The River Talk Blog
The River Talk blog enables River Life staff and partners to comment directly on news, programs, and developments that we are tracking. The blog is intended to be analytical and reflective, a voice speaking to the “so what” and “why should I care” questions that arise every day as we are confronted with a mass of new information.
What do we mean by ‘invasive Asian carp’?
There are, in general, two kinds of carp; Asian and Indian forgetting for the moment that India is in Asia.
There are, according to Wikipedia, eight kinds of Asian carp “introduced outside their native range”.
- grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grass_carp
- common carp (Cyprinus carpio) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_carp
- silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_carp
- largescale silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys harmandi)
- bighead carp (Hypophthalmichthys nobilis) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bighead_carp
- black carp (Mylopharyngodon piceus) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_carp
- common goldfish (Carassius auratus) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_goldfish
- crucian carp (Carassius carassius) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crucian_carp
- mud carp (Cirrhinus molitorella) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mud_carp
These fish are critically important in China as food sources and four of these species (grass, silver, bighead, and black carp) are considered the four domesticated fish. Some species were imported to Europe during the middle ages and became highly valued food fish there also. Globally they are important in aquaculture and as game fish.
Of these carp listed here, the following are understood to be invasive fish in Minnesota, according to the Minnesota DNR,
- Common carp <http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/aquaticanimals/commoncarp/index.html>
- Bighead carp <http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/aquaticanimals/asiancarp/index.html>
- Silver carp <http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/aquaticanimals/asiancarp/index.html>
- Grass carp <http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/aquaticanimals/grasscarp/index.html>
- We anticipate that Black carp will likely be added to this list soon.
It seems, according to the DNR that there are not any non-invasive carp in Minnesota. All carp are invasive here. All carp damage the native ecosystems. Common carp have been in Minnesota since the 1870′s when they were brought here as game fish, and were actively stocked in streams and lakes as such. <http://www.mnfishfinder.com/common-carp-9-fish.html>
So that begs the question, why are we so concerned about the four newer species of carp whose range is recently spreading into Minnesota? Is it the cinematic appeal of the leaping silver carp? Is it the stories of ecosystems further south nearly denuded by these fish? Is it a more sociological fear of invasion of homeland?
If all carp are invasive, here at least, and most carp are Asian, aren’t we being doubly redundant referring to “invasive Asian carp”? Perhaps we’re splitting etymological hairs here, but it seems that the problem may simply be carp.
River-City Connection: Poorly Understood? Too Complex to Understand or Model?
I have been posting a number of articles and links on our River Portal microblog (Yes, we have one. And yes, you should read it. It’s here. Now go and read it. Good. You’re back? Now where was I?) about sustainability in cities, about the importance of public art in cities, about urban green infrastructure. What’s all that got to do with rivers?
Well, everything, I think. Here are some ideas, call them axioms, propositions, definitions, or what have you.
- A city that can’t take care of its drinking water, sanitary sewers, and storm water systems well, will inevitably degrade the “natural” water systems (creeks, rivers, groundwater) that permeate the city’s space.
- If the population of a city doesn’t know, or care, or love, the water upon which its life depends, then that water system will not sustain the city, or life in the city.
- If care for the city’s water systems is not inclusive, is not expanded beyond the “usual suspects” of contemporary environmentalism, urbanism, landscape design and planning, then that care won’t really “take hold” for the duration.
- Public art, and other “nontraditional” communication forms and forms of public engagement, are important ways to reach across the widely diverse and varying communities that form a city, and develop a more truly inclusive and engaged constituency for urban water sustainability.
- Responsible, thoughtful, effective engagement around urban water issues depends on active knowledge of multiple sciences, the policy and planning and “doing” frameworks by which “change happens,” and means of effective expression and engagement.
There are doubtless other key principles by which the relationships between cities and water (and by extension therefore, rivers) are understood, but these are enough. This business of understanding rivers, cities and the ties between them is hard!
So, I’d like to hear from you: where should this understanding start? What’s the most important piece of the puzzle? And did I miss any key principles in the list above?
St. Anthony Falls Needs YOU
Well, maybe the Falls themselves don’t need you–water seems to flow over them ok, per gravity and basic hydrology. But the elements of Minneapolis around the Falls Do need your help.
