Tips and tales about keeping water clean
“Put your hand over the cup so no one falls out!” Evan Griggs calls out as he leads a dozen 4th and 5th grade students through a tangle of trees to the edge of Brown’s Creek. The students, who hail from St. Jude’s of the Lake in Mahtomedi, have been raising rainbow trout in their…
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This is a story about trout. It’s also a story about local history, changing landscapes, and people trying to do the right thing. Somewhere in the wetland dappled landscape near the now-closed Withrow Elementary, water begins to gather and form a stream we now call Brown’s Creek. The stream flows through soggy fields in Grant…
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In the swiftly flowing waters of the St. Croix River, a federally endangered species of mussel called the spectaclecase shelters among boulders on patches of gravel and sand. It’s not easy to make babies when you’re spectaclecase. First, the male must release sperm into the river current, hopefully upstream of a lady mussel. If a…
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He’s standing in an open field, late November, and the sun is glowing through the goldenrod and bluestem. Sun kissing son. There are times like this when the natural world is so beautiful, I want to open my eyes just a little bit wider and etch the memory into my heart. When the Brown’s Creek…
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Next year, the Brown’s Creek Watershed District will celebrate its 20-year anniversary and Leiser, the guy with a now-dry basement, is still working hard to prevent flooding and protect lakes and streams throughout the watershed.
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For Brown’s Creek Watershed District, nursing its namesake waterway back to good health is a top priority.
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While camping at Beaver Creek Valley State Park two weeks ago, my family enjoyed a weekend of simple pleasures and unexpected treasures.
Read MoreBecause trout and the insects that they rely on for food – stoneflies, mayflies, and caddisflies – are so sensitive to pollution and increases in water temperature, trout by necessity require pretty places to live.
Read MoreLong envied for her crystal clear water, the lake uses her beauty and charm to convince Washington County Parks and the Carnelian-Marine-St. Croix Watershed District to build raingardens, porous pavement, a rock swale and native plantings to block a pesky suitor known locally as Polluted Runoff.
Read MoreWho’s eating the daphnia in Square Lake? Is it the rainbow trout stocked by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources each spring and fall? Is it the bluegills and sunfish in the lake? Could a fly be to blame? What is a daphnia anyway, and why do I care?
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