Bluestem Prairie

Editorial: everyone's got to find the river

The Mankato Free Press editorializes this morning in We’re all responsible for a better river:

The Minnesota River basin will get statewide attention Sunday (6 p.m. KARE-11 TV) with a one-hour documentary, narrated by Ron Schara, well-known outdoorsman and host of the Minnesota Bound television series.

The state’s namesake river had been listed as one of the dirtiest in the nation and big challenges remain to improve it. But the documentary showcases the many people who continue to better the river and the growing number of people who appreciate the gem we have running through southern Minnesota.

The river was a pretty nasty piece of work when I grew up in Southern Minnesota--but then a growing conservation and environmental movement began to change the way we thought about the green world around us. The documentary reflects some local work that sea change provoked:

The documentary is an informative, well-done program that shows the energy and successes in the basin. It’s clear that residents have in the past decade become more interested in the river and more are enjoying it recreationally.

The valley is a unique gift that was long taken for granted, neglected and used as a sewer. There is momentum building in support of the river but difficult choices need to be made to bring true water quality improvement.

And those who don't appreciate the river? The true haints of the world. Next time a smooth-talking politican in a suit  carries on about the need to end environmental regulation, think of the river.

 A list of watch parties along the river for those who want to learn more:

Via Citizens United for the River Environment's (CURE) Facebook event, here's a list:

River Revival: Working Together for a Clean Minnesota River
June 12th, 2011 at 6:00pm on KARE 11 TV

Gather together with friends up and down the river to watch and discuss this documentary which highlights the river's problems but also showcases the fact that citizens are doing something about it.

LOCATIONS:

Ortonville:
Headwaters Grill and Bar
17 2nd St NW, Ortonville,             320-839-2270      
4:00-7:30
Hosts: Dale and Mary Homan, Duane Ninneman

Montevideo and Granite Falls:
5014 Highway 212 SW, Montevideo,             320-269-9055      
5:30-7:30
Hosts: Patrick Moore and Butch Halterman, Steve Virnig

New Ulm:
Concordia Lanes and Kegel Klub
416 19th St N, New Ulm,            507-354-2923      
5:30-7:30
Hosts: Scott Sparlin, Jack Lauer
Call Scott at             507-276-2280      
Free Refreshments will be served

Mankato:
Rounders Sports Bar and Grill
414 South Front Street, Mankato, 507-388-776
4:30-7:30
Hosts: Shannon Fisher
RSVP Scott Kudelka at             507-389-2304       or scott.kudelka@mnsu.edu

Red Wing
Jimmy's Pub 5th Floor Summit Room St. James Hotel
5:30 - 7:30 p.m.
Host: Mike McKay and the Lake Pepin Legacy Alliance

There's even a location in the Cities for my urban hipster readers who might find it ironic to attend:

Bloomington:
MN Valley National Wildlife Refuge Visitors Center
3815 American Blvd, Minneapolis,             952-854-5900      
5:00-7:30
Hosts: Lori Nelson and Shelly Miller
Call Shelly at             952-881-9055     

Photo: via The Minnesota River Valley Scenic Byway.

KARE-11 to air "River Revival: Working Together to Save the Minnesota River" on June 12

I was born in Mankato, where the Blue Earth River meets the Minnesota at its bend. That's where the cabin that my maternal ancestors the Otts built in the 1850s now stands nearboth rivers in Mankato's Sibley Park. I think that watershed was my first love, and remains so.

Not that it's an easy love, because the Minnesota River can be difficult, flooding, muddying the waters, and dropping a load of dirt at her mouth. We all have our moments.

But I'm not alone in my riparian romance, as the coalition of groups that launched the site for a documentary, "Working Together to Save the Minnesota River" attests. The hour-long documentary (which I haven't seen) will be aired in a week on KARE-11 at 6 p.m.

Those who want to learn more about the river and efforts to clean up the old hag's image can join watch parties along the river and her companion streams. Via Citizens United for the River Environment's (CURE) Facebook event, here's a list:

River Revival: Working Together for a Clean Minnesota River
June 12th, 2011 at 6:00pm on KARE 11 TV

Gather together with friends up and down the river to watch and discuss this documentary which highlights the river's problems but also showcases the fact that citizens are doing something about it.

LOCATIONS:

Ortonville:
Headwaters Grill and Bar
17 2nd St NW, Ortonville, 320-839-2270
4:00-7:30
Hosts: Dale and Mary Homan, Duane Ninneman

Montevideo and Granite Falls:
5014 Highway 212 SW, Montevideo, 320-269-9055
5:30-7:30
Hosts: Patrick Moore and Butch Halterman, Steve Virnig

New Ulm:
Concordia Lanes and Kegel Klub
416 19th St N, New Ulm,507-354-2923
5:30-7:30
Hosts: Scott Sparlin, Jack Lauer
Call Scott at 507-276-2280
Free Refreshments will be served

Mankato:
Rounders Sports Bar and Grill
414 South Front Street, Mankato, 507-388-776
4:30-7:30
Hosts: Shannon Fisher
RSVP Scott Kudelka at 507-389-2304 or scott.kudelka@mnsu.edu

Red Wing
Jimmy's Pub 5th Floor Summit Room St. James Hotel
5:30 - 7:30 p.m.
Host: Mike McKay and the Lake Pepin Legacy Alliance

There's even a location in the Cities for my urban hipster readers who might find it ironic to attend:

Bloomington:
MN Valley National Wildlife Refuge Visitors Center
3815 American Blvd, Minneapolis, 952-854-5900
5:00-7:30
Hosts: Lori Nelson and Shelly Miller
Call Shelly at 952-881-9055

Here's a montage of clips from the documentary, which closes with former Gov. Arne Carlson saying, "It should teach the current array of policy leaders, cut all this negative nonsense out and learn to work together."

The Youtube:

Photo: via The Minnesota River Valley Scenic Byway.

