Archive for the ‘Future of the Mississippi River’ Category

The Mississippi River Needs “Placeness”

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

According to Wallace Stegner, renowned American author and ecologist, there are two kinds of Americans: placed and unplaced.

Being “placed” means you know the earth where you are or have been. You know it physically and spiritually. You know it because you fish in it, work beside it, walk its river banks and, even, possibly, make your living on it.

But if you are “unplaced”, you’re part of the American adventurer psyche — the migrant families moving across the country for generations for better work, better weather or just because you can — you know only the barren structures of a place.

Stegner says George Stewart’s book, Names on the Land, provides a good explanation. Stewart posits that Bear Run, Kentucky isn’t a certain spot just because Daniel Boone killed a bear there. Bear Run became a place when people  lived there, traveled through it and settled in it, raised families and built schools and swimming holes.  It was the sense of place that resulted from the collective understandings of a shared life that gave the town’s name, Bear Run,  meaning. “No place is a place,” Stegner goes on to say, “until things that have happened in it are remembered in history, ballads, yarns, legends or monuments. Fictions serve as well as facts.”

His points are well taken. They also support the argument that we’ve made about the National Dialogue for the Future of America’s Waterway. We believe the best people to form a shared vision of the Mississippi River are the people with a sense of place about the Mississippi River: the grass roots community residents along the River. I’ve advocated a shared vision for the river can be developed using a deliberative, decision-making model augmented with technology, and relying on the people who live along the River.  It’s using civic engagement to build a unified constituency for the Mississippi River. Going grass roots doesn’t exclude people with expertise or authority. Rather it draws for local experts and authorities from all walks of life along the Mississippi. It’s the best way to ensure that the people who set the agenda for the Mississippi River are the people whose decisions are intertwined with their sense of place about the River.

What a sense of place does for the Mississippi River is ensure a more complex understanding and a more comprehensive vision. It ensures that a National Dialogue participant with  the expertise of a Fish and Wildlife researcher also kayaks on the River, watches sunsets and enjoys picnics on its banks. It ensures that a participant managing a River tourist destination,  also goes to meetings with barge company executives and Corps of Engineers administrators.  Ultimately, it ensures a greater openness to collaboration and ideas that go beyond single-issue solutions.

Wallace Stegner had it right. We need to give up our tradition of restlessness, and it’s probably time we, as a country, settle down. “History was part of the baggage we threw overboard when we launched ourselves in the New World. We threw it away because it recalled old tyrannies, old limitations…. Plunging into the future through a landscape that had no history, we did both the country and ourselves some harm along with some good. Neither the country nor the society we built out if it can be healthy until we [   ] learn to be quiet part of the time, and acquire the sense not of ownership but of belonging.  [   ] Only in the act of submission is the sense of place realized and a sustainable relationship between people and earth established.”

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Alton’s Vitality Shows Collaborating Works

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

Alton, Illinois’ Mayor Tom Hoechst pointed out the benefits his town is accruing from its inclusive community approach to the Mississippi River. America’s Waterway is the same kind of community collaboration — only on-line and on behalf of the whole River. 

“Coupled with Argosy, the marina’s success, Riverfront Park Improvements, the Ampitheater, the meeting of the Great River National Scenic Byway, and the new National Great Rivers Field Station, Alton is becoming a unique nautical communitywith strong ties to the iconic Mississippi River. Lewis and Clark Community College’s commitment to developing green job training opportunities, particularly the effort to train water treatment  plant operators for certification and Ilinois-American Water Co’s investment in Alton at the national call center and the state-of-the-art waterplant are helping to establish ourselves [Alton] as a major water-based employment center.

“Water is truly the  most valuable resource in the world. We have been given a natural asset and must cherish it from an ecological and economical standpoint.”

