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Another event to look forward to: since the “Friends of the Rum River” group will be having itskickoff in the spring, it will join the Isanti County Environmental Coalition as that worthy groupcelebrates Earth Day at the Cambridge Community College on Saturday, April 22
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. I will keepyou updated on details in our next newsletter.Thanks for your interest! And may you do well with your New Year’s resolutions!
Essay: Spirit of the Rum River
5 December 2005 By Linda Buturian
Last fall my husband and I canoed the stretch of the Rum from Milaca to Princeton. Greyherons flew overhead, turtles plopped off of logs, and otters slipped in and out of the water. Wepaddled past forests of trees with an occasional house or farm peeking through. South of Milacawe rounded the bend to a house looming before us. From our canoe I could bounce a tennisball off the side of it. We stared in silence as we floated by this conspicuous dwelling, the kindyou’d find in a wealthy suburb. Soon the trees reclaimed the land, sun sparkled off of eddies,and we were caught up again in the fall splendor. We could see why the Dakotas called theRum the “river of good spirits,” and the state of Minnesota deemed it Wild and Scenic.Recently I went to a Planning Commission meeting addressing a proposed subdivision on theRum just south of us. The property owners were a good looking couple, tanned and clean-cut,the kind you would see on a commercial for Grand Cherokee Jeeps. Their surveyor passed outmaps displaying the five acre lots, the houses 100 feet from the river, the cul de sac roadthrough wetlands. When a committee member pointed out that the lots were in the floodplain theproperty owner shot back, “No they’re not.” When another member said the DNR has concernsabout developing in the wetlands and floodplains the landowner replied ‘so and so’ “did it, Iknow we can.” He was referring to the house we canoed by. The precedent setter. If thissubdivision is approved, the next property owner will come before the Commission and say“This couple did it, so can we.” The domino effect along the Rum.I left the meeting hoping that the DNR could stop them, but the DNR is only as strong as theActs it upholds. From what I can tell, the Wild & Scenic act doesn’t keep landowners fromdeveloping away the wildness and scenery. And what good is a Wetlands act if people can findloopholes to build roads right through them? Money has patience and tenacity and power.Herons are silent, pull no weight in the world of property taxes and bottom line profits. Ottersdon’t compute. Fish disappear without a sound.After the meeting I walked down to the river and watched the sun set and the ducks land and flyoff. Then the Spirit of the Rum rose up from the dark water. She was wearing a mossy numberwith flowers woven through her hair. She spread out her green skirt and sat on the bank andoffered me a glass of rum water. The Spirit told me funny stories about the early days of theriver and her laughter was like water rippling over stones. I was feeling quite warm and happywhen she took my hand, and as we flew downstream, she showed me the future of the Rum.Suburban homes replaced farmland. Manicured lawns and smooth tarred drives filled inwetlands. Trees were cut down for better views and messy shrubs and weeds eliminated forwalking paths and permanent docks. We flew past charming verandas and bears carved out ofstumps and cement deer feeding on white marble rocks with grinning gnomes underfoot.
Rum River Estates, Riverview Homes, Rumshire Commons
.As we perched in a tree she showed me the flood of 2020, when the river, in all its rum-fury, willrise up and claim its plains, and there won’t be wetlands to absorb its waters, and no one willargue about whether the land where their house is floating is technically a floodplain. I asked thegood Spirit, “Is this a vision of what could be or what will be?” Spreading her ghostly arms overthe people of Mille Lacs County, she said, “It is up to you.”
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