Jeff Green Has Retired

After 33+ years with the DNR, I have called it done and retired as of early May. I started with the DNR in Fergus Falls back in October 1987. That position was a staff hydrologist working with the area hydrologist. As a result of the good work that the then DNR-Division of Waters did during the drought of 1988, the state legislature approved 10 new hydrologist positions for the division. One of them was the first regional groundwater specialist position in the DNR which was to be located in the Rochester office. I interviewed for and was offered the job in the spring of 1990. I accepted and began working in the position in May of 1990. Since I was the first person to work in a position that we never had before, there was a lot of uncharted territory to explore. The broad goal was to provide technical and educational assistance to state agency and local government staff. That evolved into me specializing in karst hydrogeology since karst is extensive in the southeastern part of Minnesota. That specialization led me to learn from and collaborate with Calvin Alexander. That partnership and friendship have been a great facet of the work I have done down here. Dye tracing, spring and sinkhole mapping, groundwater investigations, outreach, karst unit mapping, and many collaborative projects were important parts of the work. Many people in state and local governments were an important piece of the partnerships developed between DNR and local and state agencies. In 2007, we started actively dye tracing in the Cambrian St. Lawrence Formation. That work identified a rapid, karst-like flow system in the St. Lawrence and in the Lone Rock Formation. That helped to change our understanding of the hydrology of the Driftless Area. My last major project was the production, with my coauthor John Barry, of karst landscape unit maps of Houston County and Winona County along with a report.

So, what now? As some of you know, I have done multiple trips overseas assisting a small US mission agency (Latcom) with water resource work in Bolivia. I will continue that work in Bolivia and maybe other countries as well. I have plenty of projects to keep me occupied here at my house and at a small piece of land I own down in Houston County. I go there to imitate Aldo Leopold and try to manage and restore the native plant communities. My main task there the last few years has been to spray and pull as much garlic mustard as I possibly can. I hope to get up to the Devil’s Kettle at some point yet this year to see how it looks under low flow conditions. Solving the mystery there was quite satisfying I have to say, particularly since it took a Badger to solve the Gopher’s mystery! I do hope to continue working on karst issues and dye tracing projects going forward. We will see how that works out. I also hope to do some writing about the karst and groundwater resources in southeast Minnesota.

My youngest son works for Olmsted County. He reminded me what Terry Lee said at his retirement; that if you can look back and see that there were more positives then negatives, then you had a good career. As I said, I was the first regional groundwater specialist in DNR. There are now 3 more positions across the state, so I guess overall I did something right in the 31 years I worked down here in Rochester!