ECOLOGIAL RESTORATION
ER
AT CEDAR LAKE POINT BEACH (AND BEYOND)
It's the first week of February. Tip-toeing out onto Cedar Lake, there are sounds. Underfoot, I hear the trickling water rising to the surface. Beyond, there's a lower series of hums. I wish I could find a name for it, but they are like moans, almost whale-like. The huge ice plates are awake, rolling, upset. It reminds me of when sometimes I awake in the middle of the night, questioning if maybe I had too much garlic hummus for dinner. It's another day and night well above freezing. No snow, disappearing ice, and hardly a need to layer up. And beyond our doorsteps news of storms, flooding, and other natural disasters are broadcast about every day. These are big things. The vastness of big things can often feel so overwhelming, so out of control. Thankfully, one takeaway I've been reminded of each day, especially over the past few years of performing volunteer ecological restoration amongst the community of volunteers who spend their time in natural areas is that taking care of the little things might be the biggest thing we can do. Park Stewards do big little thingsWhen those who apply to become Park Stewards with the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board, many of us volunteer to initiate efforts to restore natural areas. Very often, the tip of the arrow, or perhaps tooth of the saw in this case, is the idea that many Park Stewards are focused most solely on removing Buckthorn from our parks' natural areas. After spending hundreds of hours removing Buckthorn from Cedar Lake Point Beach, I've appreciated the time to contemplate what I and many of my compatriots across the city are doing and why. I've learned to evolve my responses to those who pass by and ask, "What are you doing?" I can't help but answer it loaded with answering, "Why am I doing this?" I've come to form a framework, a process to answer this question. For the fun of it, I refer to this as "Eco-Logic." The short answer is, we are need to restore ecological environments from sick to healthy. The disparity between the threat and the response is upsetting For those of us who have become familiar with natural areas, it's essentially impossible to take a walk through the much of the woods without almost literally seeing red or green. Much to the demise of public awareness, our public policy experts tend to focus on words like "tree canopy". But not all canopies are the same. Some are healthy. But too too much of what exists in our parklands unmanaged natural areas is very sick. Infested with invasives, it's cancer-like. Unaddressed, invasive species live off their host, spread unabated, and continue to kill ecological habitats, species and the biodiversity of our natural areas. Just like with the treatment of cancer, early recognition is critical. We're past early. But that creates an even greater sense of urgency to explicitly assess our natural areas to understand the extensiveness of invasives to begin the process of restoration. We need to differentiate those invasives that pose the greatest threats. Cedar Lake Point Beach restoration began with eradicating Buckthorn. That's in process, that will be described further in the next post. But what we learned was Mulberry is a huge threat too. Mulberry trees, as pleasing as the berries are to humans to pick, are similarly unhealthy for birds, do little to help the local habitat, steal nutrients from the soils, stun and distort the growth of native trees such as Cottonwoods and Lindens, and create a tree canopy that restricts the efforts to grow a habitat of native trees, shrubs, grasses and forbs. Our efforts to triage the greatest threats have been accomplished at Cedar Lake Point Beach project area, but a walk through the woods in other natural areas draws ire, knowing so many areas remain infected with a spreading disease of invasives. As a community, we need to more of us to do the countless little things, working on ways to better identify and communicate areas where wooded areas are most stressed, face the greatest threats, and are in need of attention. This includes geo-mapping and prioritizing, and coordinating efforts with MPRB natural resources and forest department team members.
More on those efforts and how we would like your help later. But please don't hesitate to reach out for more information.
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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. |