ECOLOGIAL RESTORATION
ER
AT CEDAR LAKE POINT BEACH (AND BEYOND)
It was a joy to be able to finally get out on the ice for a walk this morning. Our climate changes offer no guarantees of when or even if we can count on the simple pleasures of experiencing predictable seasons. One of winter's delights is being able to enjoy the expanded area of natural areas that convert lakes from a liquid to a solid surface. As I write this, with a different messaging agenda in mind, I am reminded how quickly and almost without second thought, that we talk about our parks and natural areas from the primary if not exclusive perspective of our human interest. Dang. It happened again. The value of our parks is anthropologically-centered. What's in it for me? I get to take my dog for a walk. I get some exercise. I get some fresh air. All while also thinking, when will we get more snow so I can ski? Or, when will some more snow on the surface make it a little safer for me so I don't slip and injure myself? This whole issue of who benefits from nature, human versus non-humans, is of course unsettling. After all, there's not supposed to be a separation. People and nature are one and the same. But we don't act that way. If we did, we would take care of our planet as we might take care of ourselves. But that's easier said than done. So we've got a ways to go before that assumption will hold water. What we don't seem to have in place is some kind of a mindset that says we need a reciprocal relationship with nature. We will take care of nature and she will take care of us. Instead, we just take from nature and expect nature to take care of itself . . . and take care of us. We need a framework that appreciates needs and estblishes a sense of priorities based on those needs. Needs-based PrioritiesGuilty again of being human-centered, I couldn't help but this about Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs model when conceptualizing prioritizing needs. And to be honest, I spent considerable time researching to see if such a model existed for nature, public parks and management of natural resources might exist, but to no avail. So let's at least start with this model. As the model indicates, there is a hierarchy of needs that begin at its base. Physiological needs for fresh air, food, water, etc are essential for basic survival. Most people can't hold their breadth for 2 minutes (though the world record is an astounding nearly 25 minutes). Humans can live only up to 3 to 5 days without water. And your body starts to eat itself when it goes into starvation mode. So only after those needs are fulfilled can we expect other needs to take precedent. It's the rationale behind school meals. Children can't learn when they lack proper nutrition, sense of safety and feel a sense of love and belonging. So how does this relate to our parks and natural areas? I can't help but think about our park system as a living being. It has a hierarchy of needs too. I roughly drafted this pyramid of needs in 2022. It could probably use some help refining and correcting it in several ways, including shooting some of those human needs from its foundation to wants and desires are towards towards the higher levels. But conceptually, it's a start. More simply, here is what seems exists. Words MatterAccording to the words, these hierarchy of needs appear aligned with our park board, who's core mission is to oversee "a renowned urban park system spanning 7,059 acres of parkland and water" and whose mission reads "The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board permanently preserves, protects, maintains, improves, and enhances its natural resources, parkland, and recreational opportunities for current and future generations of our region including people, plants, and wildlife." Actions Matter MoreSo are we doing what we say we need to do? I'm struggling with that, and need to learn more. My personal and anecdotal from many volunteers doing ecological restoration throughout the park system makes me wonder. The Cedar Lake Point Beach area was neglected by park board staff for decades. The Natural Resources departments time and capabilities and staff have recently expanded, but cuttings and uprooting of from clearing invasive trees from the site remain since the last pickup in June. The Forestry department explained they don't cut invasive trees in the woods. The natural areas woods on north side and east sides of Cedar Lake remain infested with invasive trees. Unmaintained and not meeting the essential needs of a habitat because they are being choked out by human created invasive infestations, trees and natural habitats are unable to breath, eat, or survive. Maybe it doesn't help that while I'm walking through theses woods, I'm also listening to The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer. I see all the invasives killing the environment, knowing our park board has abvicated their responsibility to citizen volunteers to care and treat the expanding cancer of a problem. While I don't have the data to prove it yet, I have a working hypothesis about what's happening. From presentations and plans by the Park Board, to priorities and strategies of funding sources including the Minneapolis Park Foundation, what appears is we have a disconnect between our words and our actions. It feels like our resources largely go to serving human wishes and desires, and the suffering and being stretched to the limits non-human needs remain inadequately unattended. Theoretically, feels like this: This morning's chapters in my audio book were about a time when the dangers of tobacco were just being acknowledged. It took quite an effort for that paradigm shifted. Doctors were provided free cigarettes by the tobacco companies, and the group of experts and decision makers sat around and smoked as they contemplated policy issues around public safety and public policy. There finally came a tipping point when the Surgeon General was compelled to bring together all the research and publish a a "Statement of Warning" in a Smoking and Health: Report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General report report that officially stated the relationship between smoking and cancer. What I wouldn't give to have a public process of revising the public expenditures of park investments into human versus non-human needs, wants and desires. It might make me feel like we were making decisions based on priorities that first serve needs for all of us human and non-humans to survive and then thrive.
