June 11, 2008 FBR Meeting featuring Biologist Mark Steingraeber

The Friends of the Black River's membership meeting on June 11, 2008, will feature U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Mark Steingraeber.

Steingraeber has enjoyed searching for answers to puzzling fishery resource questions in the upper Midwest throughout his career. Employed in the La Crosse area by the Department of the Interior since 1986, Mark began his professional career with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a research fishery biologist who studied the biological availability and effects of persistent chemical contaminants on fish and aquatic invertebrates. He has played a lead role here in projects that have involved a wide variety of species including lake sturgeon and paddlefish in the Upper Mississippi River, winged mapleleaf mussels in the St. Croix River, and invasive fish (round goby and Asian carps) in the Chicago Waterways. He is currently working with local partners to help prevent unwanted medications, as well as unwanted pet fish, from entering regional surface waters.

The workday may find Mark in a lab filtering water samples searching for mussel host fish clues or it could put him at a desk pondering distributions of contaminants in river life. He can also be found on the river tracking paddlefish and sturgeon migration or movement of invasive species in waterways. With this fascinating variety of work, Mark will bring an entertaining and informative program to Black River Falls. The meeting is free and the public is invited to attend at the Coop Credit Union Community Room at 7:00 PM Wednesday, June 11th.