Rivers don’t get enough respect, especially big rivers. We focus so much on the water carried by our rivers, worrying about that water getting too high, that we miss the essence of what makes our big rivers special: the incredible abundance and diversity of life they support.

In this talk, Dean Klinkenberg, the Mississippi River Traveler, will describe the importance of big rivers in the natural world, and why we need to value them more. Klinkenberg will describe what a healthy river looks like and the impressive natural resilience of river ecosystems. He’ll remind us why, as Luna Leopold once said, we need to cultivate a “reverence for rivers.”

Dean Klinkenberg, the Mississippi Valley Traveler, has an incurable obsession with the Mississippi River. He’s driven over 120,000 miles along the Great River Road, hiked to the tops of bluffs, paddled on the Mississippi River in kayaks and canoes, and floated in luxury for a few days as a guest lecturer on the American Queen, all to get to know the diverse people and places of the Mississippi Valley.

Some of the stories he uncovers appear in his Mississippi Valley Traveler guidebooks. Other stories find a home in mysteries that are set in places along the Mississippi that feature hard-luck travel writer Frank Dodge. He has also written for publications including Smithsonian Magazine, The National, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Join us on April 13 for this exciting talk!