Two power lines that had stretched over the upper St. Croix River for decades were removed this summer, saving the lives of trumpeter swans and other birds and improving the power grid at St. Croix State Park.

The lines had been in place since before the St. Croix was designated as a national Wild and Scenic River in 1968. They were one of the few signs of the outside world that blemished miles of undeveloped river. Taking them down also made possible extensive infrastructure upgrades at Minnesota’s largest state park.

Located 15 rural miles east of Hinckley, Minnesota and 12 miles west of the village of Danbury, Wisconsin, St. Croix State Park had long been connected to power infrastructure in northwest Wisconsin. One line crossed the St. Croix from near the mouth of the Clam River to connect to the park’s main campground area, and provided 90 percent of the park’s power. Ten miles downstream, another line crossed from Nelson Landing on the Wisconsin side to the park’s Head of the Rapids group camp and landing.

St. Croix State Park manager Rick Dunkley explained that the park had been experiencing power outages up to 50 times a year. And he said it was usually caused by a trumpeter swan flying above the river colliding with a power line, often injuring or killing the bird. Hanging perhaps 40 feet above the water, the lines were in the worst possible place for swans flying up or down the river to gain altitude while taking off.

Dunkley has worked for the Department of Natural Resources for decades and taken on big projects before, including leading St. Croix State Park through its recovery from the devastating 2011 blowdown that flattened more than 10,000 acres of forest. Still, he is most proud of the electrical project.

“It’s the biggest thing I’ve done in my career,” he said.

In recent years, in addition to harming the trumpeter swans that live and migrate along the river, the power lines were unreliable.

“The infrastructure in here was ready to collapse electrically,” said Dunkley.

And when a bird collided with a line, it was no simple matter to repair. The huge park includes more than 30,000 acres, 30 miles of the St. Croix and Kettle Rivers, 180 buildings, 40 miles of roads, bridges and other infrastructure, vast forests and wetlands, and more.

“Restoring those outages wasn’t easy,” says Dave Waletski, East Central Energy engineering manager. “The terrain and cross-county feeds made access difficult and time-consuming.”

While the DNR itself owned one of the lines, an expert with their power company said it should have been replaced at least twenty years before. Besides being in poor condition, it was simply inadequate.

“You can imagine from the 1950s to now, people’s use of electricity has changed,” Dunkley said. “The size of transformers or the size of wire wasn’t sufficient for our mess halls, for instance, with big refrigerators.”

He recounted that a master electrician who surveyed the system found that electrical demand from the main mess hall was twice what the transformer the connected it to the grid could handle. It caused frequent burnouts of the lines. RVs and campers also often use 50 amp connections today, while the existing electrical grid could only handle 30 amp. Increasing numbers of visitors are driving electric cars and, whether tent camping or visiting for the day, need a plug-in to charge for the drive home.

After years of work, the park is now ready to handle modern demand.

The idea of removing the power lines began with Julie Galonska, who served as superintendent of the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway from 2015 to 2021. She brought it up at a regular meeting of the state and federal agencies.

“She said, ‘Have you ever thought of removing your power line somehow and going underground?’” Dunkley recalls. He replied that in fact, not only had they thought about it, but they needed to do it.

“We started to hatch a plan at that point,” Dunkley said.

They first explored their options: drilling under the river to bury the power lines or working with a Minnesota utility to eliminate the river crossings altogether. After meeting with current providers Northwestern Wisconsin Electric Company, the company asked a contractor for an estimate. They learned the cost for boring could easily climb into six figures and the line would have to be replaced every 15 years.

While the park and the power company investigated this option, the National Park Service did some research and found that there were no legal easements on record for the lines. Replacing the lines, including boring and burying, would require easements, which would trigger environmental review, which could make the complicated project even more costly and time-consuming. So they came up with another idea.

The Head of the Rapids power line before removal. (Photos courtesy Rick Dunkley)

Dunkley contacted East Central Energy, a member-owned electric co-op serving 67,000 customers in the region, and the company’s staff came out to take a look.

Working with East Central Energy, the DNR came up with a plan to start getting its electricity from Minnesota. The power company had two lines that terminated at different points a few miles of most parts of the park, and would bury the wires to make them more impervious to weather and time.

The National Park Service had a small amount of funding available to help the project get started. The Minnesota DNR ultimately awarded a grant that covered the approximately $250,000 cost for East Central Energy to connect the park to its grid.

”It was a long process—working with multiple utilities, the Public Utilities Commission, and the DNR,” says ECE’s Waletski. “But the goal was always clear: provide reliable, safe power in a way that respects the park’s unique landscape.”

When the lines over the river were taken down this summer, it not only removed a hazard to birds and improved safety and reliability, it also marked the completion of major upgrades to the park’s electrical systems.

As part of installing the underground wires, the project resulted in the removal of miles of existing wire and poles above ground, burial of lines, and new transformers to connect transmission lines to buildings.

“It was a big deal and a great accomplishment,” said Dunkley. “And good for the environment.”