Bleg: If you enjoyed this post, please consider throwing some coin in Bluestem Prairie's tip jar during its early June bleg-o-thon. To learn more, read Bluestem Prairie preservation drive: help keep a different prairie voice publishing.

Chronicles of Drazistan: enough with the green roofs, send more flood water

The sharp-eared Phoenix Woman called my attention to a report on Minnesota Public Radio in which Mayor Rybak responds to a Steve Drazkowski rant on the House floor about the Minneapolis city budget.

First, I'm not surprised that it took Steve Drazkowski so long to discover that running a large city often involves large dollar amounts. After all, the Draz has devoted more time to trying to get public assistance recipients pay for drug tests, to make English the official state language, and to eliminate pay equity for  women working for local government.

Also, rooting out those walnut trees, which, if left on their own in state parks, might fall down and rot after several hundred years.

Draz seemed especially offended by the notion of a green roof in the rant. Fortunately the mayor got a chance to respond in Rybak fires back at GOP lawmaker over 'wasteful spending' charge:

Let's look at those green roofs. We're in a period of flooding in this state. One million gallons of water is captured on that green roof at Target Center that's not going to create flooding in this state. The city of Minneapolis was under a state mandate to lessen dramatically the amount of water we put in the Mississippi, and we've delivered, and by doing that we've lessened flooding in this state.

So when people take things out of context and don't understand what they're for, they don't make a whole lot of sense. I could go line by line through any of the state budgets and come up with some outrageous things.

But the fact of the matter is the largest city in this state has focused primarily its spending on public safety. We've lowered crime to dramatic lows. We've created jobs, and we're moving this economy forward, and we have restored fiscal stability to the city where our bond rating had been lost a decade ago. Now I'm proud of that work.

Perhaps Draz feels his district--downstream from Minneapolis on the Mississippi River--isn't getting its fair share of storm sewer water from the Mill City. It must be frustrating to know that the efficacy of green roofs for stormwater management is a given.

Those walnut trees growing in the deep ravines of Whitewater State Park and on the bluffland in Frontenac State Park are probably helping to withhold water from the floods as well. Frivolous, wasteful things.

Related post: Confluence: why the mayor of Minneapolis was a voice in Montevideo

BREAKING NEWS: New Ulm Irish community lacks permit to bury toxic German cuisine

We were warned.

At the urging of Range DFLers hungry for jobs, and Republicans eager to widen the gulf between the rich and poor, earlier this month Governor Dayton signed into law a measure to make the permit process in Minnesota move at "the speed of commerce."

The pristine Minnesota River Valley will be the first of the state's wilderness areas to suffer the consequences of the rush to nonjudgement. Indeed, the Brown County metropolis's Irish community has moved at the speed of a quick slip jig to test the new limits of the law.

The New Ulm Journal reports in St. Patrick’s Day to have heart healthy theme:

The annual Sauerkraut Burying Contest will begin at 3:15 and will continue until all of the kraut in town is gone, so resident are asked to search their cupboards and bring what they can to Irish Park.

"This event was so popular last year that we will also be burying Lutefisk," said Kearney. "We are hoping no one lets the MPCA know about this because we could get in trouble for polluting the soil and groundwater."

However, the Irish believe the improvement in air quality will more than make up for the soil and water pollution.

Given the predictions of widespread, record flooding for the New Ulm area, and the city's dearth of resources for flood mitigation, the improper disposal of sauerkraut and lutefisk could trigger widespread degradation of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers if that stuff oozes into the river.

Bluestem Prairie's sources in the area recommend a full investigation by citizen journalists.

"I don't know what those folks are thinking," local wind energy expert Millie Seppmann said.

Local Tea Party activists are outraged by another item in the New Ulm Journal's reporting:

City Attorney Hugh Nierengarten called in and said he had heard the state was going to put a tax on brains to help settle its budget problems. Nierengarten asked if he could qualify for a refund.

A rally to protest the proposed tax on brains is in the works. No word if Representative Glenn Gruenhagen plans to seek a temporary restraining order to halt the "Kiss Me, I'm Irish" kissing contest:

Other causes for concern include potential violations of the state's brewing laws:

The St. Patrick's Monument steering committee has been working with the Schell's Brewery to develop a green beer called Blarney Beer. The committee hoped to have it in the liquor stores by the first of this year to raise money for the St. Patrick Monument, but Schell's has been so busy due to the popularity of its Grain Belt and Nordeast beer that it hasn't had time to make Blarney Beer. The committee was told that if it bought Schell's beer this year it would definitely turn green within eight or nine months and be ready for sale in 2012.

Read the rest of the atrocities in the New Ulm Journnal.

Rep. Andrew Falk: Helpful resources for flood preparedness (and flood insurance)

As Bluestem noted yesterday in Flood worries spill out across state; overflow crowd greets Dayton in Montevideo, the western reaches of the Minnesota River Valley are expected to experience some of the worst flooding this spring.

It's not surprising, that Rep. Andrew Falk, who represents HD 20A on the river (Lyle Koenen, 20B, has Montevideo) sent out a press release about flood preparedness. It's importance for property owners to obtan flood insurance ASAP.

From Falk's office:

State Representative Andrew Falk today warned Western Minnesotans to prepare for spring flooding across the region.

“Minnesota’s state government has been preparing for various flooding scenarios,” said Falk, noting Governor Dayton and his administration have held meetings across the state. “I encourage residents in Western Minnesota to be prepared for the spring thaw and take action to protect their assets. If your property is at risk of flooding, I encourage you to look into a flood insurance policy immediately.”

Flood insurance policies are not activated until 30 days after the premium is paid in full.

The Minnesota Department of Commerce has prepared the following flood preparation tips in advance of flood season:

Is My Home or Business At Risk?
The best way to know if your home or business is at risk for flooding this spring is by logging on to www.floodsmart.gov. By inputting your address into the Flood Risk Profile, you can find out if your property is in a low, moderate, or high risk flood area. The Flood Risk Profile will also estimate your annual premium cost and suggest local insurance agents serving your area.

