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Saint Croix National Scenic RiverwayThe yellows of a setting sun are reflected on the water divided by a a dark shoreline
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Saint Croix National Scenic Riverway
Environmental Factors
trees with leaves, with bottom of trunks underwater from flooding
NPS
Spring Flooding
The St. Croix and Namekagon Rivers are always flowing and they are in a constantly shifting, dynamic state. Changing water levels and moving sand drive the change. The land that adjoins the rivers is also dynamic. Weather and climate change, geologic processes, fire, and human-caused factors such as air and water pollution are only a few of the agents of change that have helped to create the Riverway that we know today. The park provides a "living laboratory" that helps us better understand how these environmental factors have shaped park landscapes and ecosystems. Park staff are monitoring changes in environmental factors to alert managers to threats to the resources, hopefully, in time to prevent log term damage to the resources.
two men with a circular ice saw.  In the background blocks of ice are moving up a ramp into an ice house  

Did You Know?
Before the invention of refrigerators, people harvested ice from rivers and lakes in the winter and stored the ice, covered in sawdust, in buildings. An ice house, storing ice from the river, once stood near the site of the park headquarters for St. Croix NSR, in St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin.

Last Updated: December 11, 2006 at 18:05 EST