As readers of this space may have noticed, I have over the years written a paean or two to the Wapsipinicon River, not just because it’s handy to my residence in Quasqueton, but also because it is, as Mark Twain said of the Mississippi, “in all ways remarkable.”

Its many accolades include state designation as a Protected Water Area, signifying “outstanding cultural and natural resources,” and as a Bird Conservation Area and an Important Bird Area, for its diversity of bird species and critical riparian habitat.

With more than 60 different fish species identified in the Wapsi watershed, many anglers consider it to be “one of the best all-around interior rivers in Iowa,” according to the Department of Natural Resources. In the interest of both conciseness and accuracy, your correspondent would drop the “one of the” hedge.

So would globe-trotting ecologist Jeff Nekola, who extolled more of the river’s virtues in a 2021 chap book, “The Wapsipinicon: A Gentle Refuge, Rare Plants in Her Realm.”

“The Wapsipinicon cradles a rich and varied collection of natural habitats, perhaps unmatched in the state,” Nekola, an ecology professor in the Czech Republic, wrote.

The stretch between Quasqueton and Olin may contain more threatened and endangered plant species than any other comparably sized part of the state, wrote Nikola, a Cedar Rapids native and Coe College graduate.

Nekola traces the biological richness of the Wapsi valley to limestone and dolomite bedrock formed beneath ancient seas and to complex sand, gravel and till deposits left behind by glaciers.

The tall grass prairie that dominated the valley at settlement has long since been converted to farmland, while the upland and riparian forests have remained largely intact. Rarer habitats — such as sand prairies, sand ponds, vernal pools, limestone glades, limestone cliffs and fens — account for much of the basin’s biodiversity, Nekola wrote.

It took a rare plant detective of Nikola’s knowledge and determination to even find those natural habitat remnants “where the hills were a bit too steep to be farmed, the soils a bit too thin, rocky or lean to be plowed…”

It also took a knowledgeable botanist to identify 63 endangered, threatened and rare plants in the Wapsi basin from Quasqueton to Olin.

Based on his research conducted more than 30 years ago, Nikola said, “The Wapsi is one of the most important and under appreciated biodiversity hotspots in Iowa” and “an important last refuge for survival” of many rare plants species.

Asked in an email query to summarize the Wapsi, Nikola replied:

“What I love about the Wapsi is that it’s quiet and modest and yet still pure.”

Unlike more flamboyant rivers, he wrote, “its beauty comes from the fact that it’s subtle and that it requires you to change your perspective to appreciate it.”

Nekola said a quote from legendary environmentalist Aldo Leopold, referring to the Wisconsin River, applies as well to the Wapsipinicon:

“Yet there remains the river, in a few spots hardly changed since Paul Bunyan’s day: at early dawn, before the motor boats awaken, one can still hear it singing in the wilderness.”