Upper Mississippi River Conservation Committee (UMRCC)

10/28/2015

It's bat week and the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge is celebrating this Halloween! Grab the kiddos and come learn about our spooky flying friends. You may find that they aren't as scary as you think! Learn more at batweek.org or www.fws.gov/refuge/minnesota_valley/

10/16/2015

The fight against invasive Asian Carp persists!

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/10/15/asian-carp-threat-great-lakes/74018106/

A study says it's possible the fish could be swept along in the wake of barge traffic.

10/16/2015

Bet you've never seen a fish like this before! What you see here is the elusive white bowfin. They are extremely rare, but do exist in the Mississippi River. Our crew was lucky enough to snag one last week while electrofishing.

10/06/2015

Looks like our crew has their hands full today! This gentle giant's kind is often referred to as " living fossil". Sturgeon have existed on Earth for over 135 million years.

09/17/2015

Travis and Erin proudly pose in front of a pile of invasive silver and bighead carp they helped remove from infested waters. The crew removed 133 asian carp altogether. Nice work guys!

To learn more about asian carp in the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers and why they are a nuisance species, check out this link!

http://www.fws.gov/midwest/fisheries/library/fact-asiancarp.pdf

09/15/2015

The crew got a huge paddle fish today!
Photo Credit: Tyler Harris

09/14/2015

St. Croix sturgeon capture

09/14/2015

Those are big sturgeon!

09/14/2015

Last week, our crew had a blast angling for sturgeon in the St. Croix River. The sturgeon were colleced for a graduate student and will be used in a telemetry project at the University of Minnesota.

09/14/2015

Watch out for your fingers! You never know what you might pull up in a fyke net!

This big guy, a common snapping turtle, accidentally got himself caught in a mini fyke net while our field crew was netting for young of the year asian carp on pool 19. Nicholas was brave enough to wrestle it free from the net while Bailey distracted the cranky snapper with a paddle.

If you'd like to know more about the common snapping turtle, check out this link! http://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/factsheet.aspx?speciesID=1225

09/14/2015

Hello everyone! We've had quite an exciting summer here on the Upper Mississippi River. We've been up to all sorts of things such as mussel sampling, netting and shocking for young of the year asian carp, eDNA sampling, capturing sturgeon for tagging and tracking, and much, much more. As you all can see, we've been quite busy so we apologize for being a little quiet lately. Stay tuned for the whole scoop on what we've been up to the last couple of months!

03/05/2015

Are you looking for a fun outdoor activity this weekend? If yes, attend the Sixth Annual Bald Eagle Watching Day in Ferryville, WI on Saturday, March 7th. More details below.

http://www.swnews4u.com/section/127/article/25904/

Plan now to attend the Sixth Annual Bald Eagle Watching Day on Saturday, March 7 in Ferryville at the Village Community Center located on Highway 35, ‘The Great River Road.’