Jim Rickard

The St. Croix River was a lonely place Monday morning as Jim Rickard motored south of Afton in his 23-foot Larson 220 Hampton express cruiser.

Rickard passed only two fishing boats before reaching his destination: a spot where a photographer could snap a picture of a 10,000-square-foot house rising from the river bluff.
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"The view from the park was very pristine previous to this," Rickard said."Now, as you're sitting here enjoying the beautiful beach and the river ... now you get to look at that — that house."

Rickard, vice chairman of the Sierra Club's St. Croix Valley Interstate Group, calls the Davies house and broadcasting executive Rob Hubbard's house prime examples of what his group is fighting.
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"It's so hard to find a river so close to a metro area that is still in such a pristine state," Rickard said.
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You'd have seen ... just name it: Any way to make money on it would have been pursued, and there would have been no way to resist it, unless the local community The Sierra Club's Jim Rickard plies the waters of the St. Croix River. (John Doman, Pioneer Press)
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Officials from conservation groups are not pursuing their objections to the Davies house, Rickard said, adding that there are striking differences between it and the Hubbard case.
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Rickard said."Where's the case of hardship here?That's the question.Why can't the landowner comply with the law?"

Officials from the Sierra Club and the St. Croix River Association intervened as parties in the Hubbard case because of concerns that his plans — if approved — could set a precedent for future development along the river, Rickard said.

"This is not a good investment for Minnesota people," said the Sierra Club's Jim Rickard. Instead of spending limited highway funds to benefit at most 20,000 Wisconsin residents, he said, Minnesota should expand heavily traveled Interstate 94 between Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Cold, with hard blue skies scratched with clouds, It's one of the last days to be on the St. Croix River, and Jim Rickard is guiding his Larson 220 Hampton through a no-wake zone near afton.

Only a few boats loiter near the shore on this Saturday, Probably put-ins from the public access, people who don't own a piece of the river, but belong here nevertheless.They're the guys Rickard is fighting for.

"How's it going?"Rickard calls to some fishermen."Getting any?"

"Couple of small ones."

The boat noses into the current, heading upstream.Rickard leans on the throttle and the Larson rears up.Dressed in a Columbia jacket and cargo pants, he puts on some gloves, almost sheepishly."Might get out one more time," he says optimistically.

Rickard is vice chair of the St. Croix Valley Interstate Group, part of the Sierra Club.If the title conjures images of a tofu-and-granola guy who lives in a tent and canoes to work, think again.A former director of business processes for United Healthcare, Rickard recently went back to school for a PhD in organizational management.He enjoys the horsepower of his Larson and says that he used to camp more.
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Rickard serves as something of a sentry himself.Up river, near Lakeland, he kills the engine near a small home barely visible through a stand of trees.
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"You can't see it now," Rickard says."That's a good thing."

A few miles downstream, Rickard takes the boat around a bend and throttles down.
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"This will be the new view from the park," says Rickard, pointing up at the house."None of that was visible before," he says.

Jim Rickard, Sierra Club St. Croix Valley Interstate Group More to be announced soon...

Contact:Jim Rickard

Jim Rickard