ECOLOGIAL RESTORATION
ER
AT CEDAR LAKE POINT BEACH (AND BEYOND)
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. |