Mapping

The first question to ask is, what are the boundaries?  What I have found is that there is not really a right answer to this question.  As Bioregionalist writer, Christopher McGrory Klyza states, "There is not one set of boundaries that are the correct ones for a particular people and place. Rather, we should not become overly committed to a new set of boundaries to replace an old set of boundaries." With that in mind, I will determine a general bioregion and area small enough in scale to analyze in depth for this project, yet without the boundaries been specifically defined. 

I offer three maps that suggest ways of drawing natural boundaries.

Fig. 1 Minnesota Eco-regions. (Figure courtesy of the MPCA.) The Lower Mississippi River Basin, includes all or part of 17 counties and 12 major watersheds.  This eco-region, as defined by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency may also be considered a bioregion, but for purposes of my project, I am looking for a smaller, "nested" area.

Fig. 2 The Big Woods Region. (Figure Courtesy of Charles Umbanhower Jr.) This map shows an area determined by the vegetation of the region from a survey at the time of European settlement in the late 1850s.  Based on the Government Land Survey records, roughly 80% of the Big Woods region was Big Woods forest (green on map), and the remaining 20% was prairie(yellow on map), open oak woodland or savanna (grey on map), and wetland."  This map illustrates an area that the Cannon River watershed also lies within although it does not picture watersheds.  When thinking about "re-inhabitation," this map is useful to show the natural features of the area before the expansion of human settlement.

Fig. 3The Cannon River Watershed. Figure Courtesy of the Cannon River Watershed Partnership. Bioregions are most often determined by watersheds and this area seems to be a useful map for examining the Cannon River Valley Bioregion.

 

"The final boundaries of a bioregion are best described by the people who have lived within it, through human recognition of the realities of living-in-place." -Peter Berg

Bioregional Characteristics Land - Plants - Animals - Springs - Rivers - Lakes - Groundwater - Air - Climate - Seasons - Soil - Families - Friends - Neighbors - Community - Native Traditions - Indigenous Cultures

 

The Cannon River Bioregion

The title of the Cannon River was named by the French "Riviere de Canots" the River of the Canoes. This name has a much more place-based significance to it. However the English misreading of the French word canot (canoe) on a map mistranslating it to "cannon," as in heavey artillery and thus the name has been ever since (Robbins).

The Cannon River Watershed originates in Shields Lake and then joins the Mississippi River downstream about 120 miles. There are many smaller strams that are tributaries of the Cannon, including Prairie, Wolf, Chub, Spring and Heath Creek. The largest tributary is the Straight River. The Cannon River Watershed winds through four counties, illustrating how political boundaries often have little relation to natural boundaries (CRWP).

The Jordan sandstone is the aquifer that yields drinking water for
much of southeastern Minnesota. Water is pumped from the Jordan aquifer, nearly 500 feet below ground, treated, and discharged into the system The water contains a lot of minerals such as, calcium carbonate and iron, and iron can especially influence taste.

The Prairie and Deciduous Forest converge in the Cannon River Valley. The balance between forest and prairie was largely due to fire. The presence of fire-breaks such as the Cannon and Straight rivers and the many hills and lakes in the area created conditions so that that not all of the area burned with the same frequency and in part explains why forests came to dominate the western part of the wateshed.

The Cannon River Region is home of four major prairie types including, dry prairie, mesic prairie, wet prairie, and sand prairie. Approximately one-half of the Cannon River Watershed during the period of European settlement was native prairie. Yet only one percent of the original prairie ecosystem remains in the Cannon River Watershed (Umbanhowar Jr. 1993).

Although no one knows exactly who the first people to occupy the Cannon River Watershed, artifacts suggest that hunting and gathering tribes lived in the region after the retreat of the glaciers about 12,000 years ago.

More is known about the Dakota people who settled in the area in the 1600s. They moved around the watershed throughout the year, taking advantaging of the different landscapes - hunting and fishing and planting corn near the river banks during the Springtime, hunting in the prairies in the Fall season, and seeking shelter in the Big Woods during the winter months (Robbins).

In the Cannon River Watershed today, there are four counties, with fourteen cities with populations over 1000 and several smaller towns. The total population of the watershed is approximately 111,000 people (Carlson et. al).

Native species of plants and animals are also part of the bioregional community. Learning native species is important to understanding a sense of place. For lists of native species in the Cannon River Bioregion see links below.

-Rare or Protected Plants
-Plants
-Mammals
-Fish
-Birds
-Amphibians and Reptiles

 

"The bones of a life-place can be experienced anywhere. Some science is helpful, but it need not be a traitjacket. Visit a familiar open space in your home region, stand in its center, turn around very slowly, and perceive the enveloping earth and its landforms. This is where you life. Start from there. Equiped with such awareness it is an easy step to the life of the place itself." -Robert Thayer