Does Minnesota love its lakes more than its rivers?

The pond North of our house isn't really a "pond." It's a pool in a flowage that feeds the Sunrise River, but most of the year it looks and acts pretty much like a pond. The rate of flow is normally not much. This Spring, especially this week, is a different story. There's an easily discernible flow through the "pond" coming from under the road that passes over the unnamed flowage, brook, creek. Many of the wetlands in the neighborhood are drained by similar "cricks," most of them unnamed. Our local Sunrise River has signs at some of its bridges, like this one at County Road 19.

who decides which rivers get name tags and where?

Photo by J. Harrington

Are any of Minnesota's 10,000+ lakes unnamed? Who gets to decide if a brook or creek or stream or crick has a name? Why are some rivers clearly named at some bridges, but not all? We believe more Minnesotans would care more about protecting Minnesota's rivers, all approximately 91,944 miles of them if they knew which river they were crossing, and which watershed they were in, much more of the time. In fact, we wonder if Minnesota cares for its lakes more than its rivers. We haven't checked but we bet there are more lake associations than river associations. Furthermore, think about all the different agencies, particular the Department of Natural Resources and the Pollution Control Agency, that have some significant responsibilities toward rivers, but is there any one overall entity in charge, other than the governor? Not according to a report published a decade ago by the University of Minnesota's Water Resources Center:

Minnesota’s waters are governed by hundreds of laws, regulations, rules, and ordinances involving more than 20 federal agencies, seven state agen-cies, and hundreds of local units of government.

Spring brings marsh marigolds to wetlands

Photo by J. Harrington

Before we got sidetracked (backwatered?) we were going to note that we walked one of the dogs up to the "pond" today because we thought we had seen a small patch of marsh marigolds there in years past. The corner where we believe we saw the marigolds is currently well under water. We'll keep an eye on it and watch to see if marsh marigolds emerge later in the year. We've also found marigolds behind the house in the wetlands where skunk cabbage lives. The other day we only made it part way through the fields. We fear we must admit we're out of shape after a Winter playing couch potato. If we avoid overdoing it while we get our legs back in shape, we'll wander back into the swamp soon, unless it starts snowing again. Then, all bets are off.

Creek-Song

By Shari Wagner

It begins in a cow lane 

with bees and white clover, 

courses along corn, rushes 

accelerandoagainst rocks. 

It rises to a teetering pitch 

as I cross a shaky tree-bridge, 

syncopates a riff 

over the dissonance 

of trash—derelict icebox 

with a missing door, 

mohair loveseat sinking 

into thistle. It winds through green 

adder’s mouth, faint as the bells 

of Holsteins heading home. 

Blue shadows lengthen, 

but the undertow 

of a harmony pulls me on 

through raspy Joe-pye-weed 

and staccato-barbed fence. 

It hums in a culvert 

beneath cars, then empties 

into a river that flows oboe-deep 

past Indian dance ground, waterwheel 

and town, past the bleached 

stones in the churchyard, 

the darkening hill.

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