Officials tour the Lower Minn

This last August 26, the District invited about 70 guests aboard a tug-steered party barge for a two-hour, narrated trip down the Lower Minnesota River. Guests went all the way from the Cenex Harvest States grain elevator in Savage, past the confluence with the Mississippi, to Harriet Island in St. Paul.

While cameras flashed and binoculars focused, experts told their stories.

Guests listened, mingled, and chatted as they enjoyed the cruise. They included legislators, mayors, councilpersons, and other government decision-makers who may, or may not, ever before have gotten such a bird’s-eye view of the river.

The wildlife associated with the river was one lens through which guests were invited to look at the river. The commercial life of the river was a second lens.

The wildlife

Larry Samstad, a District manager and an old hand on the river, noted the “eagles down around the NSP plant and also on the lower end toward the Mississippi. There are just lots of wildlife areas on the river that people don’t realize till they’re right down there in the middle of it.”

Steve Menden, Shakopee councilman, also saw eagles, while Ed Mullarky and William Hankee, Lillydale mayor and councilman respectively, noted “plenty of birds, including ducks and geese.”

Gary Van Eyll, mayor of Chaska, says he’s lived in Chaska for 30 years but “that was the first time I’ve been really on the river. It was a most interesting trip, and it showed just how important the river is.

“Till just recently, when the Corps of Engineers built a dike around the city, the river has always been problematic,” Van Eyll says, “what with the floods we’ve had historically. The river has wrought havoc every few years. It overflows and floods, and we’ve never used it as an amenity — till now.

“There are new building projects in Chaska, on First Street, for example,” he continues, “that are looking at the river. The river suddenly appears to present a friendlier face” — both to development and the natural man. Cruising on the river, Van Eyll concludes, “You feel like you’re in the middle of nowhere.”

Which may be just where we have to go before we get anywhere with nature.

The commerce

Menden , the Shakopee councilman, was “surprised at the amount of barge traffic we encountered” the afternoon of August 26. When you hug the shore, living your daily life, he suggests, you hardly notice the commercial life of the river any more than the natural life.

He was also impressed at the stormwater system outlets that empty into the river, especially the Metropolitan Airport Commission’s just below the airport. And was almost awed, he confessed, “at the sheer overall size of the waterway, as you move into the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi.”

Mike McGinn, state senator from Eagan

Mike McGinn, a state senator from Eagan , serves on a transportation committee, “so waterways come under our jurisdiction, and I have a double interest in the river, both in its commercial and its natural character.

“All of us in Eagan and Burnsville ,” says McGinn, “have a large stake in what happens to the Minnesota River Valley. We’re at the pointy end of a funnel, where all the water flows into the Mississippi, as we saw on the tour, so whatever happens upstream comes our way. We’re naturally concerned with the health of the river and surrounding areas, the watersheds leading to it, land uses there, and how we can improve these uses.

“Burnsville is on the cusp of doing an outstanding job of managing the landfill and quarry there, turning industrial land to park land, it could be, and a treatment facility (the bonding request is at the legislature) that will capture rainwater, normally recycled into the river, and turn it into pure drinking water.

“All such activities will help make the Minnesota more friendly to the general public. The river won’t be looked upon just as industrial waterway and will be a real asset.

“In Eagan ,” McGinn continues, “there’s no land like Burnsville’s, no. We have fens and lots of wetlands, and the challenge there is to preserve that ecosystem and allow people to observe it without intruding on it.”

On the tour McGinn observed an abundance of herons, ducks, and geese. “Our wetlands support a lot of wildlife,” he says. “There are eagles nesting on the Eagan side of the river, adjacent to the airport landing light towers. Amazing! These sensitive birds are nesting right there in the midst of all the freeway and airport traffic, and they’re just thriving.”

In light of the success of the tour, the District too seems to be thriving. And is only too eager, says Administrator Terry Schwalbe, to make the tour an annual event — and extend more invitations next August.