La Crosse recently was picked the 12th “Greenest City” in the country by Country Home Magazine.
The magazine’s April issue ranks La Crosse 12th on its list of 25 Best Green Cities in America. The magazine ranked La Crosse second among small cities, behind only Corvallis, Oregon. Corvallis also was ranked first among all cities.
Local officials are smart to capitalize on that ranking and the natural attractions that in part led to it. According to the La Crosse Tribune, officials will focus on growing and redeveloping the Interstate 90 Exit 3 area and the Great River Road corridor.
The city recently obtained a $247,000 federal grant for a planned eagle-watching area along the Black River near the Bridgeview Plaza shopping center. An engineering study will provide final cost estimates Local matching funds will be needed. Officials hope to start on the project later this year.
The La Crosse Common Council recently approved rebuilding the Black River Beach House. The project could include a new playground and other facilities. Again, hopes are for work to begin this summer.
Clean-up work has started at a former Mobil Oil site, which the city now owns. The city also would like to acquire the Patros property near the Mobil site and restore it. Both sites are former industrial sites that need environmental cleanup before any new uses can be considered.
All these areas are along the Big River and its tributaries. Despite some land uses in the past that were not very compatible with the environment, nature has made every effort to remain.
Where the eagle-watching area is planned already has served as an informal watching spot, especially in winter. At times, dozens of eagles can be see in the trees along the river banks or on the ice near open holes, waiting for breakfast to swim by.
With the resurgence of the eagle, to the point where they are off the endangered list, has come tourists’ interest. One only look up river, where the National Eagle Center is located in Wabasha, Minnesota, to see the tourism potential in eagle watching. Thousands visit that facility, and we’re talking people not just eagles.
The Mobil and Patros sites are classic examples of changes in how people are viewing the river and water in general. While the Mississippi remains a shipping route, it is being see as much as a natural attraction now as an industrial byway. People have come to realize there also is good business in good environment.
A similar transformation started happening a few years ago with Lake Michigan, on Wisconsin’s other coast. This writer was lucky to also document many of those changes. As one Port Washington official told me, “We’ve started looking at the lakefront rather than away from it.”
Marinas, recreation and environmental areas replaced warehouses and industrial shipping ports. The latter facilities still exist, but are now balanced with other uses.
It looks like the Mississippi is undergoing a similar process. La Crosse officials are wise to recognize it, and make the environment good business.
In making its “greenest” selections, Country Home considered such things as official energy policies, green power, green buildings, availability of fresh and locally grown food. These all can be marketable qualities for La Crosse and other communities along the Big River.