This all sounded familiar. It’s being repeated in River towns up and down the Mississippi River. While others may not have as much collaboration or success to date, together they make a case for America’s Waterway, the organization seeking to build an interactive constituency for the whole Missisippi River so that unified approaches to its character, condition and future can develop. Here’s how I put it in a follow-up op-ed to the Alton Telegraph.

“We applaud the work Alton and its Mississippi River neighbors have accomplished, and we encourage them to continue and celebrate what they’ve started. We hope you will share your experience with others so that River residents can learn and expand their opportunities and their relationship to the Mississippi River. Perhaps most importantly, efforts like Alton’s and ours are part of a growing public interest in rivers that offers the prospect of seeing the Mississippi River acknowledged and appreciated for what it really is, America’s Waterway.”

In September 2008, I wrote about the gradual decline in America’s appreciation for its natural resources. That process is beginning to reverse itself. But as is the case with many of our natural resources, we don’t have time to wait for the public to pick up on the need to protect and preserve them. In the northern regions of the Mississippi River, we are used to having to jump start cars. America’s Waterway and our planned National Dialogue for the Future of America’s Waterway can be the “jump start” for the iconization of the Mississippi River. If you agree and would like to know more, please contact us or leave a comment.

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We Have to Stop Meeting Like This

Monday, December 7th, 2009

Email and Twitter pages last month yielded an assortment of people attending meetings for parts of the Mississippi River. Their purposes and agendas were as varied as the River itself. People in Stearns County, Minnesota adddressed a vision for 31 miles within their sight. A noble endeavor that — while highly localized — is not unlike what could be done for the whole Mississippi River. The Upper Mississippi River Basin Association devoted three days in Illinois to their section of the Mississippi River. The Army of Corps of Engineers and state departments of transportation, of course, held numerous meetings focused on specific issues that pertained to a section of the River. This is business as usual as it concerns the Mississippi River.

But, at the same time, several research and high-visibility organizations are calling for the Mississippi River to be treated as a whole water system. Organizations as seemingly disparate as the Army Corps of Engineers and The Nature Conservancy are among those calling for wholistic approaches to the Mississippi as a system. The National Academies of Science has convened more than one panel that has recommended a whole-system approach to America’s Waterway, as well. So it occurs to me, “How do you start talking about the whole Mississippi River, when so many people are tied up in meetings for parts of the River?”  The answer I’ve come up with is…  ”We have to stop meeting like this.”

Of course I don’t mean calling a hault to all the forward motion these many worthy organizations are making. However,  it does mean dropping the usual agendas that are locally or regionally focused. It does mean stopping business as usual and turning attention in a new, whole-river system direction. The organizations currently in place would need to put a moratorium on their own objectives for a while. People used to addressing their issues in a set format around commonly understood goals, would have to take a look at new goals. And patterns of ingrained behavior would have to take a pass for several months.

This is how change happens.  The need to come together with new partners and in new settings is compelling enough to stop business as usual.  New ways of looking at old problems must be explored and adopted and that takes a different framework. And, a willingness to put aside accepted patterns — not without its unsettling implications — has to take hold.

In November, I watched people from all over the U.S. do exactly this. 46 organizations with missions addressing different aspects of Autism came together in 15 locations to create an agenda for adults with Autism. The people themselves were stakeholders and not necessarily organizations. But the organizations made a commitment of people and resources for a year of planning and a day of multi-faceted input. AmericaSpeaks - with technology and expertise at facilitating public policy input at the grass roots level - managed the process. At the end of a day, a set of actions for the future was produced. In two months, more in-depth priorities and actions will move these initial findings forward. And, invigorated participants have been energized on behalf of the outcomes. It was stimulating just to watch.

The same process can work for the Mississippi River. A National Dialogue for the Future of America’s Waterway stands ready and waiting for use as a vehicle for the creation of a whole-River approach to the Mississippi River. It won’t be easy. Some organizational practices will have to be put on the back burner temporarily. But it is what it will take to unify the  Mississippi River and start addressing  the River as a system instead of  just meeting the needs of one region or section at a time.

