Just park it here?

 We’re starting the last full week of May. The outside temperature is 15℉ to 20℉ bellow what’s been traditionally normal for this time of year. Meanwhile, there’s a heat wave on the east coast; the Minnesota legislature is expected to run out of time to pass necessary legislation and the governor has said several times he won’t call a special session. A different COVID variant, or variants, is resulting in increases in cases of infection and community transmission rates. There’s a continuing nationwide shortage of infant formula. Northern and northeastern Minnesota, among other places, are experiencing high water and flooding. The Minnesota DFL convention is almost done endorsing candidates, including, apparently, a state senate candidate for our district about whom I can find no information. We’ve just about reached the point at which I say “To hell with it all" and go fishing or, if it’s too windy or the water’s too high, work on the yard.

Driftless Area restoration effort

Photo by J. Harrington

I’ve spent a silly amount of time over the past few days trying to figure out if the Kinnickinnic (Kinnie) River watershed in western Wisconsin [there’s also a Kinnickinnic River around Milwaukee] is or is not part of the Driftless (unglaciated) Area. As near as I can tell, the jury is still considering the evidence. In the process of poking about the nooks and crannies of the internet, I discovered that there’s a proposal to create a Driftless Area National Park which may, or may not, include part of southeastern Minnesota.

Trout Unlimited, which is working with the City of River Falls and several local conservation organizations to facilitate the removal of two dams from the Kinnie and restore the river and its floodplain, where the impoundments were, plus affected areas downstream, has done a lot of work on Driftless Area restoration. I wonder if the Biden administration’s efforts to protect 30 percent of America’s land and ocean areas by 2030 could help facilitate a multi-state conservation area that may, or may not, include a national park. Something to ponder in the weeks and months ahead. Stay tuned.

Exit Glacier

By Peggy Shumaker

When we got close enough

we could hear

 

rivers inside the ice

heaving splits

 

the groaning of a ledge

about to

 

calve. Strewn in the moraine

fresh moose sign—

 

tawny oblong pellets

breaking up

 

sharp black shale. In one breath

ice and air—

 

history, the record

of breaking—

 

prophecy, the warning

of what's yet to break

 

out from under

four stories

 

of bone-crushing turquoise

retreating.

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