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| Project Update: the Le Sueur River | | The Le Sueur River in southern Minnesota needs restoration. This river contributes approximately one-third of the sediment load carried by the Minnesota River, although the Le Sueur River is only 7% of the Minnesota River's watershed. Furthermore, the Le Sueur River contributes to an increase in sediment delivery (which also contributes to increased nutrients) to Lake Pepin, a natural lake on the Mississippi River, that is five times higher than the standard set by the national Clean Water Act. NCED, together with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), the University of Minnesota Department of Soil, Water, and Climate, and the St. Croix Watershed Research Station, have begun work to address the cause(s) of this excessive sedimentation by searching for answers to these questions: What proportion of sediment is being derived from uplands, ravines, high bluffs, and streambanks, respectively?; How have agricultural tile drains affected hydrology, and what are the implications for sediment transport?; How does the Le Sueur River interact with its floodplain to temporarily store sediment?; What role does knickpoint migration play in bluff erosion and ravine development?; and What is the economic value of the Le Sueur River ecosystem (ie, how much do people care about this problem)? The answers to these questions, as part of a two-year MPCA project entitled "An Integrated Sediment Budget for the Le Sueur River Basin," should drive restoration needs as well as help guide future management policy. |  | | Left: A few NCED members of Team Le Sueur wade through the issues in front of an active cut-bank. Right: An eroding bluff in the lower Le Sueur River. Preliminary results indicate that this bluff may be retreating as fast as one meter per year. | | | | | AMNH Opens Water Exhibition | | The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) opened a new water exhibition November 3rd entitled Water: H2O = Life. AMNH and the Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM) co-organized this exhibition with SMM receiving content development support from NCED during the exhibition's creation. A delegation of NCED and SMM staff, including NCED Director Chris Paola and SMM President Eric Jolly, attended a press preview of the exhibition last month. This month, a group of students from Fond du Lac Tribal & Community College, with NCED Diversity Director Diana Dalbotten, traveled to AMNH to view and evaluate the exhibit. With 7,500 square feet of space, this new water exhibition includes several SMM/NCED components: Science on a Sphere and the dam removal model from the Big Back Yard. In January of 2009, SMM will open its own water exhibition. This exhibition will be very similar to Water: H2O = Life but with customization based on SMM expertise in visualization and interactive content. The SMM water exhibition will travel nationally after its opening in St. Paul, MN, and Water: H2O = Life will be at AMNH until May 26, 2008, when it will begin an international tour to include Australia and Canada. | | Outdoor StreamLab Basin to Open | | NCED and St. Anthony Falls Laboratory (SAFL) will finish construction of their first outdoor StreamLab research basin fall 2007. On December 7, NCED and SAFL will host a Stream Research Workshop. This workshop begins the discussion of how SAFL, NCED, and UMN can help with stream restoration, stream bioengineering, and watershed management in Minnesota; future workshops will explore research opportunities in other areas. All SAFL/NCED students, staff, and faculty are welcome to attend the morning portion of the Stream Research Workshop. If you would like to attend this workshop in the afternoon, which will be dedicated to closed-door discussions among workshop participants, please contact Anne Lightbody at 612/624-4679 or annel@umn.edu. | | |