What Should I Do Next?
If you already have flood insurance for your home or business, contact your insurance agent to discuss your policy and ensure you are prepared for any possible flooding. Then, take a photo inventory of your building and its contents to properly document your assets. This will save you time and headaches after a flood. You can find out more about home inventory checklists on the Department of Commerce website.

If you do not have flood insurance, use the Flood Risk Profile to determine the threat of flooding in your area and identify local insurance agents who can help you purchase flood coverage.

When Should I Start Preparing?
It is important to act now, and take easy, affordable, preventive measures to avoid devastating losses in the upcoming flood season. Flood coverage doesn’t become active until 30 days after your premium is paid in full. It may be better to pay a few hundred dollars for an affordable flood policy now than pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages after it is too late. Remember, even if your property has never flooded before, 25 percent of all flood insurance claims are in areas where residents and business owners never expected a flood to occur.

Who Do I Contact With Questions?
You may call the Commerce Department consumer helpline with any questions you have regarding flood insurance at (651) 296-2488. You can also find more information about residential and commercial flood insurance on our website at www.commerce.state.mn.us.

 Photo: State Rep. Andrew Falk.

Flood worries spill out across state; overflow crowd greets Dayton in Montevideo

Today, another inch or so of snow fell in these parts today, and more snow is predicted to be on the way in the next couple of weeks, after one of the snowiest winters on record.

Everywhere across Minnesota, papers report about the probable threat of spring flooding. The Mankato Free Press reports in Firefighters train for flood work:

. . .Every major river in the state is at risk of surpassing flood stage. Locally, the Minnesota River at Henderson has a nearly 50 percent chance of exceeding the river’s record crest from last fall while the river in New Ulm and Mankato has a better than 90-percent chance of exceeding flood stage, according to the National Weather Service. . . .

Cities and counties from Owatonna to Brown County to Houston County discuss buying sandbags. The Fargo Forum cautions pet owners to have a plan for their pets in case of flooding.

On Facebook, a friend active in student government at the University of Minnesota posts his status as going to Moorhead to build an ark, putting an entirely new spin on the old, divine instructions to shipbuild with gopherwood. Moorhead had called for volunteers to fill 1 million sandbags.

Montevideo is predicted to be one of the hardest hit cities in the state, so it's no wonder that over 200 people packed the Montevideo American Legion when Governor Dayton traveled to the Minnesota River Valley town. the West Central Tribune reports in Flood preparation taking shape in western Minn:

Amid warnings to prepare for major flooding, more than 200 people on Friday filled the American Legion Club in Montevideo to hear Gov. Mark Dayton and public safety officials say they are ready to do all they can to help.

“We’re ready to respond to whatever occurs,” Dayton said.

The governor said the state is preparing for widespread flooding.

Adjutant General Rick Nash of the Minnesota National Guard said roughly three battalions and ample supplies of heavy equipment are ready to respond to flooding needs in the Red, Minnesota, Mississippi and St. Croix river basins.

The National Weather Service is “absolutely sure” that major flooding will be experienced in the upper Minnesota River Valley, according to Dan Luna, director of the Chanhassen office.

Luna said the most recent flood forecast projects a 90 percent probability of reaching last year’s flood levels in the Montevideo area, and a 30 percent probability for exceeding 2001 levels.

Staffers in the Walz and Franken offices tell me that "everything is flood preparation now," as one source put it.

The details are shaping up. The Tribune article noted:

Area communities and counties are already actively preparing for what’s coming. Montevideo has plans to erect a clay dike to raise the U.S. Highway 212 levee and the 1969 levee to meet the expected flood levels, according to Steve Jones, city manager.

Communities along tributaries to the Minnesota River are likewise preparing. On Hawk Creek, both Maynard and Clara City have plans to begin filling sandbags in anticipation of flooding. Mayor Richard Groothuis of Maynard noted that last year’s flooding on Hawk Creek saw waters cover the 125-year-old city cemetery, the first time that occurred.

State Reps. Lyle Koenen, DFL-Clara City, and Chris Swedzinski, R-Ghent, said there have already been discussions in the Legislature about reserving state funds for both flood mitigation and recovery needs after the flooding.

In a phone interview in late February, Congressman Walz assured me that FEMA's plans would not be affected by a shutdown of the federal government.

Here's hoping that Koenen and Swedzinski are right about the state legislature using foresight in funding flood mitigation and recovery efforts. From the sounds of the reports, Montvideo and other cities along the state's many rivers will need all sides to come together in the looming emergency.

Photo:  Past ice jam on the Little Minnesota River. Photo via MNDOT.

Spring flooding report update: Schell's brewery owner relieves risk to sacred local beer reserves

Last week, Bluestem raised an alarm based on a story in the New Ulm Journal in Spring flooding report: New Ulm budget woes jeopardize sacred local beer reserves.

Josh Moniz, the NUJ reporter who covered the city council meeting during which flood relief efforts were discussed, has emailed some welcome news:

I've talked w/ Ted Marti since the meeting and it sounds like he has found a back-up warehouse to ship the beer if the flooding gets too bad. So, no need to worry.

Moniz notes that a more thorough update will be published in the Journal's Progress section, out on Friday.

I will sleep soundly through tonight's blizzard, secure in the knowledge that New Ulm's exquisite brewery products won't be exposed to the whims of Minnesota River flood waters.

One way lovers of the wonderful old establishment and other Minnesota breweries can aid our native beer--now that sandbagging isn't a priority--is to ask legislators to support a law which will allow larger breweries to . The Star Tribune editorial board urged passage in Brewing up 'jobs, jobs, jobs':

A bill likely to be introduced in the Legislature next week would amend a state statute on brewery operations.

If it's adopted, the Surly Brewing Co. plans to build a new brewery and event center that would house a 250-seat restaurant, bar and roof deck. Surly's beer would only be sold on tap, and the brewer would not sell liquor or wine.

