Fall Reflections

by Lucinda Walter

Title

Fall Reflections

Artist

Lucinda Walter

Medium

Photograph - Photography, Digital Art, Fine Art

Description

Photograph was taken of the changing leaves reflecting on a small tributary that flowed into the Mississippi River at the Mississippi Point Park, Anoka County, Champlin, MN, USA. Recreational opportunities within the 72-mile Mississippi National River and Recreation Area are both varied and plentiful. Whether you are biking or walking along the river's shores, fishing in a floodplain lake, or boating its waters, the new Mississippi River Companion is an excellent resource for finding boat ramps, trails, and recreational opportunities along one of the world's great rivers. The Coon Rapids Dam raises the water level in this stretch, which makes it popular with power boaters and water skiers. The shoreline has a very suburban look. The Mississippi River Trail follows mostly residential streets on both sides of the river. Elm Creek enters the Mississippi River at Mississippi Point Park (871.3 W). The creek￿s watershed drains 83,000 acres in northern Hennepin County. Mississippi River Companion River Mile Latitude Longitude 871 N 45.184907 W 93.386039 870 N 45.177248 W 93.370595 869 N 45.169465 W 93.353077 River Mississippi River Overview The Mississippi River is one of the world￿s major river systems in size, habitat diversity and biological productivity. It is the third longest river in North America, flowing 2,350 miles from its source at Lake Itasca through the center of the continental United States to the Gulf of Mexico. When compared to other world rivers, the Mississippi-Missouri River combination ranks fourth in length (3,710 miles/5,970km) following the Nile (4,160 miles/6,693km), the Amazon (4,000 miles/6,436km), and the Yangtze Rivers (3,964 miles/6,378km). The reported length of a river may increase or decrease as deposition or erosion occurs at its delta, or as meanders are created or cutoff. As a result, different lengths may be reported depending upon the year or measurement method. Length
For reasons mentioned above there are competing claims as to the Mississippi's length. The staff of Itasca State Park at the Mississippi's headwaters say the river is 2,552 miles long. The US Geologic Survey has published a number of 2,300 miles, the EPA says it is 2,320 miles long, and the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area suggests the river's length is 2,350 miles. Width At Lake Itasca, the river is between 20 and 30 feet wide, the narrowest stretch for its entire length. The widest part of the Mississippi can be found at Lake Winnibigoshish near Bena, MN, where it is wider than 11 miles. The widest navigable part of the Mississippi is Lake Pepin, where it is approximately 2 miles wide Speed At the headwaters of the Mississippi, the average surface speed of the water is near 1.2 miles per hour - roughly one-third as fast as people walk. At New Orleans the river flows 3 miles per hour on average. Mississippi River Watershed The Mississippi River watershed is the fourth largest in the world, extending from the Allegheny Mountains in the east to the Rocky Mountains in the west. The watershed includes all or parts of 31 states and 2 Canadian Provinces. The watershed measures approximately 1.2 million square miles, covering about 40% of the lower 48 states. Water Supply Communities up and down the river use the Mississippi to obtain freshwater and to discharge their industrial and municipal waste. We don't have good figures on water use for the whole Mississippi River Basin, but we have some clues. A January 2000 study published by the Upper Mississippi River Conservation Committee states that close to 15 million people rely on the Mississippi River or its tributaries in just the upper half of the basin (from Cairo, IL to Minneapolis, MN). A frequently cited figure of 18 million people using the Mississippi River Watershed for water supply comes from a 1982 study by the Upper Mississippi River Basin Committee. The Environmental Protection Agency simply says that more than 50 cities rely on the Mississippi for daily water supply. Commerce Agriculture has been the dominant land use for nearly 200 years in the Mississippi basin, and has altered the hydrologic cycle and energy budget of the region. The agricultural products and the huge agribusiness industry that has developed in the basin produce 92% of the nation's agricultural exports, 78% of the world's exports in feed grains and soybeans, and most of the livestock and hogs produced nationally. Sixty percent of all grain exported from the US is shipped on the Mississippi River through the Port of New Orleans and the Port of South Louisiana.

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August 29th, 2013

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