Lewis and Clark State Park; Mines of Spain State Recreation Area

Lewis and Clark State Park?s new visitor center open house set Friday

ONAWA ? An open house for the newly opened visitor center at Lewis and Clark State Park will be 2-3 p.m. Friday.

The visitor center, overlooking Blue Lake, showcases five replica boats used on the Lewis and Clark Expedition, including one that is fully operational, educational displays focusing on the flora and fauna discovered in the Monona County area during the expedition, and displays depicting how the historic expedition was carried out.

Volunteers needed to help woodland

DUBUQUE ? The Iowa Department of Natural Resources, 1 Mississippi, and the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation are looking for volunteers from 8-11 a.m. Saturday to help remove oriental bittersweet from Mines of Spain State Recreation Area.

Tools will be provided. Participants should bring a water bottle and work gloves. Most of the work will be conducted along the road in the park.

Register at ia1mississippi@biodiverse.org or 563-379-5779. Upon completion, volunteers are invited to an ice cream social in the EB Lyons Interpretive Center.

Oriental Bittersweet is a rapidly spreading invasive species.

that covers that covers the ground and will outcompete native plants by shading them out. Trees can even be killed by the vine?s woody stem.