River squatters leave thousands of pounds of trash

Talk about it

Federal government crews are cleaning up two camps on the Mississippi River where squatters used to live. They’re located on islands just south of Winona on the Wisconsin-Minnesota border.

Mary Stefanski of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said one of the camps included a houseboat-type structure that apparently was floated to the island and was there for about 50 years. During that time, numerous items were brought to the camps and left behind – including metal house-wares and other rusty items that could never decompose.

Stefanski said they posed environmental damage – and all the boards, nails, and old mattresses could cause injury to people. The squatters’ camps were tucked deep into forest land. They came to light last year during surveys for eagle nests.

Stefanski said one camp was abandoned many years ago, but the other appeared to be used just recently. Almost a dozen AmeriCorps volunteers are cleaning up the site, before the city of Winona transfers the property to the Upper Mississippi federal wildlife refuge.

More than 8,500 pounds of trash and metal were removed in just three days. USFW says it knows who set up the camps but won’t ticket them – partially because the sites date back for so long.

Tags: wisconsin, environment