The Central Minneapolis Riverfront is poised to be the engine driving the city into the 21st Century because the City, its citizens, the Minneapolis Park Board and a host of other individuals and organizations have concentrated on the district for the past 40 years. Today, as a result of that effort, $400 million of public investment has created $1.3 billion in private contributions to a place that is arguably a World Heritage-caliber site.
Following the vision and the success of 2009′s landmark study Power of the Falls, the city’s Community Planning and Economic Development Department has invited public comment on a new set of design guidelines for the Central Riverfront. To read the document and make your comments, go here.
Now why should you do this? For one thing, because you can. Design guidelines have the force of policy once they’ve been adopted by the City’s Heritage Preservation Commission. They establish the “rules of the game” for new development or redevelopment in this nationally significant historic district.
For another thing, these guidelines are orders of magnitude better than the guidelines currently in place, which were adopted in 1980. Then, historic preservation planning was largely concerned with saving the physical fabric of important buildings and read as a list of “Thou Shalt Not” statements. These guidelines, on the other hand, are not only friendlier to use, but they actually address issues of the historic landscape, the river corridor, archaeological sites, and a host of other factors that make this site arguably the most complex urban fabric in Minnesota. Imagine–historic district guidelines that actually act as if the space between buildings is important and worthy of attention!
You only have a week to participate in this guideline review process: the comment period closes on April 18. After city staff have assessed the comments from the public, the revised document will go to the State Historic Preservation Office, which has statutory (read “legal”) authority and responsibility to review the document. Then it goes back to the local Heritage Preservation Commission for final review and adoption.
Take a look and offer your views; it’s not every day you get a chance to participate in the planning and protection for the most important district in a thriving major city. And if this kind of stuff really is interesting to you, let me know at pdn@umn.edu and I can connect you up to a number of organizations, people, and opportunities to stay involved in heritage preservation.
Because after all, the Mississippi River is central to the heritage of the city, region, and country, and that heritage isn’t just a matter of the water. Creating space to retain what’s most significant and important about the past, while also preserving ecosystem and hydrological function and allowing for continued urban vitality may just be the most difficult balancing act in modern city planning.
Carp response grows, becomes more varied
Last month’s announcement that invasive Asian carp, including a specimen of the jumping silver carp, had been netted in the Mississippi River near Winona, MN, has generated a flurry of response. This post outlines a few of the threads that are now emerging, and invites responses on what is likely to be a long and complex issue.
The Mississippi National River and Recreation Area (MNRRA) held a carp forum on the evening of March 19, at which several dozen people from the navigation industry, recreational boaters, state and federal agencies, and interested citizens spoke about their concerns relative to carp. No one thought the carp did not pose a menace, and there was wide agreement that something should be done. But what? MNRRA staff announced a policy of voluntarily minimizing lock use for Park programs and Park-sponsored activities. The Urban Wilderness Canoe Adventure, which takes around 10,000 school children in voyageur canoes over the course of the summer, is reorganizing its logistics and lesson planning so that the locks between, say, St. Anthony Falls and the Mississippi River Gorge will not be used during their trips. John Anfinson’s presentation, Minimizing Lock Use and Asian Carp Expansion, makes clear how many times the locks in the Twin Cities are opened, and to serve what kinds of vessels. Current federal law requires the Army Corps of Engineers to open the locks for any vessel requesting passage; it is felt that a large number of openings and closings will facilitate the rapid migration of carp..
Anfinson, Chief of Resource Management for MNRRA, stated the issue succinctly when he said, “If anything is going to be done soon, it will be done by us.” His emphasis was on “soon,” since the navigation season on the Upper Mississippi has now opened, and the locks are getting regular use. While there is widespread agreement that scientific solutions to the spread of carp are important, it is also generally conceded that scientists are years away from a solution.
The question of how urgent the carp problem is, and what role science has in its solution, was one of the threads in a Commentary piece published in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune on Sunday April 1. Author Greg Breining asks “So what if we lose” the “war” on Asian carp. Breining has a couple of good points. It’s always worrisome when the “war on…” language gets brought into play on policy issues that are not, actually, wars. It is likewise the case that often advocacy against invasive species makes a too-simple supposition that our ecosystems were stable and “just fine” until “they” (whatever invasive is in question) came along. As an aside, I work with indigenous people who find the whole concern about invasive species voiced by (usually white) professionals to be more than a little bitterly ironic. But Breining’s main point seems to be contestable at the very least: He quotes a biologist from Macalester College that people and agencies have made a lot of money mobilizing against invasive species. Now that’s just cynical. Sure, bureaucracies have a tendency to perpetuate themselves, but that is certainly not the main point in the mobilization against this threat to Minnesota’s fisheries and water-based recreation.
