SIXTH GRADERS Sept.2014

WATERWORKS  a column by Gordon Prickett for the 9/3/2014
Aitkin Independent Age

SIXTH GRADERS RETURN TO LONG LAKE

On Monday and Tuesday, September 15th and 16th, sixth graders across Aitkin County will again experience an Environmental Education Day at Long Lake Conservation Center, for the 20th time in as many years. Last year 127 students from Aitkin, Hill City, and McGregor schools spent the day at Long Lake Conservation Center. They enjoyed a hands-on lab experiment about Lake Bottom Organisms, presentations by the Science Museum of Minnesota, the Minnesota Zoo, and a unique presentation about Frogs and Toads in Minnesota. This special program serves to kickoff their year’s science education.

This Environmental Education Day is hosted by Aitkin County Environmental Services and the Long Lake Conservation Center with the help of donations from county lake associations. At this environmental gem in our county we are making a contribution for conservation, ecology, clean water, and habitat into the future.

DECISIONS ABOUT OIL AND WATER

There’s a new crude oil pipeline called Sandpiper that is being planned across Minnesota. The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission will decide sometime next year whether Enbridge Energy, a Canadian company, will be permitted to lay about 400 miles of pipe in Minnesota to move oil from North Dakota to Superior, Wisconsin. The first decision is whether this oil supply line is necessary, and the second decision is approval of the proposed route.

Sandpiper, as proposed, will cross 42 miles of Aitkin County. It will bring local jobs, lease payments to land owners, tax money to governments and schools, And the chance of oil spills and leaks into our habitat of lakes, woods, and wetlands. At this time there are alternate routes being considered that avoid Aitkin County. This light crude oil from the Bakken Formation is moving across the midwest now by rail to refineries and terminals.

Citizens are hearing from many voices about the benefits of a pipeline here, and what happens if it ruptures. I expect to hear much more before the questions are decided.

TITLE "WATER AND WILDLIFE FOR SIXTH GRADERS" A Waterworks Column by Gordon Prickett for the 10/2/2013 Aitkin Independent Age WATER AND WILDLIFE FOR SIXTH GRADERS Aitkin County sixth graders spent a day in early September at the Long Lake Conservation Center just east of Palisade. This year I followed the money that ACLARA, the Aitkin County Lakes And Rivers Association, donated to County Environmental Services to put on this “Environmental Education Day.” I attended Tuesday, September 10th, and joined the Hill City Sixth Grade through four hours of instruction and ate pizza with them at lunch time. The first hour was about “The Earth’s Water,” presented by the Minnesota Science Museum from St. Paul. For more than four billion years the same amount of water has cycled around the earth in clouds, rain, ground water, and surface water. Just 3% is fresh water and 97% is salt water. The ice caps hold 2% of this fresh water. The lesson is clear that we don’t want to waste any of the 1% that is left. Next we learned about the wild creatures in the state and met a few of them from the Minnesota Zoo. We have 78 kinds of mammals, and 22 amphibians. In Minnesota there are 31 kinds of reptiles, including 17 snakes. And there are 428 kinds of birds, with about 45 to 50 remaining year round. The traveling zoo visitors included a red-tailed hawk, an opossum, and a snake. After lunch naturalists from Long Lake presented a program about frogs and toads. Next we went down to the shore of Long Lake to scoop up sediment and water samples. We collected this material back in the laboratory and identified numerous lake bottom organisms with the aid of charts and microscopes. A BEAUTIFUL TIME OF YEAR Days and nights are now the about same length. Warm afternoons and crisp sleeping nights. Grass cutting is just about over for the season, and the water craft are calling. Before taking in our boats and docks, it is a fine time to enjoy the clear water and the colors that are beginning to turn around the shore. A few years ago we traveled across the Arrowhead, down the North Shore, over into Northern Wisconsin to observe the Fall colors of early October. But when we returned to Aitkin County, the most spectacular show was right here!