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All events take place in Itasca State Park: Google map showing park location and Park map showing features
Come and join the Board of LWV Upper Mississippi River Region for this event! October 1 – Lake Itasca boat tour with naturalist followed by group photo at the Headwaters Coborn’s Lake Itasca Boat tour: $16/person for a 1.5 hour tour of Lake Itasca, the source of the Mississippi, with narration by a naturalist. We are hoping to have a group of more than 18 persons so we can make a reservation - please contact Gretchen Sabel ([email protected]) if you are planning to come. Meet at the tour boat dock at 1:30pm; boat leaves at 2pm. Group photo at the Headwaters: Gather at the marker at 4:30 pm. All are welcome! We will have someone with a camera on hand to take a group photo. Walking across the rocks is an optional activity. October 2 – LWV UMRR Board meeting in the Joseph Brower visitor center and talk on nitrates in drinking water and their connection to land use Board Meeting: Gather in the Joseph Brower visitor center (near the east park entrance) at 9:00, meeting will take place from 9:15 to 11:30. (Info on the visitor center here, see #28/33.) Coffee, tea and refreshments will be provided for both events. Educational Event: We will have Chris Parthun, Principal Planner, from the Minnesota Department of Health and Katie DeSchane from Toxic Taters on hand to talk about nitrates in drinking water and how land use can tip the equation. Park Rapids has had problems with high nitrates as forests are cleared and the land converted to potato farms. We will have a discussion with our speakers and learn what it will take to protect the groundwater resources in this area. Some background reading here and here and here and here. Christopher Parthun, Principal Planner in the Minnesota Department of Health's Drinking Water Protection Section will speak on the state response to increasing nitrates in drinking water.
Workshop led by the University of Minnesota in partnership with The Jo Daviess Conservation Foundation and the League of Women Voters (LWV) - Jo Daviess County, LWV- Upper Mississippi River Region Inter League Organization, LWV- Lake Michigan Region Inter League Organization. With grant funds from 1 Mississippi; an organization supported by The McKnight and Walton Family Foundations.
$20 per person. Includes morning and afternoon coffee, juice and refreshments, and lunch. Who should attend? League of Women Voter members and Rotary Club members from Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota, staff from conservation land trust organizations, Extension and Sea Grant educators, teachers and informal science educators, and community members from the surrounding area that want to lead water and land conservation education efforts. About the Watershed Game The Watershed Game is an interactive tool that helps individuals understand the connection between land use and water quality. Participants learn how a variety of land uses impact water and natural resources, increase their knowledge of best management practices (BMPs), and learn how their choices can prevent adverse impacts. Participants apply plans, practices, and policies that help them achieve a water quality goal for a stream, lake, or river. The Watershed Game is available in four versions. The Stream, Lake, and River Versions for Local Leaders are used with elected and appointed officials, community leaders, business leaders, and citizens and a Classroom Version for use with middle to high school youth audiences. The Watershed Game is a curriculum and resource developed and published by the University of Minnesota Sea Grant Program and University of Minnesota Extension. This training will feature:
Objectives of the Train the Trainer Workshop:
Registration Information Participants can register online at http://z.umn.edu/rockford. Click here for a workshop flyer For more information, please contact: John Bilotta | 612-624-7708 | [email protected] Bonnie Cox | 815-238-1725 | [email protected]  Make your reservations now for discounted room rates at the Historic De Soto House Hotel in downtown Galena!  LWV of Jo Daviess County is leading the way in forging partnerships with Rotary Clubs in the Upper Mississippi River watershed. Rationale: The problem of nutrient pollution is widespread and systemic in the Upper Mississippi River Watershed, a watershed that encompasses all but very small areas of Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Each of these four states is engaged in efforts to reduce total nitrogen and phosphorus in this watershed by 45%. To reach this goal, hundreds of our communities and thousands of our citizens will need to engage in “spreading the word, growing collaboration, and focusing on action” to get the job done. LWV Jo Daviess is working with the Galena Rotary Club to develop a suggested model for how these two already organized, active, and trustworthy civic organizations can team up to help reach this goal. Partnerships between local LWV’s and Rotary clubs will be formed to spread the word about nutrient pollution and what we all can do to reduce impacts. One element of this work will be sponsorship of watershed education events through use of the Watershed Game with community groups such as city councils, resort core boards and other civic groups. UMRR ILO member Leagues are urged to send a representative to training so they can run the Watershed Games on their own. Thanks to LWV Jo Daviess, training will be offered in lovely Galena, Illinois, on October 24, which is the first anniversary of the ILO’s official launch. What a fitting way to celebrate! The training is being held at the DeSoto House Hotel, Galena. September 23rd is the deadline for room reservations within the block reserved. The rate is $90/night available for the nights of the 23rd and 24th. Guests should call 815/777-0090 or 800/343-6562 to make their reservations and should reference the “Watershed Training” block of rooms to get the discounted rate. The cost of the training is only $25, to cover food costs. Please use this form to register for the training.
 On August 1, the UMRR Board met at the Upper Mississippi National Wildlife and Fish Refuge Visitor Center in Onalaska, Wisconsin (near La Crosse). We were joined by Megen Kabele from the Mississippi Valley Conservancy. This group works with farmers and other land owners to protect farmland from increasingly intense land uses through perpetual conservation easements that are negotiated with the land owners and then enforced by the Conservancy. The Mississippi Valley Conservancy (MVC), a regional, non-profit land trust, has permanently conserved 17,369 acres of blufflands, prairies, wetlands, and streams in and around the Mississippi, Kickapoo and Wisconsin Rivers since their founding in 1997. More than a million visitors to the area each year enjoy the scenic beauty of MVC nature preserves. Megan told us that the MVC works with private landowners and local communities on voluntary conservation projects in nine counties along or near the Mississippi River: Buffalo, Trempealeau, Jackson, La Crosse, Monroe, Vernon, Crawford, Richland and Grant Counties. The Conservancy uses voluntary tools such as conservation easements, land acquisitions, and a landowner registry program to protect lands for their ecology, scenic beauty, outdoor recreation potential, and prime agricultural soils. MVC works hard to restore native natural communities by removing invasive species and conducting prescribed burns. Additionally, the Conservancy provides hand-on learning experiences in the outdoors for thousands of young people and works to foster a conservation ethic. Megen is a native of Northeast Iowa, where she was raised on a small farm near the Wapsipinicon River. She studied Forest Management at Iowa State and later worked with the Forest Service on the Pike-San Isabel National Forest in Colorado. As a Lands Administrator for the Forest Service, Megen was involved with land use activities on National Forest, focusing on recreational and non-recreational activities that also included hard rock mining. Her background in realty actions include land exchange, purchase, donation, and due diligence. Thanks to Carolyn Mahlum-Jenkins, after the meeting, we were given a tour of the USGS Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center research facility in La Crosse. This center is working cooperatively with the US Army Corps of Engineers on Upper Mississippi River restoration. Thanks to Randy Hines for giving us the tour! The Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge is a wonderful facility and well worth a visit if you are in the area. There are hiking trails, restored prairies and sweeping vistas and lots of birds, especially in the spring and fall. Another great place to hike nearby is the McGilvray Seven Bridges Road through the Van Loon Scientific and Natural Area. La Crosse is a city that is embracing its waterfront. Visitors can take paddle boat tours on the Mississippi and see visiting vessels as well as wonderful river environments. Sunset from Granddad’s Bluff is not to be missed when you are in town to enjoy the Upper Mississippi!
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