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Where: The Driftless Area Education and Visitor Center, 1944 Columbus Road, Lansing

Hours: 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday; noon to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Closed major holidays, including this Friday, Saturday and Sunday because of the Easter holiday.

Admission: Free.

More information: allamakeecountyconservation.org/driftless-center

The Driftless Area Education And Visitors Center in Lansing is pictured in 2017. (The Gazette)
The Driftless Area Education And Visitors Center in Lansing is pictured in 2017. (The Gazette)

On a recent Friday, local visitors mixed with a junior high field trip from Chicago.

“We had 60 people in here,” Geerdes said. “It all worked out.”

Geerdes, who was the center’s naturalist before transitioning to the director position this spring when Jim Janett retired, said staff match programming to the group visiting the center.

“If they are younger people, we get animals out,” he said. The center has seven kinds of snakes, reptiles and amphibians.

Live animals, pictured in 2017, were on display at the Driftless Area Education and Visitors Center in Lansing. (The Gazette)
Live animals, pictured in 2017, were on display at the Driftless Area Education and Visitors Center in Lansing. (The Gazette)

“If they are older and studying about glaciation, we’ll talk about The Driftless Area and why it’s so special,” he said.

The Driftless Area, a topographical region in southwestern Wisconsin, southeastern Minnesota, northeastern Iowa and the extreme northwest corner of Illinois, was never covered by glaciers during the last ice age and doesn’t have the silt, gravel and rock — called drift — the glaciers left behind.

The Driftless has a more rugged landscape than the rest of Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota with caves, sinkholes, springs and cold streams ideal for trout fishing.

Traffic moves along Great River Road past the Driftless Area Education And Visitors Center in Lansing in 2017. (The Gazette)
Traffic moves along Great River Road past the Driftless Area Education And Visitors Center in Lansing in 2017. (The Gazette)

Education about the Mississippi River is core to the center’s mission, Geerdes said. One of the challenges facing the river is invasive fish and plant species that threaten native species.

“With the expansion of Asian carp in northern part of the river it’s very important to have those species in the aquarium as well,” he said. “I think it’s a wonderful idea to display those and educate people about the negative impacts they have on the environment.”

While the carp can outcompete native species for food in the river, staff will be feeding fish in the aquarium minnows, worms and waxworms from River N Ridge Outdoors in Lansing. “They (carp) wouldn’t be that detrimental in our aquarium because we’re feeding them,” Geerdes said.

Staff will keep the aquarium about 60 degrees year-round and change the filter every couple of weeks. They will start with young fish to allow them time to grow in the tank, which is equipped with faux rocks and plants that mimic the Mississippi River.

Under The Sea employee Nick Davis pours gravel March 29 into a 1,250-gallon aquarium at The Driftless Area Education and Visitor Center in Lansing. Under the Sea, an Oklahoma company specializing in large aquariums, installed the aquarium at the center. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette)
Under The Sea employee Nick Davis pours gravel March 29 into a 1,250-gallon aquarium at The Driftless Area Education and Visitor Center in Lansing. Under the Sea, an Oklahoma company specializing in large aquariums, installed the aquarium at the center. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette)

Comments: (319) 339-3157; erin.jordan@thegazette.com

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