(upbeat music) - So we're going down the Kettle River today.

The next three miles is kind of the stretch of the Kettle River that everybody talks about.

It's got the great rapids in it and Blueberry Slide, Dragons Tooth, and Hell's Gate.

- [Bryan] We have about 30 different classes that the teachers can select.

- [Narrator] The plate will stay with your car, and you can transfer it from car to car.

(upbeat music) - Funding for this program was provided by Safebasements of Minnesota, your basement waterproofing and foundation repair specialist since 1990, peace of mind is a safe basements.

Live Wide Open, the more people know about West Central Minnesota, the more reasons they have to live here.

More at livewideopen.com.

Western Minnesota Prairie Waters, where peace, relaxation, and opportunities await.

And the members of Pioneer PBS.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] If you ask anyone from outside of Minnesota to describe the state, they'll probably tell you two things.

One it's cold, and two, it's got a lot of lakes.

Well, that's mostly accurate.

The state actually offers a diverse set of landscape features that create an array of outdoor recreational opportunities.

Some of which are widely known and that they might not be.

(upbeat music) Minnesota has a lot of water, and while fishing generally gets a spotlight when it comes outdoor recreation.

If you wanna try some a little bit different, you don't have to travel far to find it.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] With names like Dragon's Tooth and Hell's Gate rapids on the Kettle River offer a taste of whitewater rafting right here in Minnesota.

(upbeat music) Tony Vavricka owns and operates hard water sports in Sandstone.

- Kind of in college, I started doing some of the rock climbing.

It took me to some really cool places.

I've been out to Alaska and to Wyoming and to California.

But then I started a family and was staying closer to home, which was in St. Paul.

And I discovered there's so many awesome rivers for a whitewater paddling within three, four hours of Minneapolis and the Kettle here being one of them.

So we're going down the Kettle River today.

In the next three miles is kind of the stretch of the Kettle River that everybody talks about.

It's got the great rapids in it, Blueberries Slide, Dragon's Tooth, and Hell's Gate.

And then we're also gonna stop at Wolf Creek Falls.

And then at the end, we go into Robinson Park in Sandstone, Minnesota.

- [Narrator] The Kettle River in Pine County is one of six state wild and scenic designated river segments.

- We are very, very blessed to have such an amazing river.

It's very clean.

It runs 80 miles, and you can paddle pretty much all of it when the river's at the right level.

- [Narrator] This section of the Kettle River is part of Banning State Park.

- So the park is fairly busy with new visitors.

It was a hidden gem, and now we are starting to see an increase in visitor usage.

We got the Kettle River, we have an old Sandstone Quarry from the late 1800s, two waterfalls.

Most people don't know it's here, and we're so close to the freeway being halfway between Duluth and the cities.

- All right, so when you're down here, you're getting ready to launch.

You got a group of new people.

You have no idea what their experience level is.

What do you tell them?

- In the spring paddling because this water is so cold if somebody does fall in, we're wearing the wet suits today, so that's super important.

So when we do that, I'm gonna sit on one side of it, and you're gonna sit just right next to me on the other side.

And I'm just gonna kinda tell you when to paddle, and we'll be both paddling at the same time.

And the main thing when we're on the river if something happens and you fall out of the boat, the main thing that you wanna remember is don't stand up in the river, okay?

It's gonna become your instinct to stand up, super bad idea.

If you stand up in the river that river's gonna grab you, it's gonna take you down the river and your foot's gonna get caught behind a rock.

And there's a lot of rocks in this river and that river will push you over, it's gonna be a bad situation.

- We're about to go into the first set of rapids.

- So it's called Blueberry Slide.

(dramatic upbeat music) Well, at certain times we're running down right through some of the rapids.

Other times, those rapids get too high, and we're going around some of this stuff.

Sometimes the rock started showing so we have to take a trail through the rock.

So yeah, it just depends on that river level, and how much adventure the person's looking for when they get them on the water.

It's a great adventure, people love it.

(dramatic upbeat music) There's very few rivers in this world that don't have dams on them right now.

The Kettle River is a free flowing river, and it's affected by rain.

So this river goes up and down all summer long.

We could get a big rain in the middle of July, and it would be too high for me to raft down the river, we'd close it down.

And then it can get to a certain point at the river, where it's too low for the big rafts.

We have inflatable kayaks echoed on the river when it gets a little bit lower.

And then as soon as the rain comes again, we're putting the rafts back on the rivers so.

(water sloshing) Today, I check the level this morning, it's at 1,300 cubic feet per second.

(water sloshing) One more.

(water sloshing) One more.