A more typical response to the carp threat was published Monday by the Mankato Free Press. Calling for definitive action against the invasive fish, the editorial declared that “It’s time to draw the line on Asian carp.” Where that line is, and what it takes to “draw” the line” are the subjects of important scientific research, policy debate, and community and public engagement activities.
Spring Report Card: Lots of Really Excellent Student Work Taking Place
We sent the text below out via email to some of our partners and friends on and off campus. So we don’t spam everyone we know, we’re reprinting our “midterm report” in the blog. Comments are always welcome!
As expected, this year has gotten off to a very busy start. Here’s a sample of what we’ve been up to:
Mapping Water
Please join us on Thursday March 22, at 4:00 for a program examining the past and future (s) of the Upper Riverfront in Minneapolis. I’ll be showing historic maps and photographs, and Mary deLaittre, President of the Minneapolis Parks Foundation, will be discussing next steps in the RiverFIRST project. The program is in 125 Nolte Center on the East Bank. http://www1.umn.edu/
Research Interns
Our first cohort of University Honors Program-National Park Service Research Interns is developing some really outstanding projects. Here’s what they’re doing:
- Amal Gazey, junior, Education/Human Development; proposing a program to get Muslim women students physically active in the National Park through ranger-led hikes, bike events.
- Abbie Hanson, junior, Biological Sciences; researching the collaborative education model offered by the Urban Wilderness Canoe Adventure, Minneapolis.
- Dan Hnilicka, senior, Ag and Natural Resources; researching the collaborative habitat restoration efforts on Pool 8 on the Mississippi, near LaCrosse, WI.
- Jack Kelly, junior, Liberal Arts; proposing a student writing contest that would open the National Park up to more students at the U of MN.
- Alicia Nelson, sophomore, Liberal Arts; proposing a student photography contest that would strengthen the connectins between U of MN students and the National Park.
- Jennifer Nicklay, senior, Biological Sciences; researching the habitat restoration project at the Loosahatchie Bar, on the Mississippi near Memphis.
- Simge Okut, first-year student, Liberal Arts,; researching national models for university based student and community engagement programs on rivers.
- Jon Schroeder, senior, School of Management; researching the development and lessons learned from collaborative efforts at the Riverlands Center, near St. Louis.
- Stephanie Schumacher, senior, Ag and Natural Resources; researching the faculty resources at the U of MN and other area colleges that can be applied to National Park Service knowledge needs.
Look for all of these projects to be posted on the River Life web site in the coming months, and stay tuned for further news and updates on the writing and photography contests!
Recruiting for the next cohort, to work on projects during summer/fall 2012, is under way.
River Life receives grant from St. Anthony Falls Heritage Board
The St. Anthony Falls Heritage Board has awarded the River Life program a grant to develop and test digital interpretation for an area on the west bank of the river near downtown Minneapolis. We’ll work with students to gather digital information that can be used to tell stories, show pictures, and otherwise convey the importance of this landscape. And we’ll test the results with other students: What would help them become interested in the St. Anthony Falls area? There are literally tens of thousands potential visitors to the Heritage District living, working and studying within 2 miles of St. Anthony Falls: how can those students learn about the River?
The new grant follows up on a present contract River Life has to map the existing interpretive features around St. Anthony Falls. Look for that material to be posted to the River Atlas in the next few weeks!
Professional Student Masters work on river topics
As we build the River Life program, one of the most important strands is our work with professional students, who go on to become significant contributors to the community of practice on rivers and water. This year, there are six spring graduates with River Life connections:
- Seth Bossert, Masters in Landscape Architecture (MLA), is designing a vision of Nicollet Island in Minneapolis as a “test nursery” for vegetative response to climate change.
- Tom Campbell, MLA, is designing interpretive landscapes at Pike Island, at the Minnesota/Mississippi confluence, that are sensitive to the area’s rich Dakots heritage.
- Paula Guetter, MS Water Resource Science, is a former River Life research assistant and now on the staff at the National Park Service. Her study focuses on stakeholder perceptions of sustainable watershed management.
- Sandra Meulners, MLA, is designing future park and recreation landscapes at the Scherer site, in Northeast Minneapolis.