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Here’s To Your Health, Mississipppi River Basin

Monday, September 28th, 2009

Thank you Secretary Vilsack for $320 million to improve the health of the Mississippi River Basin. As an Iowan, you obviously get that the whole Mississippi River needs to be addressed instead of one town, state or region at a time. $320 million is a nice way to jump start what is recognizably a major effort. (more…)

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Reflections on a Confluence

Sunday, August 16th, 2009

Confluence can mean a couple different things.  It often pertains to a literal flowing together from several sources. Then it can mean the coming together of  people as in an assemblage or congress. And in the case of rivers, it’s used to pertain to the merging of more than one tributary in such a way that they become one physically and take on new characteristics.

Interestingly, last week’s Visions of a Sustainable Mississippi River Conference took place near the great confluence of the Mississippi, Missouri and Illinois rivers being celebrated and documented with a new  National Great Rivers Research and Education Center. At the same time, the conference itself was a confluence —  bringing together people from different locations and vantage points — to  share ideas about the Mississippi River, its ecological, economic and cultural values.

The people at the NGRREC, including the partner institutions of Lewis and Clark Community College, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champagne and the Illinois Natural History Survey were great at the confluence thing. They appear to be used to partnering, so bringing together many people with a wide variety of expertise was executed professionally. Even more important, the process maximized the sharing of ideas and the written delivery of those ideas to a panel of policy makers at the conference’s conclusion.

However, the vision part of the conference was more complicated.  As one who has helped numerous organizations struggle with their vision, either to accomodate a new direction or to transition an organization, I knew it wouldn’t be easy.  And the conference seemed to agree because after an hour and a half of trying to state a vision, one of the participants voiced the obvious, “Visions are better left to a long-term, deliberative process. We can’t do this in a morning or with just these people in the room.”

That’s why it was heartening to hear Brigadier General Michael Walsh, head of the Mississippi River Commission and head of the Army Corps of Engineers Mississippi River Valley state his view that the Mississippi River needs a 200-year, unified and multigenerational vision. What I didn’t hear was how he plans to secure that vision. An op-ed in this morning’s New York Times  by James Fishkin makes the case for deliberative processes that ensure that all interested parties are in the room.  I would add the involvement of river residents on a representative basis to ensure not only a vision, but the development of an involved and engaged constituency. 

No one seemed to dispute the need for a Mississippi River Vision. Granted, it would be hard to argue with someone like a Brigadier General when he says he thinks something’s needed. But I don’t think he’s alone. Let us know what you think by commenting here.

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Making Mississippi River Sausage

Thursday, August 13th, 2009

Participants in the Visions of a Sustainable Mississippi River got a taste of sausage making on the second day of the conference when the focus turned to policy recommendations for the future of the River. While it wasn’t pretty, as with sausage making, the outcome offers public policy approaches to managing the Mississippi River as a whole — environmentally, economically and culturally.

Today, the conference turns its attention to those policy recommendations. A panel that includes representatives from congress, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency will hear the collective suggestions of the panels and participants here at the conference. I don’t expect it will be as exciting as the town hall forums on health care, but there is reason to hope the proposals from the panels on the Economic Value of the Mississipppi River, Flood Management, Ethanol Prodution and Water Quality will feed into a growing momentum for wholistic approaches to the River in the future.

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Ever Think of the Mississippi River as an Orphan?

Wednesday, August 12th, 2009

Several speakers the first day of the Visions of a Sustainable Mississippi River Conference used the word “orphan” to describe the Mississippi River. If you think about it, the Mississippi River is just that: an orphaned national resource and monument, in spite of public acknowledgement of its value to the nation.

How is this so? Some of it’s due to the role the Mississippi River plays as a border to states. It’s easy for state regulators and tourism officials to not see what goes on at the fringe of their state, unless a major city or population center abuts it.

