Recreation and the Floodplain

Copyright ©  2002  Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved.

Do you remember when Sunday afternoon meant picnics at the local park with family and friends? For some of us those were lounging days, days with a blanket and a good book, days beneath a giant cottonwood, or days just listening to the band playing in the waterside pavilion, while watching a friendly fisherman and his grandchildren down at the river's edge. The children were always curious of course, and that curiosity sent them wading along the water's edge, though never too far from grandpa's watchful eye, searching the shoreline for that perfect stick or stone to throw, or the ideal frog to take home to mom.

Recall though, that those were summer days. For many of us, anxious to get out after a long cold winter and roused by spring fever, there was also that adventure-filled springtime wait, that period after the ice went out and the floodwaters finally moved back into the river . We fussed and fretted on our springtime walks, hoping for the soils to dry out, for green grass to appear, and for the damp, musty smell to go so we could return to our favorite riverside haunts. We waited for an end to the mud.

Both times of year were special, but perhaps floodwater time was talking to us too, telling us to rethink where we build certain places for recreation and suggesting better locations for large gatherings of people.

We who live here in the Northland are lucky because we experience four, distinct seasons. Spring is especially important to us as time for rejuvenation, a time to break out of our homes and meet our neighbors again. It´s a time to gather with others at local festivals, art shows, concerts, or softball games.

Many of these social activities can and do take place in city parks. But a park built along the river's edge loses its festival appeal when walking means a thick layer of mud, if, in fact, one can walk in that park at all.

So why did we build along the river´s edge?

Harriet Island, St. Paul, MN circa. 1915 (As it was)

SETTLEMENT AT THE RIVER'S EDGE

Historically, people have been drawn to the edges of rivers. Moving west, our ancestors came upon great forests and prairies. The rivers and streams that drained these lands offered wood along their banks for home-building. The river provided water for drinking, cooking and cleansing and it encouraged settlement.

As time passed and more pioneers arrived, scattered homesteads grew into small communities. The rivers gave energy to help mill flour and power to run saw mills. For convenience and efficiency, mills and granaries were built at the river's edge. Soon, the railroads came and tracks were built along the river terraces. Then with the milling operation and the railroads came more people as well. To quickly serve the needs of those arrivals, the commercial district often grew on the same river terrace.

Increasing settlement and transportation demands on the riverways like those of the Upper Midwest River Basins soon transformed flood plains into recreational and industrial grounds.

FLOODING AND THE FUTURE

In recent years, we have heard the rising river´s ominous message and now we designate a certain amount of land as flood plain and flood fringe. Today we've marked out the area that may be periodically flooded and we have expressed concern for the future.

Development in flood plains and flood fringes is increasingly governed by a planning process called zoning. Under zoning, certain development types, especially recreational space developments, have been judged compatible with the flood plain landscape.

But while it is true that recreation is sometimes compatible with this landscape, it is also true that we need to redefine our idea of recreation, to bring it within an ecological context. We need to better understand the character and function of recreation in community building and assess recreation´s best relationship to the natural systems of the riverine landscape, including flooding in that context.

PUBLICATION FRAMEWORK

The approaches presented in the following pages give voice to a set of design principles for a new, multifunctioning, linear recreational system, based on sound social, economic and ecological principles.

SO.........DOES THIS WORK? PLEASE READ ON.

Harriet Island, St. Paul, MN 1991. (As it is now)

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