New Web site provides answers from experts

By Mark Fischenich

MANKATO — There’s a resource stretching across southwestern and south-central Minnesota that’s fascinating and little known by most residents of the state, even the ones who live in the Minnesota River Valley.

In this case, people at the Minnesota State University Water Resources Center aren’t talking about the river. They’re talking about the experts who study it.

Biologists, geologists, naturalists, historians ... They’ve got intriguing stories to tell and knowledge to share, said Scott Kudelka, communications coordinator at the Water Resources Center.

“And 95 percent of the public will never meet them,” Kudelka said.

The Water Resources Center wants to change that. So they brought a proposal to the group that divvies up the state lottery proceeds, asking for $125,000 to create “Minnesota River Experts: An educational field trip online.”

The Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources liked the idea, recommending approval for that and 47 other proposals out of 240 requests. The result, by 2011, will be a “virtual field trip” that Minnesotans — and anyone else around the world who cares to — can join via a new Web site.

Specifically, the site will answer questions about the Minnesota River, the creatures that live there, the way it came into existence, how people have changed it and much more. And it will answer lots of questions.

The plan is to talk to about 25 experts and have them tackle 15 or 20 questions each. Users will be able to click on the questions that interest them and get the answer through video responses.

The 500 or so questions will come from citizens, the Water Resource Center’s board of directors and students at three schools that are participating in the effort — the Minnesota New Country School near Henderson, the public school in Gaylord and the Dawson-Boyd schools.

The experts will be filmed in their element, not sitting behind a desk.

“That way you show off the resource,” Kudelka said. “I think that’s what gets people excited.”

Department of Natural Resources fish specialist Chris Domeier, for example, will be beside a dam explaining how dams impact fish. Mussel expert Mike Davis will be in the river showing off various species as he talks about them. Geologist Carrie Jennings will be standing on or beneath the rock formations as she explains the role glaciers played in the valley’s origins.

And Kudelka expects the system will provide options for people to ask those experts more questions beyond the 500 that will be answered on video.

“That’s their job and they enjoy doing it,” he said.

In addition to being online, the system will be available at kiosks at the participating schools and at three other sites along the valley — the Treaty Site History Center in St. Peter, the Ney Nature Center near Henderson and the Regional River History Center in New Ulm.

While the term “field trip” is associated with school children, the site will aim to serve all ages. But the willingness to embrace new media should bring in younger generations accustomed to learning on the Web, Kudelka said.

Whether people see the information at school, at home or at a nature or history center, the hope is they will be intrigued enough to take a closer look — in person — at the river.

“The next step is to experience the resource on your own,” he said.

Assuming the Legislature approves the LCCMR’s recommendations in the legislative session starting in February, money should flow to the Water Resources Center in August. Officials there hope to have the Web site up and running by the middle of 2011 and continue to add to it in the months and years that follow.