Unlike with smaller brewpubs such as Rock Bottom in Minneapolis, current state laws don't allow a brewer of Surly's size to offer on-site drinking. The outdated limitation also impacts other Minnesota breweries in the same size classification, including Summit in St. Paul and Schell's in New Ulm.

While Schell's hasn't announced any plans related to this proposed change in the state's law, it certainly would be wonderful to buy a tap of good New Ulm beer at the historic brewery.

Update: Two of Minnesota's mayors agree that the bill should pass. On Facebook, Minneapolis mayor RT Rybak and Duluth mayor Don Ness engaged in a friendly rivalry:

R.T. Rybak

Here's why I am in favor of changing the state laws so we can have more local beer made and sold in Minnesota. I would love a Surly or Fulton brewhouse in Minneapolis and love to go to a brewery in New Ulm, Duluth, the Range, Lucan or other parts of the state . If Grain Belt could transform Minneapolis and Schmidt transform St. Paul a generation ago, we can do that again. . . .

Don Ness Nice work RT - you have our support in Duluth on this one! This change also would allow places like Duluth's Brewhouse to wholesale. I love Surly, but the Starfire Ale at the Brewhouse is Minnesota's best beer. I'm getting thirsty - time for a Furious!

Image: Schell's Snowstorm. Mmm, beer.

Confluence: why the mayor of Minneapolis was a voice in Montevideo

What would bring a big-city mayor out to a small Minnesota River Valley town on a Saturday night in February?

What that prairie river signifies, meandering across the state from Big Stone Lake on the western border with South Dakota to its confluence near Fort Snelling south of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Minneapolis Mayor Rybak was a Clean Up the River Environment (CURE) Annual Meeting speaker on February 12 in Montevideo.

A bad cold kept me home; fortunately, John G. White, editor of the Clara City Herald, and Tom Cherveny, a staff writer for the West Central Tribune, cover the event, which drew around 300 people from across the region.

Cherveny reports in R.T. Rybak endorses local foods, clean water economy:

Those promoting a local foods and sustainable, agricultural economy as the way to clean water and a healthy landscape in the Upper Minnesota River Valley have a partner in the urban center of Minneapolis.

“We are part of two, big grassroots efforts that are about to meet in the center,’’ Mayor R. T. Rybak told a crowd of nearly 300 at the annual meeting for Clean Up our River Environment in Montevideo on Feb. 12.

Rybank [sic] applauded the efforts taking place in rural Minnesota. “The land is a mirror. It reflects back the values of those who love on top of it,’’ he said, adding: “I have to say that the land that you live on looks back and smiles, you do wonderful things but you have to keep up the work.’’

He pointed to efforts in Minneapolis as well to promote a local foods economy. He cited examples ranging from “Home Grown Minneapolis’’ which teaches young people how to raise and prepare their own foods to school lunch programs that feature foods from Minnesota farms.

Rybak said Minnesota needs to “reconnect’’ and redevelop the farm-to-town markets that existed when the state was first settled.

Go read the WCT article. In the article first published in the Clara City paper, White notes that Rybak and his wife, local food activist Megan O'Hara, sat with small town mayors:

He was seated at the “mayor’s table” with the mayors of Montevideo, Granite Falls, Watson and Belle Plaine, along with his wife, Megan, the Minneapolis mayor told a guest, “If we were back in Minneapolis at an event like this people would have been gone after two hours. This is just so comfortable.”

Two documentary filmmakers were the keynote speakers:

Keynoting the event were John Hickman and Jon Carlson, who are collaborating on  a documentary of “Working Together for the Minnesota River.” The two spoke of their challenges and successes in putting together the film and interviews that is scheduled to run as a series on Ron Schara’s Minnesota Bound in March and April.

That should be worth watching. CURE is a deeply social-and-legacy media savvy organization that gets it about statewide collaboration, as Bluestem noted in a post late last year, Montevideo's CURE wins $25,000 Bush Foundation collaboration grant.

One of the standard tropes inflicted upon rural voters by social conservatives is that somehow "rural values" exist in a Pale surrounding the Twin Cities; usually, these "rural' values seem to center on being afraid of someone else, and using that fear to punish.

CURE and other groups learning the lesson of the Minnesota River Valley can teach us all that maybe our economic and moral values are much more alike in terms of the future we can seek together, and that geography unites us--and a very pretty river runs through it.

Photos: Megan, Grace and RT Rybak meet some cattle on Prairie Horizons Farms (above); CURE's storefront in Montevideo (below).

Spring flooding report: New Ulm budget woes jeopardize sacred local beer reserves

Like the humble prairie pasqueflowers that wait beneath snowdrifts, one small town news item has been buried beneath a blizzard of coverage of partisan state budget bickering, Wisconsin workers walking (and sleeping) like Egyptians, and spring flood predictions.

Lack of resources to construct a temporary berm puts a warehouse full of Schell's "brewery products" at risk from those floods, the New Ulm Journal reports.

The funding woes are laid out in New Ulm Council debates flood response:

. . . The Council discussed the construction of a clay berm to protect at-risk properties along the Minnesota River. The berm was estimated to cost $350,000.

Gramentz explained that the City was in an unique situation regarding the funding of a berm.

Previously, the City was reimbursed for emergency procedures in the '97 and '01 floods by FEMA.

However, Gramentz explained that the City only received the funding because the berms protected infrastructure and only coincidently protected properties. Since that time, the City has improved protection of infrastructure, like making the sewer water-tight, to the point that it is no longer at risk. He said the City wouldn't be able to make a strong case that the berm was protecting infrastructure. He said that it was unlikely that FEMA would reimburse the City for only protecting property. . . .

. . .The consensus was that it was unlikely the berm would be built, especially with budget restrictions and a lack of FEMA funds.

Councilor Les Schultz said the City's challenge was it couldn't afford to build a berm if the flooding was light, but it needed it if the flood was catastrophic. He said that the uncertainty over the flood levels made the City unable to build.

One property owner outlined his issues with this approach:

Ted Marti, owner of Schell's Brewery, addressed the Council, stating he need a definitive decision about the berm.

