Ole Olsen Park Native Prairie Garden

If I ever look back on this particular blog I will remember it as a day when I felt I was in danger of losing my optimism about the world and this country in particular.  We've had a number of bad things happen.  There's the string of hurricanes (Harvey in Houston, Irma in Florida and the Caribbean, and Maria in Puerto Rico).  And then yesterday we had the mass shooting at a music festival in Las Vegas.  What's a person to do when you feel like things are crumbling around us.  Well, not to make light of it, but I did take a piece of chocolate cake out of the freezer.  Second, look for some positive stories in the areas that interest you.  Lastly, take a walk and don't give up on the idea that whatever small things we do in our community do make a difference.  So I walked about 2 miles upstream north of downtown Minneapolis to see what progress has been made on the prairie garden in Ole Olsen Park.

Folks volunteering with Friends of the Mississippi have been working the river banks in this area to create a native prairie garden.  The flowers and grasses provide bee, butterfly and bird habitat and reduce the amount of pollution going into the river.  It has been awhile since I've been up here and it seems like the project is pretty much finished.

So what did this area look like a couple of years ago and why is this better.  Most likely this area had quite a bit of crown vetch, an invasive pea family plant that has a pretty little pink flower on it.  The bees probably like it just fine. So why is that bad.  Well, apparently it crowds everything else out and has a short root system that does nothing to filter out pollutants heading for the river.  The Department of  Transportation brought it over from the other side of the world years ago thinking it was a good thing.  The variety of newly planted native species have deep root systems which are much better at helping to filter the pollutants in the water that head to the river from all our streets and non porous surfaces.  You know that river there is our drinking water.  I didn't bring a bag with me on this walk to pick up trash.  But on the way home I pulled some crown vetch and that made me feel more optimistic.

State of the River 2016 Report

I got up early this morning and went to a presentation of the State of the River 2016 report.  Presented by the Friends of the Mississippi River and the National Park Service's Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, it attempts to tell us how our river is doing.  The 75 or so folks who attended most likely came from city governments, people from the Department of Natural Resources, Minnesota Pollution Control and stormwater management groups, but some concerned citizens like me showed up too. Can I swim in the river?  The report has a nice map of impaired vs not impaired stretches of the river.  And by that I mean bacteria in the river that might make you (or your pet) sick.  In the downtown area, it would be best to head to the gorge area or just get out of the city entirely.  The river down by Inver Grove Heights and Hastings is fine or head over to Stillwater and swim in the St.Croix.  Various charts in their report show feedlot runoff to be the biggest culprit, but human septic systems and pet waste play a role too.  Other folks may want to know about fishing and eating what you have caught.  I'm not supposed to tell, but the fishing is supposed to be really good just below the Coon Rapids Dam. The report touched on indicators of river health such as native river mussel population, the status of invasive carp, and bald eagle populations.  While there are many positive things, there were things that stuck in my mind after I left the meeting.

• Minnesota is responsible for about 6% of the Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone problem.  That is the area in the gulf that is so deprived of oxygen that fish cannot live in it.  Hmm, The Dead Zone, sounds like a  good name for a head banger band.
• In 300 years Lake Pepin will disappear due to sediment buildup coming in from the Minnesota River and even by the end of this century it will be greatly changed.  So, if you have a 5 year old take them over there now, get a photo, and tell them to return in 2095 and see the difference.
• We dump too much salt on the roads here in the winter.  One teaspoon of salt is enough to permanently pollute 5 gallons of water.  We do not have the technology to get it out once it runs off the roads, into storm drains and finally into the river.
• We are just beginning to find out what microplastics and microfibers can do to our health.  They are in the river and they are now in you.  Maybe that's the reason you have a gut ache. You know that fuzzy fleece jacket you love.  Every time you wash it, fibers go down the drain.  Well that just sucks!
• We will never solve our clean water problem unless we get farmers on board and move some farm land into perennial cover crops.  For that to happen there must be markets for them to sell those products and make a living.

Well, sure there is more in the report. So, read it yourself if you are interested at http://stateoftheriver.com/
Finally as the meeting was closing, someone expressed their concern over President Elect Trump's pick to run the Environmental Protection Agency.  Yes, we will be hiring the fox to look after the hen house.  And on that depressing thought the moderator said something like....don't be depressed, choose to live bravely.  And so we must.

Walk to Ole Olson Park

About 2 miles north from downtown Minneapolis is Ole Olson Park, a small park of only a couple of acres. The Park and Rec path from downtown dead ends here just before the railroad bridge. There is a lot of trash to be picked up here. Maybe I'll walk back up here in March to work on it.  We noticed the slope going down to the river was bare.  Friends of the Mississippi is working with Park and Rec to remove invasive species and restore the slope to dry savanna.  The details of that project can be found here:  https://www.minneapolisparks.org/_asset/y5ssr0/orvin_ole_olson_park_fmr_factsheet.pdf

Now that the slope has been cleared you can see that it's a graffiti playground under the BNSF Railroad Bridge.  It was so bright yesterday morning and the shadows so intense, it was a challenge to take photos. By the afternoon it was in the high 50's.  Not normal for February in Minnesota.

Leftovers from the party.  Nice shoe.

Freshly done? The graffiti here is mostly stylized lettering and while I have little appreciation for that I do like the color combination here.

If I were going to go back to clean the litter in this area, my policy to still to leave homeless camps alone.

Here is where I have a problem though.  This is a closeup of a burn pile for removing the insulation from copper wire.  There were several burn piles here.  Whether or not this stuff was obtained legally or not, you don't burn it. It's illegal and we don't need these toxins released into the air or the river.  

http://www.scrapmetaljunkie.com/873/burning-wire-illegal

Ok, enough whining and time to start the walk back home.

High Water

 The river is definitely up in downtown Minneapolis after the last rains.  Previously, much of this stretch of the river walk had 10 to 12 feet of exposed shoreline.  The drop from the guard rail to the shore makes it almost impossible to pick up trash without using a canoe.  I don't have a canoe. I had thought about getting one of those 96" extending pole grabbers from Home Depot.  Or maybe a rope ladder that I could hook onto the guard rail so I could climb down.  OK, I'm not really going to do that.

Before the recent rains the shore looked more like this. That Reddi Wip can has been the bane of my existence for the last two months.  Hopefully some of this stuff has washed further down stream where other folks can pick it up.   The Friends of the Mississippi River organization are hosting a clean up day on May 30th in Hastings at a spot where trash is known to pool.
                       http://www.fmr.org/events/2015/05/30/floodplain-forest-cleanup 

There's a red lawn chair, a beer holder and a baseball cap down there and probably a good story to go with them. Hopefully, all of it is on its way to Hastings.