iowa. Indoor programs, Mississippi Welcome Center; viewing at Lock and Dam 14, (319) 289-3009. Jan. 9 Dubuque, Iowa. Indoor program and exhibits, Marshall School; viewing at Lock and Dam 11, (319) 5564372. Jan. 9-10 Quad Cities. Programs and exhibits at Expo Center, Rock Island, Ill., side trips for viewing, (309) 7945338, (309) 388-5464.
Meetings & Hearings
3 Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, environmental review and permits for proposed Kondirator metal shredder, Minneapolis, 1-800-657-3864.
10 Lower Wisconsin State Riverway Board, 5 p.m., Kratochwill Memorial Building, Muscoda, Wis., (608) 7383188.
January 15 Wisconsin Mississippi River Parkway Commission, Environmental Management Technical Center, 9 a.m. - 10 a.m., Onalaska, Wis. (608) 786-0774.
Workshops & Conferences
December 1 River Forum, 7 p.m - 9:15 p.m., Stearns County Administration Center, Room 482, St. Cloud, Minn. 1 Redevelopment of Harriet Island Regional Park, 5 p.m., City Hall, St. Paul, Minn.
December 2-4 Wisconsin Land and Water Conservation Association Conference, keynote speaker: Gaylord Nelson, Ramada Inn Conference Center, Eau Claire, Wis., (608) 833-1833. m
2 Upper Mississippi River Master Plan, 6
p.m. - 8 p.m., Webber Park Community Center, Minneapolis, Minn.
January 15 Upper Mississippi and Trempealeau Refuges Photo contest deadline, 4 p.m., Exchange Building, Room 203, Winona, Minn., 452-4232. 16 Trumpeter Swan Fly In, 10 a.m. - noon, photograph, tag and count swans, Monticello, Minn., reservations, (612) 472-4911. Eagle Watches Through March, Wabasha, Minn., city deck staffed Sundays 1 - 3 p.m. (612) 565-4989. Through Feb. 14, Mississippi River Visitor's Center, Rock Island, Ill, (309) 794-5338.
Almanac By Kenny Salwey
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The snowflakes are beautiful as they drift through the bare tree tops, slowly twirling and whirling their way to a silent landing. We watch flake after flake cover the crisp, brown autumn leaves with a soft, white carpet. I'm always surprised by the first real snowfall. Good thing the critters aren't surprised or they wouldn't survive. The winter birds are out in force - cardinals,
blue ¡
nutba~ all sorts of woodl)edi;ere,,and the
Dec. 20-21 Upper Mississippi River Eagle Watch, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m., Dresbach Information Area, (1-90 Rest Area), between La Crescent and Winona, Minn. Jan. 2 Clinton, Iowa. Programs and exhibits: Community College; viewing at Lock and Dam 13 near Fulton, Ill., and at Albany, Ill. Boat Landing,
December 1998
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