Then there’s the issue of multiple jurisdictions. The Corps of Engineers, the Environmental Protection Agency,  and other regional and federal agencies are divided into districts. They tend to divide the Mississippi River for practical management reasons that made sense in an era when communication was more difficult and expensive. The natural topographical  differences of the River contribute to this approach as well.

From my perspective, the answer to the Mississippi River’s “orphan status” is its lack of a constituency willing to advocate on its behalf.  When you’re on the East Coast, you see active support for the Chesapeake Bay. Powerful Washington and state officials lend their support to local efforts, and residents sport bumper stickers and Save-the-Bay license plates. The Great Lakes, through a multi-year process to write and pass the Great Lakes Compact, have built a constituency largely because threats from other regions of the country highlighted the value of the lakes as a system.

We can end the orphan status of the Mississippi River. America’s Waterway embodies a plan to build that constituency and engage it via the internet and shared goals and objectives. The process takes all aspects of the River into account. It’s not just about clean water or preserved wetlands, our process seeks to take cultural heritage as well as community development  into account. In today’s social networking environment, that engagement can be maintained using the connectivity of the Internet.

The Mississppi River doesn’t have to be an orphan and this conference is demonstrating that there are a lot of people committed to ending that status. Today’s sessions will engage participants as well as experts to explore options for advocacy for the River. Tomorrow, a public policy panel will hear from the conference participants. It is a worthy introduction to a much needed effort.

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Unify the Vision - A Unified Mississippi Will Follow

Thursday, July 30th, 2009

Paddlewheels, young boys with fishing poles, banjo music, horrific storms washing out dikes and a whole host of other images have come to represent the Mississippi River. These visions of the River come from history or from disasters or both.  But what of the River and its future? What is the contemporary vision of the Mississippi River?

This topic will be the subject of presentations and debate at an upcoming meeting in Collinsville, Illinois. While the title of the conference is Visions for a Sustainable Mississippi River, I doubt a unifying vision will emerge in one session. It’s a good first step.

That’s too bad because a unified vision is the basis for a unified Mississippi River. Many who read this will say the Mississippi River is too vast and too varying to produce a unified vision, but we know from our own history that it often took a unified vision to rally the kind of support needed to take monumental action. And that’s what’s called for in the case of the Mississippi River.

When President Kennedy wanted public support for space exploration, he captured the essence of that exploration (not every technological innovation it would take) in his image of a man on the moon. When President Eisenhower wanted public support for interstate highways, he created a vision of an interconnected U.S. thriving because of expedited commerce and family connectedness. More recently, President Obama wanted public support for the stimulus package, the unifying vision that enabled its passage was people going back to work. (There was also avoidance of a negative issue. The desire to avoid the images of the Great Depression were vividly unifying, too,)

There are ways to capture a vision for the Mississippi River and it calls for a more deliberate and continuous effort. In the public opinion arena, strategists often test imagery around issues to assess the positives and negatives. They come up with the images they think are right and then test them.

In marketing, focus groups of interested parties are often asked for their input first, before developing any images. That input is collected and massaged and tried out on consumers. With attention to including a cross section of consumer attitudes, marketing still holds a higher success rate than political strategists. However, leaders, if they are sensitive to public sentiments being expressed by their constituents and they are articulate enough to capture that sentiment, are often the best visionaries.

In the case of the vision for the Mississippi River, I hope for a mix of all three by engaging River residents in a National Dialogue on the Future of the Mississippi River. In the meantime if you have a vision for the Mississippi River, share it here.

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Shared Visions for the Mississippi River

Monday, July 27th, 2009

What does the Mississippi River look like? In New Orleans, it looks like an industrial boulevard. In the northern parts of Minnesota, it looks like a place to spend your spare time. In between it looks like everything in between.

What would it look like if all the residents of the Mississippi River banded together and discussed what they saw in common? What does a resource look like? What does a clean river look like? What should the Mississippi look like in the future?

In this blog, we’ll begin to explore these questions and more. Stay tuned.

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