Izaak Walton Creek Clean Up

Join us on Sunday May 20th at Izaak Walton Creek at 12:30 pm near the
Bass Ponds in East Bloomington for clean-up and short program on the
suitability of the spring-fed creek to support trout populations. The
meeting place is the MN Valley Bass Ponds parking lot one block east
of the intersection of Old Shakopee Rd. and 86th St. near the Cypress
facility.



The short program will be led by Dr. Leonard Ferrington, Professor of
Entomology at the University of Minnesota and developer of the
Volunteer Stream Monitoring Interactive Verification Program used to
do biological monitoring of streams and rivers throughout the U.S.and
Canada. Dr. Ferrington will demonstrate the invertebrates he has
found in studying Izaak Walton Creek and talk on the effects of
pollution and storm water run off on aquatic species and fish habitat.



http://www.entomology.umn.edu/midge/VSMIVP.htm



Dr. Ferrington, students, and staff of the Minnesota Valley National
Wildlife Refuge have been monitoring the stream with hopes of
restoring trout populations. The source of the steam is approximately
500 yards away from the light rail coming out of the MOA. It
originally flowed into the Bass Ponds which were established as a
volunteer fish hatchery by the Minneapolis Chapter of the Izaak Walton
League in 1926 in order to restore depleted populations of black bass
in Minnesota and the Upper Midwest--- hence the name "Izaak Walton
Creek."



The program is free and open to the public, especially school age
children. It will take place in conjunction with clean up project to
remove trash and debris from the creek and surrounding watershed area
led by the Boy Scouts. Volunteers should be prepared to walk short
distances on rough terrain while picking up trash and debris that
people have dumped in the valley. Trash bags will be provided. For
more information/directions, call John Crampton 612-396-6010 or Gregg
Thompson 612-618-8616.

Bloomington just won't adopt sustainability

http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/sustainability/GreenPrint07_home.asp

Why can't we get Bloomington to move forward with sustainability? They just want to keep putting up buildings without the road structure to support it. And they seem quite proud of it. Yet after at least 15 years have not even solved the 84th Normandale issue, and in fact worse now but the buildings continue to go up. And not even Green buildings at that.


I asked the City Council at the end of February 2007 to put some sustainabiliyt metrics on the city web site. Simple things like how much elcecticy does the city itself use and how much gasoline. It would be nice to know what we are paying and using as a city. Yet they have to "study" that.

Sad state of affairs.