Making the right connections
This week Freshwater Society convened a dozen people for a day-long meeting and field tour addressing the seemingly unlikely intersection of muddy rivers, landslide hazards, and NASA satellites. In Minnesota, … Read more
Freshwater Society
A question of epidemics
What’s the solution to the opioid epidemic? Can we really just rely on treatment for the addicted or do we have to address the over-prescription of painkillers, and target the … Read more
This spring really sprung ahead
Phenology is the observance of cyclic and seasonal natural phenomena, especially in relation to climate (ice out!), plants, and animals. We include a ton of such information in each year’s … Read more
Future of Midwest Agriculture Think Tank and Scenario-Planning Workshop
I recently participated in a two-day workshop, led by future iQ and funded by the University of Minnesota, to explore a 20-year hypothetical future for agriculture. Participants from Minnesota, Iowa, … Read more
Soak it up, Minnesota
I met a woman who worked on restoring rivers in the U.K. Much like our goals here, she was directed by E.U. policy to restore the condition of the stream … Read more
The Great Lakes States
Does “Midwest” do it for you? I’ve always struggled with it as a good geographic descriptor. The Census Bureau didn’t even settle on its definition until 1984. Whatever the terminology, … Read more
The mystery of the rainbow darter
I felt a bit like Sherlock Holmes when Konrad Schmidt, retired DNR Fisheries biologist, contacted me about when the last known contact took place between two fish populations — the … Read more
Twenty-twenty hindsight
I inadvertently started humming a song from 1905 as I was reading Dan Egan’s new book, The Death and Life of the Great Lakes. (Check out a recent interview with … Read more
From entryway to waterway?
I learned of a farm family in west central Minnesota that spends about $70,000 each year to buy fertilizer for their farm. Corn fertilizer costs have ranged from $120-200 per … Read more
French fries and water quality
My son was hungry and in a hurry. He ordered the double cheeseburger meal with fries in the drive thru; what’s the harm? It had been a couple decades … Read more