"My problem isn't that I can just find another warehouse if I flood. I need to know now what the City will do so I can prepare," said Marti.

After the meeting, Marti said that the Council's decision put him in a difficult position. He said that he would have to look for another location to store brewery products or he would need to construct his own berm. He said both would be difficult.

And there we have it. It's come to this. If that beer, lying vulnerable in the path of a rising river's torrents, doesn't make the case for adequately funding LGA by the barrelful, I simply don't know what does.

Moreover, one would think that we could readily tap the imagination of the most disaster-hardened FEMA bureaucrat to make the case that Mr. Marti's brewery operation, the second oldest family brewery in America, is a crucial part of our nation's infrastructure.

Listed on the U.S. National Registry of Historic Places, the brewery opened in 1860 by August Schell, to came to the Minnesota River Valley with a group of socialist gymnasts. It's one of the few outlying buildings left standing in New Ulm by Dakota warriors during the 1862 U.S-Dakota War. (The brewery history says that Mrs. Schell's habit before the war of inviting her visiting Dakota neighbors in for a little lunch prompted indigenous soldiers to spare the property).

The brewery survived Prohibition and the years when the nation's tastes in suds dictated the production of "deer piss."

Now known for its splendid seasonal and craft beers, Schell's has become a beacon for both enterprise and beer drinkers--especially given the many beerfests staged on the brewery grounds. Recently named Minnesota's Family Business of the Year:

Schell’s Brewing Company currently employs 49 full time employees, three family members, and 19 part time employees.  Five extended family members hold titled board positions and the remainder of the shareholders is made up of descendents of August Schell.  The Brewery has been 100% owned and operated by the same family since its inception in 1860. . . .

There's a party coming up, Bockfest:

Date: March 5th, 2011
Time: 11am - 4:30pm
Where: Schell's Brewery
Admission: $10  - Please note that part of the Bock Fest proceeds will go to benefit the Beyond the Yellow Ribbon Program in support of the New Ulm National Guard Unit and their families who are to be deployed this year.  Also, some proceeds will go to benefit the New Ulm Area Food Shelf. 

For the love of all that is sacred and tasty, FEMA, pay for that berm! Senators and Representatives! Fund LGA! Save our strategic beer reserves--the Grain Belt Nordeast you spare may be your own.

Governor Dayton, build that wall!

Image: The label for Schell's Bock Beer. When our beer supply is under attack, stand up and fight back.

Mashing-up "shall issue" and "may issue": clarifying some Capitol Chatter

Reading the article, Packing in Capitol makes some feel safe, in Don Davis's Capitol Chatter, I had to pause--no, make that stop in my tracks--when I read the following passage:

To be legal, anyone carrying a concealed weapon must have a permit.

Cornish, the Lake Crystal police chief, said sheriffs are careful about who gets permits, and they may deny permit requests even if a person has no convictions on his record.

Perhaps the word "may" is just Davis's word choice (I'll leave the use of the male pronoun for the Pink Pistols to thrash over), but this statement confuses the issue--and muddies the waters over the historic struggle over permits to carry a pistol in Minnesota. The permits to carry issue is frequently called "conceal carry" but that's a misleading term. Permit holders don't have to conceal their pistol to require a permit (somewhat different rules cover rifles, shotguns and BB guns).

The entire battle was over whether sheriffs "shall issue" permits to any eligible citizen who applies and pays for a permit, without having to supply a reason for requesting the permit, or whether, under the old "may issue" language, sheriff's departments were granted far great discretion to deny any citizen who applied for a permit and stated a reason for asking.

The new law allows for greater gun rights; my civil liberty of gun ownership and enjoyment of a firearm (provided I meet the very reasonable criteria spelled out in the law) can't be denied at the whim of the local sheriff.

Few permit applications are denied under the current "shall issue" law; few permit holders commit crimes in Minnesota while carrying their firearms in public. One section of the law requires that the commissioner of public safety report to the legislature each year; the report are available online here, following the FAQ about permits.

It's interesting scrolling through the reports. Only a few hundred permits are denied each year, and while the privacy of each permit holder and denied applicant is preserved, the reasons for each rejected permit are noted. While sheriffs can  deny an applicant for "danger to self or others," since permits can be denied for more than one reason, when one gets to the details on each case, it's clear that while some denied applicants might not have a conviction to their discredit, they do fall within the other categories the legislature clearly spelled out in Minnesota Statute 624.714 (Subd 2).

So was Cornish soft-pedaling "shall issue" while being interviewed about carrying a gun during session is the wake of the Arizona shootings?

The grandstanding Cornish is certainly the last person I'd imagine doing that. While stranger things have happened in Minnesota politics and it's not impossible that Cornish came down with a sudden bout of angst and political correctness, the Davis paraphrase illustrates how quickly the discussion of this issue can become muddy as the Blue Earth River after a good thunderstorm.

That, or too much Sweetwater at Kelly Inn.

Blogs you should read: Come Saturday Morning and Renaissance Post on the grown-up governor

While her identity remains shrouded in mystery, blogger Phoenix Woman is no stranger to those who want their political commentary served with style and sass. In today's Come Saturday Morning: Governor Grownup Shows Us How It’s Done, over at FireDoglake, she writes:

Now Pawlenty is gone, free to pursue his presidential pipe dream for which he nearly wrecked the state by putting the whims of hard-right GOP presidential primary voters above the welfare of the people he was elected to govern. The nationwide Republican wave succeeded in tipping both state legislative houses back into official GOP control, but even it couldn’t get the virulent teabagger Tom Emmer into the Governor’s Mansion, and for the first time since my early adulthood, Minnesota now has a Democratic governor, Mark Dayton.

In this day and age, it’s a common thing for Democratic executive-branch leaders, be they governors or presidents, to cower at the sight of Republicans — and this is doubly true when the Republicans actually have official control of one or houses of a state or Federal legislature. Which is why it’s so refreshing to see Governor Dayton, politely yet fearlessly, go toe-to-toe with Republicans and their patrons.