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Honor father sky and mother earth. Look after everything. Life resides in all things, even the motionless stones. Take care of the insects for they have their place, and the plants and trees for they feed the people. Everything on earth, every creature and plant wants to live without pain, so do them no harm. Treat all people in creation with respect; all is sacred, especially the bats. Live gently with the land. We are one with the land. We are part of everything in our world, part of the roundness and the cycles of life. The world does not belong to us. We belong to the world. And all life is sacred. Pray to the earth. Restore yourself and voice. Remake your spirit, so that it is in harmony with the rest of nature and the universe. Keep peace with all your sisters and brothers. Humans whose minds are healthy desire such peace and justice. - Writings by the character Michael Horse in “Mean Spirit” by Linda Hogan At a time of the year when we tend to this that all things nature are dormant and asleep, efforts remain abuzz among the many of us who are working on ecological restoration. Last week, I was able to meet in person a Minneapolis Park Board Forestry Department person who does both field work and interacts with volunteers working their areas. We visited at Cedar Lake Point Beach, overlooking an area that looks so different than it did just four short years ago when these recent volunteer-driven restoration efforts were initiated. The area has since been cleared of a majority of the Buckthorn that densely thrived on this hectare of natural area. The restoration process continues with working toward an understanding of who does what at the Park Board. The Forestry Department came to mind this past fall for two reasons. One, I attended a meeting a coupe months ago about tree watering, where the Forestry Department staff discussed ways the public can be a part of the process to keep trees they planted alive on boulevards. Second, a few weeks ago Forestry Department staff came into the Point Beach area and cut out some diseased trees. These are some trees that just a few years ago I can't help but wonder if they likely would have been unnoticed by the department staff. Prior to radical eradication, any diseased trees would have been too concealed within the invasive trees to catch the eye of an inspector. So it's been a positive accomplishment in that both the Natural Resources and Forestry department team members have taken notice and action of this area over the past few years. Encouraged by the Forestry Department's work in the area, I initiated a meeting to begin to develop a relationship and understanding of their role and how we may coordinate efforts. It was disappointing to hear an explanation that, short of removing diseased trees, the Forestry Department do work in wooded areas. Talk about a disconnect. The MPRB Forestry Department doesn't do work in our forests. I had to ask him to repeat that. He explained that aside from addressing fallen trees that pose a hazard and diseased trees, they just can't. They don't have enough resources as it is. They are already behind on true pruning and tree management in parks and on parkways. Can't see the forest from the trees is all I could think about. So it feels like ecological restoration of this area is at a bit of a stalemate. I explained to the Forestry guy that about 50 to 70 percent fo the trees that remain standing on the peninsula are Mulberry trees that exceed the my volunteer diameter limit to cut down. They won't cut them down, and they won't haul them out. We might be able to girdle them, a technique of cutting a band of bark away that essentially cuts off the lifeline to keep trees growing. But that takes a long time. And without cutting down the Mulberries, there are extreme limitations on what can be newly planted because they create too much shade and absorb too much water and nutrients from the soils to support adequate growth. So without the Natural Resources or Forestry Department's involvement due to lack of resources, and without volunteer permissions to cut and clear the area, there seems to be just one other option, exploring licensed contractors to bid out the work that perhaps could be paid for by private donations. But actually, I explored that option in the past with the Natural Resources manager, and at that time I was discouraged from pursuing it, mostly due to existing workloads. The trashy piles of cuttings remain. The prospects of more cuttings are stalled. It's almost like we are frozen in solid ice. And still the call beckons: Honor father sky and mother earth. Look after everything. What can we do to look after everything? One approach is to begin with the notion of counting. As I believe was stated before, what gets counted counts. And so, my final discussion with the Forestry Department guy was to ask about the tree inventory system they use. At this question, the forester was excited to say he was just out conducting inventory earlier that morning, then opened his truck cab to show on his laptop the system they use. I took note of the system and he believed that if we conducted an inventory with enough data in it, they could incorporate that into their system. So I'm in the process of following up on that now, and am waiting for a quote from the software company to assess with the Cedar Lake Park Association for the whole Cedar Lake Park. Wouldn't it be nice if we could have a community event of tree identification and inventory? A group of bird watchers conducted another winter bird count in December. Let's start counting trees.
That's a start at looking after everything, especially when our public park board apparently lacks the resources to do so. |
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March 2024
AuthorI'm Steve Kotvis, volunteer Park Steward for the Minneapolis Cedar Lake Point Beach peninsula who has a newfound love of restoring this natural area and more. I'm learning as I go, and enjoy sharing that with those who have an interest. I'm also a photographer, so the photos in this blog are mine unless otherwise labeled. |