20080122-7896Bald eagle flying over the Mississippi at Red Wing, Minnesota.

"Wild Neighbors of the Mississippi River" Exhibit

September 26 through late August, 2020 (The exhibit is now closed.)

Macalester College's Smail Gallery (Olin-Rice Science Center)

Saint Paul, Minnesota

A digital version is available at this website. Use the captions below to better understand the concepts of the exhibit and then see the exhibit.

Wild Neighbors of the Mississippi River

The Mississippi River as a Conservation Success Story

About the Exhibit

The exhibit is fashioned in panels that contain between one and six photographs, each with its own concept. One can follow the exhibit concepts using this document and the photographs that are numbered by panel.

The Minnesota stretch of the Mississippi River is bounded by northern mixed forests, eastern deciduous forests, floodplain forests, and western tallgrass prairie. This rich environment hosts an enormous diversity of wildlife, but that has not always been the case. The river, heavily polluted in the early 1900s, lost its fish, birds were uncommon, and most mammals were missing from the landscape.

The Mississippi River of today is much different than the impoverished river of a few decades ago. While the river faces emerging challenges, its water and air are cleaner, and we have developed a greater appreciation and tolerance for the wild neighbors which have returned to its waters and shores. The photographs of this exhibit capture complex lives in split second increments but will, hopefully, call us to enjoy the life of this great river in person while prompting us to work to ensure its further recovery.

Gordon Dietzman describes himself as a "curious photographer/naturalist" interested in wildlife, science, and art. He holds a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies (emphasis in environmental interpretation) from the University of Wisconsin. He is recently retired from the National Park Service but also has worked in agriculture, environmental education, the conservation of endangered species, and engineering. His photographic and employment with the National Park Service focuses on the upper Mississippi River basin, but he has photographed wildlife and wild landscapes across North America and Southeast Asia.

Exhibition Captions

Panel 1 – This 40x60” print of a resting White-tailed Deer is intended to be an eye-catcher. And it is. When you walk past the photograph the eyes of this nearly life-sized deer follow you.

Panel 2 – These six photographs illustrate in part the great diversity of life along the Mississippi River. The river acts as a refuge for both common and uncommon species as well as species that were once common, then rare or missing, and then their return. For instance, white-tailed deer populations were once sparse along the river, but their population has recovered, in some people’s eyes, to pest status.

• Painted Turtle
• Snowy Owl
• White-tailed Deer
• Ruby-throated Hummingbird
• Baltimore Oriole
• Ring-billed Gull

Panel 3 – Great Horned Owls find refuge along the river and have spread out into neighborhoods. These powerful aerial predators were not welcomed at one time, although we now have come to tolerate and even enjoy their hooting on wintry nights as they set up breeding territories.

Panel 4 – These four photographs of migratory birds illustrate the beauty and diversity of migratory birds which enliven our lives. Their epic journeys are dependent on interstate and inter-continental cooperation to protect summer, wintering, and important migratory habitat that links those two places. In this way, birds are ambassadors to countries we will never visit and people we will never meet yet which inextricably connect us across the globe.

• Great Egret
• Green Heron
• Solitary Sandpiper
• Eastern Bluebird

Panel 5 – Trumpeter Swans were once common in Minnesota, but were largely shot out by the late 1800s, a time frame in which many species were either locally eliminated or seriously diminished. I used to travel all the way to Idaho’s Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge to see these rare and magnificent birds. But today one of the best places to see these largest of waterfowl is in the upper Mississippi River basin. They nest across a large swath of Minnesota and Wisconsin, but we have two major wintering areas in the Twin Cities area. One is at Monticello’s Swan Park and the other is at Hudson, Wisconsin. Both locations are within easy driving distance of the Twin Cities.

Panel 6 – The Resurgence of Diversity: In 1926 a survey along 75 miles of Mississippi River through the Twin Cities found only three living fish. Sewage, waste products from lumber and flour mills and animal carcasses from stockyards were dumped into the river depriving the river’s inhabitants of oxygen as bacteria broke those wastes down using oxygen in the process. Today, there are about 120 native species of fish in the river, along with several non-native species.  While we do not often see the underwater resurgence of the river’s diversity, we can see the signs above the river in in increasing populations of fish-eating birds, such as pelicans and eagles. The floodplain forests also are home to the beautiful wood duck, another once rare bird brought back from the edge of oblivion by the conservation of habitat and construction of thousands of nesting boxes that mimic the hollow trees in which they once nested.

• Commercial fisher releasing a non-targeted muskellunge.
• American White Pelican
• Bald Eagle
• Wood Duck

Panel 7 – Cope’s and gray tree frogs live within our area. These two species are nearly impossible to tell apart in the field, except by the somewhat subtle differences in their trilling calls, so they are often referred to as a species complex. We often hear their calls on warm, humid summer evenings, although we probably attribute the sound to birds.

Panel 8 – Emerging Threats: Despite the elimination of many of the traditional pollution challenges, the Mississippi River in the upper basin faces new threats. Loons, swans, eagles and other fish-eating birds may consume and be poisoned by lead lost in the river and surrounding areas by both anglers and hunters. Loss of insect populations endanger insectivorous birds, such as swallows and other species. Invasive species, such as bighead carp, threaten the ecological integrity of the river.

A previous generation made the decision to recover the river and they have passed it down to us. Now it is up to us to determine the future of the river for the next generations.

• Common Loon
• Commercial fisher with invasive Bighead Carp
• Tree Swallow
• Yellow Warbler