ECOLOGIAL RESTORATION
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AT CEDAR LAKE POINT BEACH (AND BEYOND)
Originally wrote this in July, and was thinking I should get a photo to help it before publishing, but never got around to it, so will publish anyway. It leads to my next post. On many mornings, I walk around Cedar Lake Point Beach and spot a family of duckings along the shoreline. I do anything I can to not disturb them. They're sitting so restfully, just living their lives, trying to do their thing in this urban setting. But as urban beings sharing space with humans and our dogs and grandkids who might find these innocent beings, cute, endearing and approachable, they are adaptive and are in ready for retreat smoothly gliding into the lake to evade conflict. It's those ducks I thought about today as I read a re-post on Facebook by Windflower Natives about the loss of wildlife prairie to building a mountain bike trail. It's like nature is as innocent as a sitting duck when someone else sees it for a human use. There is no doubt that outdoor recreation is wonderful to the who enjoy it. We need to get off our butts and move. And transitioning kids from screen time to outdoor activities is beneficial in so many ways. But what seems to be happening is that open natural areas are viewed as a blank slate on which to develop recreation amenities and facilities. Those "improvements" are at worst paving over more land, and at minimum compelled without serious consideration and appreciation of what's already there. In many cases, what's already there is a natural habitat that in some way is connected to other habitats and in general is another slice into the limited and quickly diminishing inventory of places that support an ecosystem in which we as human literally need in order to exist. So what's with bears?While we don't have any bears in Minneapolis, maybe we need some. Maybe we need some "Nature Bears."
Bears are renowned for fiercely protecting their family members, right. We all know better when hiking in the real wild to not get ourself between a mama bear and her cubs. Bears aren't like ducks and scuttle away if they see you coming. If threatened, bears are apt to become more aggressive when it comes to protecting what's important to them. Too often, those who stand in defense of the environment find themselves in a protective mode. But that protective mode tends to be to be stagnant, to hold firm, to fortify. But often the speed, volume, and tenacity of those who are imposing their interests on assuming, occupying and ultimately destroying the natural environment in the name of recreational purposes generally overwhelm the thin veil of defense. We're in a situation at Cedar Lake Park these days where we're seeing something like this playing out. The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board's recently approved Cedar-Isles Plan is completed. The exhaustive action and energy that went into the multi-year planning process has come to a conclusion. Many elements of that plan were statements that protect Cedar Lake Park's woodlands from being bisected by a two-lane soft surface bike and pedestrian trail. That's a trail that would have not addressed the complexities of e-bikes, e-scooters, e-hoverboards, and whatever might come next in personal mobility devices. The issue is that plan as it stands is a noun. It's stagnant. It sits like a duck resting still, with suggestions of actions to follow anytime between now and the net 20 or 30 years. Something needs to happen to move the plan from its current defensive of natural areas to explicit policies that clearly state how the natural areas will be protected. Saying the park board is not going to build a bike trail is not the same thing as the park board saying that circulation through the trails will be restricted to pedestrians, and prohibit bikes and all the likes. We need to act like bears to protect the home to nature.
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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. |