Go over and read the rest of it there. In noting the strength of Dayton's pick for Department of Natural Resources commissioner--Tom Landwehr, the dream candidate for outdoors enthusiasts and conservationists--the post draws from commentary by Neil Haugerud, now writing at Renaissance Post.

Bookmark Renaissance Post. Haugerud delivers nuggets like these:

Landwehr’s appointment terminates an unhappy period in resource management direction in the Land of Sky Blue Waters. Neither the Boy Governor, nor his Wrasslin’ predecessor could see the need to go beyond cronyism in their natural resources appointments. Those administrations seemed to think that companionship in the blind or duck boat (duties amply served by competent Labrador retrievers) was sufficient qualification for a Natural Resources Commissioner. Dayton rightfully recognizes the value that Minnesotans place on their wildlands and outdoor recreation, and his appointment reflects the challenge and gravity of resource management.

Emphasis on the sentence that induced envy here in Hutch, and an appreciation for a Governor who can respect both a good dog and good government, while possessing the wisdom to know the difference.

A larger-than-life figure in Fillmore County, Haugerud:

has been — among other things — a carpenter, a farmer, a Sunday school teacher, a Marine, an interrogator of accused criminals (who got his subjects to talk with kindness, not waterboarding), a deputy sheriff and sheriff, a real estate and insurance agent, a prominent state legislator, the chair of the Upper Mississippi River Basin Commission, a small-town newspaper columnist, a mediator and consultant in conflict management, and a loving husband, father, and grandfather.

Some readers may remember his commentary in the Star Tribune, We're creating police who are quick to shoot, published shortly after the 2009 police killing of Tyler Heilman in Kasota. It's good to hear from another progressive voice in rural Minnesota.

Photo: Governor Mark Dayton.

Montevideo's CURE wins $25,000 Bush Foundation collaboration grant

Montevideo is a lovely, vital small town on the Minnesota River, northwest of the bend at Mankato. Though remote from the Twin Cities, the town is home to people with progressive ideas about food and conservation. It's home to the Western Minnesota office of the Land Stewardship Project and some great sustainable farmers.

It's also home to Clean Up the River Environment, which was founded in 1992 to "restore, celebrate and protect the Upper Minnesota River Watershed." The group, which has over 500 members, has done great work to clean up the Minnesota, as well as organizing to promote clean energy--leading the way for citizens with questions about the need for the now-stalled Big Stone II coal-fired power plant.

Via the West Central Tribune, I learned that CURE's Friendship tour wins statewide contest with $25,000 prize:

A project designed to foster friendly relationships between up-streamers in the Minnesota River Watershed with down-streamers from the Mississippi River and Lake Pepin area has received the most votes in a statewide on-line contest to promote collaboration. . . .

. . .CURE worked with the Lake Pepin Legacy Alliance, based in Red Wing and the Minnesota Ag Water Resources Coalition (a statewide coalition of agricultural organizations), the Minnesota River Board, the Minnesota River Watershed Alliance and the Cannon River Watershed Partnership to sponsor the tours in August and September of 2010.

CURE organizes tours on an ongoing basis, though less hardy Twin Citians may wish to wait until spring to come out and see what people working together can do for better food and a cleaner environment along what should be a pretty prairie river:

Contact CURE to arrange your personal guide service to the region's environmental and cultural assets. For a fee, we can arrange tours of the area's:

• Rivers
• Wildlife Refuges
• Prairies
• Rock Outcrops
• Cemeteries
• Art Studios

More on the story from the MonteNews. And there's even a CURE Facebook page for readers to like.

2012: How should Minnesota remember the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862?

In August, I served as a guide for Twin Cities freelance journalist and theater artist Sheila Regan in a tour of sites related to the U.S. -Dakota War of 1862.

The three-part series is a fascinating read over at the Twin Cities Daily Planet. As a partner of the TCDP, I'm posting one of the articles today, and links to the other articles are below.

By Sheila Regan, TC Daily Planet

September 16, 2010

In 1987, on the 125th anniversary of the execution of the Dakota warriors who were hanged at the end of the war, Minnesota's Governor Rudy Perpich declared a Year of Reconciliation.  A statue, called Winter Warrior was created at the site of the execution, and the remains of the executed men were returned from museums to the Dakota for proper burial. 

[As the sesquicentennial of the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 approaches, our series addresses the ongoing "war" about the accuracy of historical description, about the naming of events, and about the relation of peoples and history in Minnesota in the 21st century -- and about the remembrance and commemoration of the historical events of 1862.  The series:

Forest City to Fort Snelling: The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862
Trail of treaties: The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862
Telling the story today: The U.S.-Dakota War of 1862]

 

Naming events and places is a powerful part of history-making, and today's battles center over both naming and telling the story.

Many historians and activists insist that Fort Snelling was, in fact, a concentration camp for the 1600 Dakotas interned there after the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862. Those interned in the camp were women, children and old men, not combatants. Hundreds died as a result of the cold and abuses, and those who lived were removed from Minnesota in the spring.

The Minnesota Historical Society, which has a historical interpretive center at Fort Snelling, doesn't call it a concentration camp and doesn't mention the concentration camp on their website's Brief History Page.  However, the Visitor Center at Fort Snelling State Park, which is run by the Department of Natural Resources, does have a memorial for the Dakota who were held at the camp and uses the term "concentration camp." 

In Native Roots: How the Indians Enriched America, Jack Weatherford writes about a picture from the 1862-3 encampment at Fort Snelling:

The tepees seem so traditional, yet the identical appearance of the tepees, neatly arranged with an enclosure, offers a strange glimpse of a form that was to haunt the twentieth century.  The pictures show us the birth of an institution, the beginning of a whole new social practice of concentrating innocent civilians into an area and imprisoning them for protracted periods without charging them with any crime.

