Winona Daily News (Newspaper) - April 2, 2007, Winona, Minnesota Results from Fools Sports IB HERB CARNEAl Longtime voice of the Twins dies Sports 1B RIGHT tal activist and birder Richie Swan son walks the trails of Park and Preserve looking for different species of birds Sunday near Winona started a River Bird Biog featur ing the floodplain habitat of the park BELOW A screenshot from Swansons River Bird Blog at com SERVING THE WINONA AREA SINCE 1855 MONDAY APRIL This guys for the birds blog chronicles migration breeding news Story Link Winona Daily News Richie Swanson traipsed along a leafy trail in ing Park Sunday morning He paused as geese honked from across the slough The two geese are ready to riest and theyre all said the tal writer while peering When ever I go over there they have a Swanson continued down one of the paths he walks six times a week his eyes flit from bird to bird Each com petes for his attention a small grey swamp sparrow singing hanana a buffalo head taking a dip along the bank a rusty blackbird play ing pri a tree log In February Swanson launched a weekly online journal to chronicle Upper Mississippi River bird migra tion and breeding activity through June in web or blog also will cover con servation the natural history of bird species and the rivers role in bird populations Tve got 30 years of gifts that I received from this place and now I have a chance to share said Swanson who has lived in a WHAT Nature writer Richie Swanson offers weekly posts on his River Bird Blog about spring bird migration and breeding activity at ing Park and Preserve ON THE WEB Birds Birds tra rat Latsch Island boathouse near the old wagon bridge since 1986 Because I live next to an endangered ecosystem the encounter is right there in my About 300 bird species will flock in the upcoming months to the parks acres of marsh and flood plain forest including eight state and federally protected species such as the bald eagle great egret dered hawk and peregrine falcon Swanson said a rare place with the access to the state parks Prairie Island arid the Swan son said I grew up you wait a half hour at the bank to make deposit so this is Swanson is from Norwalk outside of New York He remembers playing Robin Hood and Ben Cartwright in the New England woods when he wasnt reenacting Unknown but disappearing 325 07 i el tat K n uS itm uti w MI hb H bAi tut n o t World War n in his front yard Even as a boy he told sto ries particularly adventure tales I became interested in writing before kindergarten listening to my mother read and my father tell stories I always loved the sound of Swanson said One of the first things I wrote was that your summer vaca tion story in fourth grade I wrote about going to the beach and riding my bike I guess I havent got over the first Nature has always been a part of his life Sleeping at his grandmothers house he would hear chickadees whistling through a screened window His mother grand mother and aunts fed peanuts to blue jays in their yards and bread to sea gulls at the beach He studied journalism for a while in Bowling Green Ohio but discovered creative writing was more his style So he dropped out of college which Swanson called the most impractical practical decision hes ever made In spring 1977 Swanson embarked on a bicycle tour of the country See BIRDS page 4A Ive got 30 years of gifts that I received from this place and now 1 have a chance to share that Because 1 live next to an endangered ecosystem the encounter is right there in my Richie Swanson Winona bird enthusiast 50 CENTS MINNEAPOLIS AP Two young brothers missing since November were found dead on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in northern Min on Sunday authorities said Anthony White 4 and Avery Lee Stately 2 had been missing since Nov 22 The two boys both American Indian disappeared wHile playing outside their home at the remote reservation near the Canadian border An FBI spokesman said the two boys their bodies encased in ice were found in First Thunders Lake about a half mile from the boys home by a volunteer search and rescue team from St Louis County Authorities have not deter mined whether foul play was involved FBI Special Agent Ralph Boelter said at a Min neapolis news conference on Sunday night Today our worst fears were Boelter said The lake was initially searched by divers five months ago when hundreds of searchers scoured the area for the boys in the days that followed the disappearance with no success The initial ground search was called off five days after the disappearance and Boelter said rescuers resumed on Sun day in hopes the warmer weather would help the search Police dogs picked up a scent on the southern portion of the lake on Sunday morn ing and the boys were found in the northern portion of the lake near a beaver dam Boel ter said N S P Tommy Thompson running for president see page 4A raise food prices LINCOLN Neb AP Increased production of els such as ethanol might help farmers bottom lines and address con cerns but it could inflate food prices worldwide warns a for mer White House economist Worldwide especially in developing countries food price increases are definitely something were going to have to come to grips said David Sunding who served on former President Clin tons Council of Economic Advisers Sunding an economics pro fessor at the University of spoke Monday to water experts at the University of Nebraska Lincolns fourth annual Water Law Policy and ference The combination of rising energy prices and the demand for corri which is used to pro duce ethanol will continue to drive up commodity prices he said Corn prices have already begun to soar A rush to turn more acres into corn produc tion could decrease supplies of other commodities prices of them as well The resulting higher mar ket prices could then dampen the publics support for gov subsidies that are designed to help farmers reap profits when markets are down Sunding envisioned a sce nario in which price supports for farmers are replaced by another government program one to purchase food to keep prices affordable and prevent hunger Energy costs will also be a factor said Sunding who pre that ag policy will become energy The ag he added is so vulnerable to energy price Remote agricultural areas such as those in Nebraska and South Dakota are partic susceptible to rising energy prices Sunding said because farmers must trans port their crops great dis tances to markets Higher fuel costs also affect farm operations that depend on irrigation The cost of water pumping could increase Sunding said A study released last month by the Energy Infor mation Administration an arm of the federal govern ment that provides energy statistics forecasts that world oil prices might decrease over the next five or six years then steadily increase over the next two decades Winona County to discuss fiveyear capital improvement plan By Brian Voerding Winona Daily News Big buildings mean big money The Winona County Board of Com missioners will begin discussion Tuesday on a fiveyear capital improvement plan which includes about million in projects Most notably the plan includes million for a new government cen ter which the county hopes to build on land along West Third Street across from the courthouse The building would be the centerpiece for the countys planned campus The county is in the process of selling its current office building at 177 Main and is negotiating for land it will need for the new facility The plan also includes 16 million in 2011 for a new jail although the board is still a long way from formally approving plans and specifications for the facility If youre a taxpayer reach ing for the phone you should know that the dollar amounts are all preliminary CITY OF WINONA MEETING Monday Winona City Hall 207 Lafayette St PLANNING INDEX 8A 47B 8B 2A 5A Opinion 6A Region 3A Council will vote on approving the start of an Alternative Urban Areawide Review for the land it annexed in the south val leys in 2005 The AUAR is a complicated process with a complicated name but has a simple goal finding out how all dif ferent kinds of development will affect the area from changes in wildlife pat terns to traffic flow PROTECTING THE VOLUNTEERS Council will vote on spending to insure the volunteers working to save the Wilkie steamboat museum who plan to start rebuilding the tourist attraction later this spring A NEW GREENER RIDE Council will BUSINESS consider approving the purchase of the citys first hybrid vehicle a 2008 Ford Escape Its an SUV that gets between 31 and 36 miles per gallon The purchase would be in line with the councils recent approval of a global warming pact that charges the city to reduce carbon emis sions and promote sustainable behaviors COUNTY MEETING 9 Tuesday County Government Center 177 Main St TO BUILD A FAIR BUILDING The Winona County Fair boards current administration building is being torn down because its no longer structurally Ford Escape hybrid safe and the fair board has asked the county for help in funding a new one See COUNTY page 4A When is the best time to start investing page 8A REGION Dakota photographers business is booming page 3A River stage feet