- Will St Germaine, M Architecture, is exploring concepts for a network of diversified sites throughout the Twin Cities river corridor where indigenous sense of place can be conveyed.
- Tony Wotzka, MLA, is developing design ideas for the Stillwater MN riverfront.
Through students such as these the “real work” of river planning, design, and management moves toward sustainability.
Web updates
As always, our web platforms and social media outlets are central to our work. We’ve worked to integrate what we post to the River Portal (microblog entries on science, planning, and engagement),River Talk (our blog) Facebook and Twitter. Go to www.riverlife.umn.edu to learn more and stay connected.
News Roundup: Destructive Asian Carp Netted in MN Waters
Big news around here is that a commercial fisherman caught a bighead carp and a silver carp last week near Winona MN (approximately 120 land-miles downstream of St. Paul. Here’s some of the coverage:
The news release from the DNR is here, courtesy of the advocacy group Minnesota Waters.
The DNR’s boss, Governor Mark Dayton, writes on the issue in Outdoor News, as Minnpost.com reported Monday.
Minnesota Public Radio covers the story with this account.
So it looks like the Mississippi River Fund’s meeting in two weeks is quite timely: ”Asian Carp: What Can We Do Now” will examine strategies that might be undertaken before Twin Cities locks open for the season. The meeting will be Monday March 19 at 5:30. Register and get additional information here.
Renewable Energy Research at U of MN is Threatened
The Minnesota Senate is considering a bill that would redirect funding away from renewable energy broadly speaking and limit research to projects in renewable electricity (no more research on renewable transportation fuels, conservation, or energy efficiency). Learn more at this Action Alert.
What has this got to do with rivers and a sustainable Mississippi River? The energy/water nexus is in and of itself very powerful: one of the largest uses of water in Minnesota is cooling power plants, for example. Conservation and energy efficiency can reduce our reliance on these plants, thereby perhaps freeing water for other uses.
Furthermore, the mercury pollution that is part of the impairment of so many of Minnesota’s lakes and streams gets here as airborne pollution from upwind power plants. Again, better energy conservation standards will ultimately mean less mercury in the lakes and rivers and a big step toward the Clean Water Act’s goal of “swimmable, fishable waters” across the country.
As John Muir said (and I paraphrase) “when you take hold of any part of the world, you find that it’s connected to all the other parts.” Look again at the Action Alert and help preserve all aspects of renewable energy research in the state.
Mississippi River Basin Update now available
Not many people have the opportunity, or the capacity, to “keep track of what’s up” for the whole Mississippi River Basin. One of the best in the small group is Mark Gorman, working out of Washington DC for the policy analysis group the Northeast-Midwest Institute. His February update is now available, and includes important features such as:
- an announcement of grant funding available for conservation projects from the National Fish and Wildlife Federation;
- announcement of the launch of the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative. This Initiative, to be developed by the Northeast-Midwest Institute, retraces ground that has been worked over before, notably in the American Heritage River Initiative, through the work of the Mississippi River Trail, and others. It will be interesting to see what new ideas and coalitions can be developed!
- a clear, succinct (or at least as clear and succinct as anyone can be on the subject) summary of federal legislation, budget bills and the like that will have an impact on the Mississippi River Basin;
- a good list of upcoming conferences of interest
If you’re “in the game” in terms of resource management and protection in the Mississippi River Basin, you need to read this newsletter and follow Gorman on Twitter (@NE-MW Institute) or his blog http://nemwuppermiss.blogspot.com/
Water Sustainability is Business Sustainability
Here at the University of Minnesota, we’re charged with the responsibility to “think out ahead” of current events. So while you may not have heard much yet about efforts to connect water sustainability to a company’s bottom line, believe me: you will.
Why not get ahead of the news by attending a public lecture set for March 1 on the St. Paul campus of the U of M: Mindy Lubber, an international leader in efforts by investors to lead and pressure multinational companies to adopt environmentally sustainable business practices, will talk about her work to develop better business practices concerning water.
Lubber is president of Ceres, a 22-year-old Boston-based nonprofit that works with companies like Coca-Cola, Levi Strauss and IBM to encourage the firms to make their products and processes more water-efficient and less vulnerable to climate change.The lecture, “Investing in Sustainability: Building Water Stewardship Into the Bottom Line,” is sponsored by the Freshwater Society and the University of Minnesota College of Biological Sciences. It will be at 7 p.m. in the theater of the Student Center on the university’s St. Paul campus.