 Mankato State University's Minnesota history website also describes Fort Snelling as a concentration camp:

The remaining Dakota surrendered. Sibley's force rounded up 1700 Dakota women, children, and elders and began a forced march from the Lower Sioux Agency to a concentration camp at Fort Snelling. They walked 20 miles a day. Along the way they were subjected to physical and verbal violence by local white people. New Ulm residents poured hot, scalding water over their heads. Many were killed or died from hunger and sickness. ...

The remaining Dakota prisoners were treated with brutality. Soldiers held prisoners at Fort Snelling through the winter. The soldiers treated them brutally, violating the women and then killing them. Many people died from disease because of the crowded conditions. Others committed suicide because of the horrors they saw there. Some days soldiers buried as many as 50 people in a mass grave.

The Lower Sioux Agency historical site, which is run by the Minnesota Historical Society, also does not use the term "concentration camp." Instead, the term "prison camp" is used.   The problem with "prison camp," is that it implies that the inhabitants of the camp were criminals, which they were not. 

At the Lower Sioux Agency Historical Site, which is run by the Lower Sioux Community with funding from Minnesota Historical Society, Anthony Morse provided documentation for changes that were made on the historical markers inside the visitors' center.  The changes were made, he said, in 2000. 

The documents indicate historical information that used to be shown at the site and which now has been removed.  For example, there was information about Major Lawrence Taliaferro, an Indian Agent at Fort Snelling.  Previous signage spoke of Taliaferro's "sincere interest in the welfare of the Dakota and Chippewa," who "came to respect his truthfulness."  The marker read:  "His efforts went far to keep peace on the Minnesota frontier for many years." 

Another marker, about Fort Ridgley, formerly titled "Big Guns Hold the Fort," then was changed to "The Door to the Valley." 

Prairie Rambles: visiting 1862 U.S.-Dakota War sites

On Sunday, Twin Cities Daily Planet reporter Sheila Regan was my guest for a tour of places associated with the 1862 U.S. Dakota War. Regan had not traveled before to the upper Minnesota River Valley where many of the significant actions of the conflict took place, as her coverage of indigenous people's issues for the Twin Cities Daily Planet, The Circle and other publications focused on the Twin Cities.

Though the day was sweltering and part of our travels took us down dust-choked gravel road, the beauty of the wide valley impressed Sheila after driving miles through Meeker County's rolling hills and Renville County's flat farmland.

Not that either county was just drive-through. Leaving Hutchinson, we stopped at the marker near where Thaóyate Dúta (Little Crow) was murdered in 1863. The commemorative plaque on the side of Meeker County 18 used the name "Little Crow," while a red wooden stake stake near it honored the Dakota leader with his name in his own language.

The contrast underscores the tensions surrounding the story Regan is researching for the TCDP, described in Spot.us:

2012 marks the 150th Anniversary of the U.S.- Dakota war of 1862. The war ended with the largest one-day execution in American history, where 38 Dakota warriors were hanged on December 26, 1862 in Mankato, Minnesota. Some 1,700 Dakota women, children, and elders were forcibly marched to a concentration camp at Fort Snelling. 

Many American Indian advocates hope to bring attention to what happened, although there is disagreement about the best way to honor this dark history.

Some American Indians focus on the need for better American Indian representation both in cultural institutions such as the Minnesota Historical Society and in school curricula. Others call for the razing of Fort Snelling, which to them symbolizes the genocide of the Dakota people. 

I propose to write a story about the ramifications of the Dakota war for Minnesota today, and on the events and actions that will lead up to and mark the 2012 anniversary.

Spot.us is a tool for funding projects by freelance journalists like Regan who take on more extensive projects. Please consider visiting the Spot.us page set up for Sheila's project, and contributing what you can to help her with the expenses for the story.

The trip wasn't all business, though. As we tooled eastward on Renville County 15, I ordered Sheila to stop and back up, for there was a stand of ripe wild thicket plums beside the road.

While we grabbed a bag to put them in, we may have eaten more warm, ripe plums on the spot, the slight wild sour bite in each fruit surprising the palate inside the more familiar domestic plum sweetness.

When we reached the Lower Agency, the supervisor for the historical site noted that elders in the nearby community had observed that wild plum were now less abundant, given the use of farm chemicals.

I'll be dreaming about that sweet and biting memory of warm fruit on a northern slope for awhile, I think.

Photos: Roadside marker, photo by Sally Jo Sorensen (above); Wild Plums, photo by Sheila Regan (below).

Note: Bluestem Prairie is a Contributing Blog for the Daily Planet; we exchange articles at no cost to either venue under this agreement.

Birds of passage: prairie rivers and sloughs, Deepwater, and winter habitat

I write in a studio with a south-facing window, four blocks north of the Gopher Campfire Wildlife Sanctuary on the Crow River in Hutchinson. This morning, the usual suspects took wing: a few bachelor mallards, Canada geese and herons. American White Pelicans soared, riding the thermals. The squeaky-pump calls of yellow-headed blackbirds flow from a nearby storm-water pond.

Their presence is a counterpoint to the images coming out of the Gulf of Mexico, where tarballs and oil  from the Deepwater Horizon disaster have reached the beaches and marshes of Louisiana.

This spells trouble for the migratory birds that now grace the skies in my neighborhood. The Christmas Bird Count range map from the USGS's Patuxent Bird Identification Infocenter above illustrates the places where the pelicans winter. They're not the only birds who will be heading to Louisiana this winter.

News accounts now say that the leak itself may continue until August, and the cleanup many months after. How will that effect Minnesota's migratory birds?

It doesn't look good for them.

PRI's The World discussed the potential effects of the spill on migratory birds wintering or passing through the ruined habitat in the Impact of Gulf oil spill on migratory birds:

MARCO WERMAN:  Even if you live far from the Gulf coast, you may eventually see the effects of the oil spill in your own backyard.  That’s because millions of migratory birds pass through the spill area on their way to nesting grounds across North America.  Some of those birds could be sickened on their annual journey.  The World’s environment editor, Peter Thomson spoke to a conservationist about that concern and filed this report.

