July, you have been a difficult month

July, you have been a difficult month.  You have crapped up some of my favorite paths.  This one goes down to Middle Beach and I like to go there often. I can get under that tree branch, but I don't look or feel that graceful crawling under that mess.

 Some of the shoreline that I would normally cleanup is underwater.

Some new debris has drifted in.  This area probably won't be accessible anytime soon.

You've made a mess for Park and Rec.  With all the rain, it looks like a jungle.

 These steps are going nowhere right now.

On a hike in the gorge area it was the same thing. Some paths are underwater.

This might be Yellow Loosestrife.  If I could just get closer to identify it.

Rain, humidity and heat is what we've had for most of July. I was out one evening and saw three separate islands of trash and tree branches floating downstream. They were moving at a normal walking pace so I followed.  I didn't have my camera.  Why didn't I take my camera!! The first island flew off the falls in a spectacular fashion.  The second rammed into the yellow barge bumpers, cracking the wood and breaking it up until it too crashed mostly off the falls.  The third island of trash seemed to drift into the lock and just stall there. Last night, the weather seemed cooler after another afternoon rain.  Dare I say almost chilly. So this morning I walked down to the Upper St. Anthony Lock and Dam for a morning tour.  I really wanted to ask them some questions and see what happened to all that trash and tree debris.

The federal government closed the lock and dam to barge traffic last year to prevent the spread of invasive carp from getting into the lakes above the falls and harming our preferred fish like walleye and bass.  The National Park Service has now taken over the visitor center at the lock and dam and gives tours 3 times a day.  You can get the whole scoop on how the water power of the falls helped create the flour milling industry in Minneapolis.  Today Minneapolis has plans to turn this area into a park that sounds too awesome to be true, but I will have to stick around downtown for 7 years to see it be completed.
                                     http://mplsparksfoundation.org/projects/water-works/

The park ranger reminded us that don't even think about rafting over those falls.

Up top on the lock some trash has certainly accumulated.

The Army Corp of Engineers comes in once a week to flush out the trash and send it downstream.  This stuff will probably end up in Hastings.  Couldn't someone scoop it out at this point instead?

A lot of tree debris that the rain brought downstream is now hung up on the concrete apron that surrounds the falls.  I wonder if workers will attempt to remove some of that debris.  In any case the Cormorants that were hanging out there seemed to be enjoying it.