One-minute photo essay video: Cannon River Wilderness Area in winter

10 Comments

  1. Jerry Bilek said:

    Great photos Griff.

    Carol,
    why would they want the designation changed?

    February 11, 2008
  2. Griff Wigley said:

    Here’s the Google map of the parking lot/pavilion area. I’ll contact Fritz to see what’s up. Thanks, Carol!


    View Larger Map

    February 11, 2008
  3. Griff Wigley said:

    If you look at the map to locate “all property west of Faribault Boulevard, north of 164th Street, and south of 158th Street” you’ll see that it’s on the West side of Hwy 3, quite a distance SW of the park. Here’s a screenshot of the map with the areas in question.

    gmap-area.png

    I’ve contacted Fritz’ office to see whassup but there doesn’t appear to be anything worrisome.

    FYI, see the DNR web page on the Wild & Scenic Cannon River.

    February 11, 2008
  4. Griff Wigley said:

    I just got a call back from Rep. Fritz’ assistant, Kate Perushek. She said that House research incorrectly mapped the boundaries in question so the Bill will be pulled tomorrow. Evidently a local resident wants to sell a chunk of the property in question but it’ll now be referred to Rice County to deal with.

    February 11, 2008
  5. John George said:

    Great pictures, Griff. That one designating the cross-country skiing trail pretty much describes my abilities there. I’ll stick to the April-October months.

    February 11, 2008
  6. Dan Bergeson said:

    Griff,
    Thanks for the opportunity to visit the park from my office. We did the same thing in the winters with our growing family and visited the wilderness area often. We haven’t been to the park on the west side of the river in many years. We used to go in all seasons and enjoy the entrance from the eastern boundary just as much (although there’s no skiing on that side). I’m glad to know there’s no threat to the park.

    February 12, 2008
  7. Griff Wigley said:

    Dan, Have you ever tried to go from one side of the park to the other… without wading across the river? It can be done! There’s a little used path that goes above the bluff.

    February 12, 2008
  8. Dan Bergeson said:

    No, never tried that. It’s a good motivator to tromp through the west side early in the spring before the path gets overgrown and disappears. Thanks for the tip.

    February 13, 2008
  9. Good to hear that bill (HF2601) will be withdrawn, I can’t see that removal of “Wild & Scenic” designation for any part of the Cannon River could be good for the river. I’ve checked the legislative site, and it was introduced yesterday and shortly thereafter, there was a “Motion to return bill to author, Motion prevailed” and the site doesn’t work to review what actually happened. But maybe this will be the last of it. FYI, I’d contacted Cannon River Watershed Partnership to find out if they were aware, if they were working on this, and not one of the three people I’d contacted responded! So I don’t know what their position was — anyone at CRWP care to weigh in on that? Anyway, a BIG thanks to Patti Fritz for looking at the big picture and the public interest and Cannon River interest!

    February 14, 2008

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