PETER THOMSON:  Imagine you’re a gray cheeked thrush, you weight about one ounce, you’ve flown 3,000 miles from your wintering grounds in Brazil on your way to Northern Canada.  You’re tired and hungry.  You settle into a patch of coastal Louisiana to rest and eat.  Say it’s the spring of 2011, a year after the Deep Water Horizon blow out and the gloppy brown oil from the wrecked off shore rig has been scooped off the beaches.  Everything here looks like it always did before the spill, but there’s still a problem.

MIKE PARR:  Oil, it has the capacity to soak into marshy areas and be held there and released slowly over a really long period of time.

THOMSON: That’s Mike Parr, Vice President of the American Bird Conservancy, which advocates for protection of birds and their habitats.  He says oil’s tenacity means that even long after the obvious effects of a spill are gone, oil can linger in coastal environments and work its way into the food chain.  Eating contaminated food might not kill the birds outright, like direct contact with the oil might, but it can have what are called “sub lethal” effects.

PARR: All those types of things can affect breeding success.  It starts to have effect on the liver, the GI tract, and on vision and obviously that’s going to make it difficult for birds to forage and probably difficult for them to feed their chicks effectively. . . .

How bad is it?

 At its annual meeting last week, the board of directors of Ducks Unlimited unanimously passed a resolution stressing the group's commitment to restoring wetlands along the Gulf Coast. In a video on the DU site, Dr. Tom Moorman, director of conservation planning for  the Southern Region calls the coastal Lousiana "the most important wintering area for waterfowl on the continent of North America."

As many birders know,the habitat preservation efforts groups like Ducks Unlimited doesn't simply help game species, but other wildlife as well.

 The National Audubon Society has created a Gulf Oil Spill media page, Oil Spill Impact and Response Expanding. While its focus is on the immediate effects of the spill on species now nesting on the coast, the implications this winter for the birds I see now in Minnesota is sobering.

The environmental impact of what is now reckoned as the largest oil spill in U. S. history continues to unfold. Oil is now being seen from Louisiana to Mississippi, and there are fears that the loop current will carry it up the Atlantic Coast. Read more

 Audubon staff are seeing increasing numbers of oiled birds, and fears of long term effects on birds, marine life and Gulf coast communities are mounting. Audubon has urged speedy Congressional authorization of emergency funding to address the unfolding crisi.s Read statement

. . .Audubon has joined with other conservation leaders in calling for the Administration to exercise more direct oversight of public safety protection, environmental monitoring, and environmental testing in response to the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Read letter

It's rare for me to look into a research subject and find that I can look no more into the truths that inquiry discloses.

I'm going to do some birding now.

Images: Christmas Bird County locations of American White Pelicans (above); Pelicans in flight (below).

Spring flooding hits Southern and Central Minnesota

For the past two afternoons, I've headed out to look at the rising flood waters in Sibley and McLeod Counties. This spring's flooding isn't particularly dramatic compared to past years, though the rapid melt and run-off have contributed to the swiftness to which the water rose.

I missed the ice dam that had formed near Henderson, where water approached the bottom of the bridge over the Minnesota River, though the road remained open, as did the Sibley County road into Le Sueur. As twilight came and temperatures cooled, mist rose off the high water. It was lovely.

Yesterday's trip to Brownton to look at flooding in Beaver Creek had an added bonus: a dozen large flocks  of wild swans flew north. I stopped on an isolated township road north of Brownton when I spotted the first flock, and didn't move for a long while. as one flock disappeared into the twilight, the wild calls of another flock became audible, and I waited for the birds to appear.

The early evening light wasn't good enough to record or photograph the flocks.

Flooding in Brownton and other areas closed sixteen roads in McLeod County, and provided a local context for I question I'm told was asked at the Republican SD18 endorsing convention on Saturday. While the question concerned state funding for flood relief in areas like Moorhead, the newly endorsed Republican candidate reportedly said that he opposed government help for anyone who buil in a flood plain.

As water rises around the district and other places in the state, I wonder if that judgment extends to funding for all flood mitigation projects.

Below, a brief video of a flooded road into Brownton. A barred owl was gently whooping in the distance, unfortunately too far away for my phone's mic.

Photo: An earlier flood watcher left handprints on a bridge over the Rush River.

Major grant to expand teaching of MN River Valley history

I was born in Mankato to parents whose own families had lived in Southern Minnesota for generations. My late father could proudly point to the tiny Ott Cabin (the building at the right) in Sibley Park as an ancestral home. George Ott and his family moved from Dubois County, Indiana, to the Minnesota Territory in the 1850s, before statehood.

That early introduction to the area's past sparked a lifelong interest in history and deep love of the Minnesota River Valley. It's geologically fascinating as well, for the wide valley itself was formed by an earlier river, the massive Glacial River Warren, which once filled the valley, bluff to bluff.

This story was pure catnip to the imagination of a little tomboy roaming the bluffs east of St. Peter with her dog, as I sometimes fancied what it might have been like to have been one of the state's real first settlers, Paleo-Indians hunting wooly mammoths across would would become the prairies. It didn't take much work to realize that my own ancestors' experience on the frontier paled in comparison to that of the first Minnesotans, and that the relationship of the tiny Minnesota River to the Glacial River Warren was a handy analogy for comparing the two waves of New World settlers.

I'm still grateful for that wild childhood along the Minnesota River Valley, which--along with the guidance of some gifted teachers in the St. Peter Public Schools--nurtured a sense of wonder at the historial and natural world, along with an appreciation of the past.

Congressman Walz's office today announced that a grant will help another generation of Southern Minnesota's school children to learn about the area's history and culture. The South Central Service Cooperative  has been awarded a major grant to expand teaching of the valley's history in local schools. Nearly $1 million over three years will be used to educate educators about the valley under the Teaching American History Grants Program.

For those readers not familiar with the area, the Minnesota River Basin Data Center is a good starting point, with virtual tours, suggested real world tours, and a calendar of events along the river.

Full press release below the fold.