(water sloshing) So that's every second, there's 1,350 cubic feet of water flowing down the river.

(dramatic upbeat music) (water sloshing) (dramatic upbeat music) You know I'm guessing I ran into a hundred times before I started the company.

And I'm guessing I ran it anywhere from 80 to 100 times a year since I started.

So that puts me somewhere around between 600 and 700 times I would guess.

(dramatic upbeat music) I get excited every time I go down, and I get excited.

I'm taking new people, the river's at a different level.

I'm seeing new things.

(dramatic upbeat music) I'm very, very happy to be going down the river anytime.

(dramatic upbeat music) (water sloshing) Yeah, so the rafting tour, my rafting tours that I take people on are generally three to three and a half hours.

That includes a 12-minute shall ride up to the park here.

We do a quick little talk, a little paddling demo, and then we're going down the river.

And again, it's three to three and a half hours.

We could race down and make it a lot faster, but there's some sections on the river that it's worth taking your time and just floating and jumping in the river and walking under waterfalls.

So it's really good.

(water sloshing) - Going along the river, you just see so many different views that you don't get from onshore.

Onshore you see the cool clips, and it looks awesome.

And then just the view from down on the water is completely different very good.

(upbeat music) - The last big set of rapids is the fabled Hell's Gate.

(tense upbeat music) We're not gonna cross into another dimension when we go through here, are we?

- [Tony] No, no, no, you know, it's kind of got the most notorious name, but I don't think it's any worse than some of the rapids that we're gonna go through right up here on the top of the river.

(tense upbeat music) - [Narrator] Named by the loggers who used to struggle floating felled trees through its narrow gap.

Hell's Gate offers an exciting yet slightly less interdimensional experience than its name implies.

(tense upbeat music) After going through Hell's Gate, it's an easy paddle downstream where you can take in the sites that Kettle River in the surrounding Banning State Park have to offer.

(gentle upbeat music) You don't have to travel far to experience whitewater rafting in Hell's Gate for yourself.

The Kettle River section and Banning State Park is located near Sandstone just about an hour and a half North of the Twin Cities.

To get the three to three and a half hour experience from Tony visit hardwatersports.com.

- [Narrator] Every every month you come here, there's something new that's blooming or some new animal sound you're hearing.

- [Narrator] Those dollars are matched with other private donations to protect states forest wetlands, prairies.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Which zooplankton species is native to Minnesota, and which is the invader?

The answer is coming up right after this.

(upbeat music) - [Bryan] I think our role is to really get kids exposed and just aware of the beautiful natural world around them that is here.

And some of those processes that are at play and how each of them fit into that and can make a difference positively or negatively.

(gentle uplifting music) - [Narrator] Osprey Wilds environmental learning center on the shores of Grindstone Lake has been connecting children and adults to nature for a half century.

Executive director, Bryan Wood says teaching and inspiring environmental stewardship is vital to our future.

- There's a study that has shown that kids today prior to the pandemic were outside 78% less than their grandparents generation and 50% less than their parents' generation.

And this is a seismic shift and just 50, 60 years.

And the implications of that for our planet I think are really wide ranging.

We all are orbiting around the sun on the same space ship.

It's a finite planet, finite resources.

- [Narrator] Osprey Wilds 23 permanent staff serve 15,000 people a year, about 4,000 K-12 students from 100 schools participate in residential programs that are typically three days long.

- We have about 30 different classes that the teachers can select.

We've got you know biological and geological classes, ecological classes, we have adventure classes, wildlife, energy, cultural studies of the inhabitants to this area.

And they get to be immersed here in nature with their classmates and their teachers and see a whole new leaf to those relationships and develop a much tighter bond than they might get just by being in the same setting at school for months at a time.

We've heard kids mentioned before how they were scared when they got here, and they were afraid they're gonna be eaten by bears or wolves.

And in three days they are saying, "Ah, I don't want to go home now, it's so much fun.

Can we just stay here longer."

In our bird banding class, we've set a chicken or a goldfinch are not hatch in their hand.

And you do this little just up with the hand and then the bird takes off and you see just the glow on their face.

There's a really intense connection they have with that.

Something from nature and wild animal that I released and I can see it fly away.

That's something that is just an amazing experience for them.

- [Narrator] Osprey Wilds also offers day visits and week long summer camps for 18 to 14 year olds.

When the pandemic closed schools, Osprey Wilds hosted local students.

- We have a high-speed internet which a lot of families don't in the area.

So we had an academic support center going.

A safe space that they could access broadband, get lunch, and get some afterschool nature programming with that as well.

