February Tracking Club: Otter go Tracking

Come join us for our next Tracking Excursion at Ft. Snelling State Park: Sunday, February 21 9:00am - 1:00pm We will gather outside the Ft. Snelling State Park visitor center: Ft. Snelling State Park 101 Snelling Lake Rd West St Paul, MN 55111North American River Otters are just plain fun to track. That they are also good indicator of the health of an aquatic ecosystem. Since 2009, the National Park Service has been conducting track and sign surveys along the Mississippi River to study our metro area otter populations. For the past couple of years, we have been sharing our sightings of otter track and sign with the National Park Service through our iNaturalist project, the Minnesota Metro Otter Survey. Come join us as we search the shores of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers for signs of these inquisitive aquatic members of the weasel family, and learn to distinguish their tracks and sign from those of other animals.

This is an all-weather event and we spend time off trail. Please bring appropriate footwear and dress for several hours outdoors in whatever weather we may have that day.

We will gather at 9:00 outside of the Visitor Center. We will head out on the trail about 9:15 and return to the visitor center to wrap-up and share. If you need to reach us the day of the outing, please call or text Jon's cell phone at 612-388-4700. Note that cell reception is poor in much of the park, and calls do not always come through.

Important Notes

Please wear a mask and plan to maintain a distance of roughly two otter lengths from those outside of your household.

You need a State Park pass to drive to the Visitor Center. The parking lot at the Historic Fort is closed for construction.

RSVPs are encouraged, but not required.

• • E-mail Jonathan <poppele@umn.edu>

  • Use our online Contact Form

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