As part of that work, Lubber directs the Investor Network on Climate Risk, an alliance of 100 institutional investors who manage $10 trillion in assets. In 2011, she was voted one of “the 100 most influential people in corporate governance” by Directorship Magazine.
Lubber’s lecture will focus on the risks businesses and their shareholders face as a result of a population-driven demand for increased water use colliding with a fixed global supply, aggravated by more pronounced droughts and flooding resulting from climate change. She will offer specific examples of companies that are changing their business models to become more sustainable.
“From farms to power plants, mining to microprocessors, water is indispensable,” Lubber says. “But many in the private sector continue valuing water using outdated assumptions: It’s often seen as cheap, stable and uncontested when increasingly it’s none of those.”
Lubber, who earned a law degree and an MBA, founded the National Environmental Law Center in 1990, and she later launched the Green Century Capital Group, a mutual fund owned by nonprofit public interest organizations. She was one of the founders of Ceres, when it was started by a group of investors in response to the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.
In 1998-2000, Lubber was deputy regional administrator, and later regional administrator, of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in New England. She became Ceres’ president in 2003
Lubber’s lecture is the seventh in the Moos Family Speaker Series on Water Resources honoring the late Malcolm Moos, president of the university from 1967 to 1974.
About the University of Minnesota College of Biological Sciences
The College of Biological Sciences provides education and conducts research in all areas of biology, from molecules to ecosystems, supporting applications in medicine, renewable energy, ecosystem management, agriculture and biotechnology. For more information about research and degree programs, go to www.cbs.umn.edu/
About the Freshwater Society
The Freshwater Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to educating and inspiring people to value, conserve and protect water resources. Located in Excelsior, Minn., adjacent to Lake Minnetonka, it has a long history of association with the University of Minnesota. Learn more at www.freshwater.org.
Media Contact:
Patrick Sweeney
Freshwater Society
763-219-1261
Bangladesh, Crunching Continents, and a Really Big River
I’ve always maintained that geologists are storytellers. Years of training, and hard-won knowledge enable geologists to look at a stone, a river, or a hill, and tell its story. Where did it come from? Where is it going? Why is it here?
Two weeks ago I had the extraordinary good luck to go to Sip of Science, at the Aster Cafe where Dr. Andrew Petter told us the story of Bangladesh, covering in turn “Rivers, Plate Tectonics, and People: Life on the Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta.“
Dr. Petter started with the story of the people, why we should we care about these geological forces. Why is it important to the people who live there, and consequently, why would it be important to us, who live so far away? This dynamic landscape holds many clues for adaptation to such varied stressors as sea-level rise, climate change, and rapid urban densification.
Let’s back up a bit. Why would anybody study Bangladesh and it’s rivers? Bangladesh, if you’ll remember from any number of recent news stories, is subject to dramatic yearly flooding. Its major river, the Ganges-Bramaputra, comes rocketing out of the Himalayas a bit like a firehose, carrying billions of tons of sediment that build up an impressive floodplain, an extraordinary series of coastal mangrove forests, and jets out into the sea. People live in this floodplain in traditionally resilient and adaptive rural communities, and in increasingly less resilient and fracture-critical urban areas, which are built quickly and are at great risk of catastrophic failure in the event of earthquakes.
Why would I mention earthquakes? Well, this impressive river valley and floodplain flows over the margin of two tectonic plates which are sliding together with such impressive power that they built the Himalayas, the tallest mountains on Earth. Push two tectonic plates together, and they will bend, and buckle, and fracture. The fracturing causes earthquakes. We also have the added complication that the plates are not meeting each other straight on, but there’s a little sideways movement in there too, rumpling up the plates and causing the classic dip and heave of rolling mountain ranges, all happening at sea-level, under billions of tons of yearly sediment deposition, under a very active river and floodplain, and home to one of the most densely populated countries on Earth.
Dr. Petter and his colleagues are studying all of this in earnest, trying to understand what has happened in this incredibly active area, so they may understand what is happening today, and what will happen, and most importantly, why.
As far as river stories go, this is a pretty exciting one with some pretty amazing players. At the risk of getting pithy, we don’t know how it will turn out, but we’ve got a great team trying to figure it out. For more information, visit Sip of Science, and join us next time if you can!