- [Narrator] The center serves another 9,000 students enrolled in 35 environmental education charter schools authorized by Osprey Wilds.

- [Narrator] And then we thousands of adults, community members, summer campers, college students combined that come.

Most of the people that come here to learn whether they're fifth graders or 50 years old are staying for multiple days.

They're really getting immersed here in our lodging and meals and all the programs that we can put on in this 780-acre campus that we have.

- [Narrator] Lodging options include campgrounds, a hut, cabin, small lodges at sleep up to 28 and a Crosby Lodge that can accommodate up to 112 guests.

Typically, school groups during the week and adult conferences and retreats on weekends.

The dining hall can serve more than 200 people.

- We've host a lot of weddings here.

Right on the lake, it's a beautiful setting on Grindstone Lake.

(gentle uplifting music) - [Narrator] Some of the buildings are historic, built in the 1800s on land purchased by Swiss immigrant Arnold Schwyzer who owned a medical practice in St. Paul.

He built a summer family getaway on Grindstone Lake and eventually accumulated 1,000 acres.

Arnold and his wife hired local people to farm the land and run a dairy operation.

Their are three children became physicians but only Marguerite stayed in Minnesota.

When her parents passed away, she acquired the property.

In 1968, when Marguerite was only in her 50s, she died unexpectedly of pneumonia - Unbeknownst to anyone in her family or anyone else she put in her will that the property would go to the National Audubon Society.

- [Narrator] The national organization determined that a nature center wouldn't work in this remote location.

But a few Twin Cities, Audubon Chapters established a nonprofit North Woods Audubon Center and raise $900 for the first staff persons, three months salary.

- He gets 300 bucks a month.

There's no programs, no staff.

You know this is what you have to live on, and you know get stuff going.

And our first director moved up here in November of 71.

And the heating bill for that month was more than what he was given given.

So it was an auspicious start not destined to succeed.

And that was Mike Link who was our first executive director for 38 years.

Things started going and Mike is just one of those people you meet that has a ton of energy and has a way to make things happen.

- [Narrator] In the 1990s, the center acquired its land from the National Audubon Society.

And in 2020 changed its name to the Osprey Wilds Environmental Learning Center.

Though, it grew Osprey.

Wilds kept its carbon footprint small with geothermal heating and cooling and solar generated electricity and water heaters.

(soft music) - A few years ago, some generous donors and neighbors to us donated their farm land, 107 acres which borders our Northern property boundary.

And that was a really exciting moment for us because arguably food is the largest environmental footprint decision we make on a daily basis.

For a typical year, we serve about 50,000 meals in our dining hall.

So that's a huge amount of resources we're bringing in from all over the country or all over the planet.

And for us to be able to now start growing and producing our own food, you know half a mile away instead of 2000 miles away is a huge win for the planet.

- [Narrator] Osprey Wilds also taps and bottles its own maple syrup and collaborates with Moose Lake Brewing to make Osprey Maple Ale and Grindstone White Spruce IPA, brewed with spruce tips gathered from Osprey Wilds that is open to the public at no charge for hiking, snowshoeing, and exploring.

- Every month you come here there's something new that's blooming or some new animal sound you're hearing or colors are changing.

So we hope that people wanna come out and just enjoy nature and find a little quiet space and get off a screen for a while and get reconnected to what's around us.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] Which zooplankton species is native to Minnesota, and which is the invader?

The invader is spiny waterflea.

How do we tell the invasive from the native zooplankton?

Spiny waterfleas are opaque in color.

Natives zooplankton are clear.

Invasive zooplankton have long spiny tails with up to four pairs of barbs and distinctive black eyespots.

Females may have brood pouch chamber on their backs.

Spiny waterfleas range from a quarter to five eighths of an inch long.

Why are spiny waterfleas a problem?

They prey on native zooplankton which are an important boot source for native fish.

And because of their spiny tails, invasive waterfleas are difficult for native fish to eat.

Where are invasive zooplankton found?

Most often in gelatinous clumps on fishing lines and equipment or suspended in water columns.

In Minnesota, they are primarily found in the Northeast and North Central Regions.

(upbeat music) We can stop these invaders from investing more lakes and streams by cleaning up everything we pull out of the water.

It's a simple drill, clean in, clean out before leaving a water access, clean your boat and water equipment.

Remove and dispose of all plants and aquatic species in the trash.

Remove drain plugs from your boat, drain build live well and bake containers and keep them out when transporting your watercraft.

Dispose of unwanted bait in the trash.

If you have been in infested waters also spray your boat with high pressure water, rinse with very hot water.

Drive for at least five days.

Stop the spread of AIS.

