2005 FMCS Symposium Field Trips
Lake
Pepin: mussel propagation cage site visit
(65 miles by car to beach site).
Join a carpool journey to the sandy shores of
beautiful Lake Pepin, a natural riverine Mississippi lake, where we will visit
the Lampsilis higginsii cage
propagation site at Frontenac, MN.
Since 2000 the Mussel Conservation Team has been using this site to
place fish inoculated with glochidia into wire-mesh cages with solid bottoms. After about 30 days the fish are
released and the excysted L. higginsii are left to grow in the bottom of the cages protected from
predators. On this trip we will
retrieve a couple of cages that were placed in the lake in 2003 and 2004 to see
how our ÒbabiesÓ are doing.
St.
Croix River: snorkeling in winged mapleleaf
country (45 miles by car & boat)
We will carpool to
Franconia, MN on the Wild and Scenic St. Croix River. If you snorkel, bring a wetsuit, itÕll still be chilly;
otherwise be prepared to wade in the shallow riffle areas where you might catch
a glimpse of some of the Upper MidwestÕs rarest mussel species. This is home to the Federally
Endangered Quadrula fragosa, Lampsilis
higginsii and more than a dozen
other state listed species. In the
St. Croix River basin we have the last remaining viable populations in
Minnesota of Epioblasma triquetra, Cumberlandia monodonta, Cyclonaias
tuberculata, Tritigonia verrucosa, Simpsonaias ambigua, Quadrula metanevra, and Ellipsaria lineolata.
Mississippi
River Gorge: mussel reintroduction site (5 miles
by car, boat tour of site).
Carpool or take a short taxi ride
to Hidden Falls Park on the bank of the 
Mississippi
River. This hidden treasure is in the heart of MinnesotaÕs largest metropolitan
area, yet when you 
are
there it feels almost like a wilderness.
One of last ice agesÕ finest remnants, the gorge of the Mississippi
River was formed by the upstream migration of the famous Falls of St.
Anthony. By the late 1800Õs the
falls had moved about 7-miles upstream of the MississippiÕs confluence with the
Minnesota River and in its wake had left the steepest rapids found anywhere on
our continents largest river, nearly 100 feet of gradient. Unfortunately for the fish and mussels
of the free-flowing Mississippi, a dam was completed in 1917 that drowned all
but a small remnant of the former rapids, blocking access to spawning sturgeon,
paddlefish and other species.
Today, below the dam there are still a couple of miles of fast moving
water with stable gravel and cobble bottom. With relief from extreme water quality problems present
prior to 1990, a rebirth of life in this former (and original) Òdead zoneÓ of
the Mississippi River has been taking place. In 2000 an effort to reintroduce Lampsilis higginsii and several other rare species began. WeÕll tour this site by boat and
explore the natural beauty of the MississippiÕs only gorge by locking up
through the 40 foot high dam and traveling to the foot of St. Anthony Falls
(weather permitting).