As the editors put this issue on “Water @ UMN” together, we realized that the breadth, complexity, and variety of water-related work at the University of Minnesota could never be encompassed in a few articles. Accordingly, we sent a prompt out as widely as we could, asking water scholars to tell us, in a few paragraphs, what it was about their work that they were most excited about. The short pieces that follow contain some of their responses…
“A lake is a landscape’s most beautiful and expressive feature. It is Earth’s eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature.” So said H.D. Thoreau in Walden, conjuring an image of human eyes peering intently into Earth’s eyes, and learning something profound in the process. Indeed, who among us hasn’t gazed into one of these watery eyes of Earth, into a lake’s mysterious depths, and had their souls stirred, their curiosity piqued?…
In 1920, Minnesota held 2.4 million people and 132,744 farms. Corn production was near 100 million bushels per year. By 1929, 18.5 million acres were under cultivation. Nearly 100 years later, the state has 5.4 million people, 74,500 farms, and 26 million acres of farmland. Annual production of corn is about 1.5 billion bushels and soybean is about 380 million bushels. Over that century, agricultural technology and infrastructure changed profoundly…
The Minnesota Aquatic Invasive Species Research Center (MAISRC) was founded in late 2012 when the Minnesota legislature and the University of Minnesota took a leadership role in the fight against aquatic invasive species (AIS) and created our interdisciplinary, innovative, and forward-thinking Center. This initiative was led by Dr. Peter Sorensen, a well-known invasive carp researcher who is still working with the Center on several projects…
While all coastal entrepreneurs feel the strain of the decisions and projects Colten outlines above, their consequences are borne more heavily by first-generation, 1.5-generation, and second-generation Vietnamese/American fisherfolk. While all fisherfolk are concerned about environmental change and forced adaptation, language barriers, a lack of political representation, and cultural differences make Vietnamese/Americans…
Water equals life, and in Minnesota especially, clean water equals quality of life. As one of our state’s most prized resources, the Natural Resources Research Institute (NRRI) at the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) takes water seriously. Founded in 1983 by the state legislature, NRRI was established to balance economic development of natural resources with environmental sustainability. Applied research solutions for water challenges…
Welcome to Issue 10 of Open Rivers, which serves as a milestone in at least two ways. First, we have achieved “double digits” in terms of issues, which many publications never achieve. Thank you to the many, many people who have made the journal happen over the years. Second, this issue focuses at home, at the University of Minnesota, where the breadth of work on water is simply staggering. The number of faculty affiliated with…
