Tips and tales about keeping water clean
A story of redemption 26 years ago, Brian Axdahl and his father bought an old sod farm near the St. Croix River and plowed the turf under with moldboard plows. The soil was compacted from years of poor management. Lakes formed in the fields whenever it rained, and runoff flowed to the river, carrying sediments…
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‘Tis the season for gratitude, and this Thanksgiving I’m counting flushing toilets among my many blessings in life. What did people do before toilets were invented? Well, depending on where they lived, they either walked outside to use the outhouse in the freezing cold or did their business in a chamber pot and then dumped…
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Volunteer event scheduled for Oct. 11 in Woodbury Three years ago, volunteers gathered in a wind-swept field on a rainy spring day to plant 3000 young oak trees for a future oak savanna. The site – located on the border between Woodbury and Cottage Grove – is part of a conservation corridor created by South…
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For a big river, the Mississippi can be awfully hard to find. Though it traverses 21 miles of Washington County, from the City of Newport to the St. Croix River confluence in Hastings-Prescott, there are precious few places to access the water as it flows. To find the river here requires a road map and…
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Dear Ms. Haydon and Hong: Thank you for the field trip. I think it was ok that we got lost but everyone makes mistakes. I learned a lot about nature and where the water flows and all about different waters and rivers and lakes. I hope you have a great time and have fun exploring…
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This fall, Washington County and South Washington Watershed District are constructing a new bridge in Grey Cloud Township that will finally restore the natural water flow in Grey Cloud Slough and help to flush out sediment and nutrients that have accumulated over the past 50 years.
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Forty species of mussels live in the St. Croix, including five that are listed under the Federal Endangered Species Act: the Higgin’s eye, sheepnose, snuffbox, spectaclecase and winged mapleleaf.
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The Mississippi River is a flyway for 60% of all the birds in North America and 320 species of birds migrate through the St. Croix River Valley.
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We’ve achieved a 35% reduction in phosphorus concentrations in the metro Mississippi River, mostly due to improvements at wastewater treatment plants, but that improvement is somewhat counteracted by the increase in flow coming from upstream.
Read MoreLast month, my husband and I had the good fortune to travel down to Louisiana for a week of Mardis Gras festivities, a holiday that many northerners associate with episodes of MTV Spring Break or Girls Gone Wild. In reality, Mardis Gras is a family-friendly event, celebrated across the state in cities and towns large and…
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