Funding for the segment was provided by the Aquatic Invasive Species Task Forces of Wright Meeker, Yellow Medicine, Lac qui Parle, and Big Stone County.

(gentle upbeat music) - [Woman] I've had the Chickadee and I now have the Moose.

So they're all fun to have.

I think people really resonate with the plate and the image and how good it looks on their car.

- [Man] I love the Moose.

I love the angling one, people fishing.

They all have their special places in my heart.

- [Woman] I think the loon is probably my favorite.

Although I'm about to put the pollinator on my car.

(upbeat music) - Critical Habitat Plate Program was started in 1995.

It came out of a group that Governor Perpich pulled together of State Conservationists coming up with ideas on how to protect and reinvest in Minnesota's natural landscape.

Easement program came out of that.

And another important project program was the creation of the Critical Habitat License Plates, which was enacted by the legislature in 1997.

We pay $30 or more on top of your annual car registration fees.

And those dollars are matched with other private donations to protect some States, forests, wetlands, prairies, and also provide funding for our state's non-game program.

The plate will stay with your car, and you can transfer it from car to car.

So if you like your designer, we have eight designs now that you can change up if you'd like to.

- The first two plates were not artwork, the first plate was the green deer.

It was sort of a silhouette at that time.

They were still raised lettering on them.

And so we had very limited options as far as the artwork is concerned.

The Loon License Plate was the second plate, and it far surpassed sales of the first plate.

Second one was a photograph, but the Department of Public Safety and the Department of Corrections were able to work together with, and they have a new machine that prints out the license plates.

And so this new machine is, you know state-of-the-art, and it can print out the flat plates in a way that public safety officers can read them from a distance.

(upbeat music) The species or whatever that is gonna be on the plate is chosen by the commissioners of the Department of Natural Resources and the Department of Public Safety.

Then we hold a contest, and it's a statewide public contest and there are fabulous artists out there.

The artists are always different because usually the species it's different enough that there's different interests by different artists, right?

So the pollinator played for instance, there are people who are specialists in painting pollinators or have a big interest in pollinators.

The most plate was imaged by Les Kouba.

And so we did not held a contest for that, it was chosen internally.

The first original green dear plate did retire.

And that happens when the Department of Public Safety decides that they're not selling enough of those plates anymore, so they did sunset that design.

- Right now, we're, we're celebrating this year over a hundred million dollars that we've generated from the plates that have purchased over 16,000 acres of land to be protected for conservation and critical habitat purposes statewide.

It's not agriculturally productive, but it does provide critical habitat for invertebrates wetlands, songbirds, butterflies, pollinators, so what may be marginal and to some people is really productive critical habitat for us.

The plate money has to be matched currently one-to-one, we're hoping to up that two to one with private donations.

Currently, people think that we're holding on to funding or building a balance, the problem is that the plates are so successful, we're getting more money in than we can spend with the private donation.

So we're building a balance.

People don't want to see that neither do we.

We really wanna get these dollars on the ground for active conservation.

- We also get some of that funding in the Nongame Wildlife Program.

So all of those things that don't get gaming fish fund money and other funding sources, those things still need help.

And we still need to do research and help save those species that are in greatest conservation need and species that might be in trouble to help bring them back from, you know in some cases the brink of extinction.

(upbeat music) It was our program that released several trumpeter swans that were raised from eggs that were brought back here from Alaska and our goal back in the 1980s at that time, the Nongame Wildlife Program decided that they thought it would be good to have about 350 trumpeter swans in Minnesota.

Our last Waterfalls Survey determined that there were over 30,000 trumpeter swans in Minnesota today.

I still get really excited phone calls from people who say that they just saw a bald Eagle or they just saw loon, or they saw a trumpeter Swan.

And it's what it's means to be a Minnesotan.

You can pick up one of these license plates anytime you want to.

You don't have to wait for your tabs to expire.

You don't have to wait for anything special.

You can walk into a registrar's office today and say I want Loon Plate, or I want a Chickadee plate on my car.

- Clearly, some of our neighboring states who have similar programs North Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin, for example have a conservation type plate.

However, none of them have the designs that we offer or a such a successful program.

- [Narrator] Get the plate that matches your car, they're beautiful.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Funding for this program was provided by SafeBasements of Minnesota, your basement waterproofing and foundation repair specialist since 1990.

Peace of mind is a safe basements.

Live Wide Open, the more people know about West Central Minnesota, the more reasons they have to live here.

More at livewideopen.com Western Minnesota Prairie Waters, where peace, relaxation, and opportunities await.

And the members of Pioneer PBS.

(upbeat music)