ECOLOGIAL RESTORATION
ER
AT CEDAR LAKE POINT BEACH (AND BEYOND)
This is a copy of an email I'm sending out to anyone I know concerning Buckthorn. It is posted below in its entirety. More later:
I wanted to ask for your possible quick and easy action to support a plea for the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board to establish an active policy to address Buckthorn in our parks and natural areas. The Park Board drafted their Invasives Policy for public review and feedback due June 14th. Over the past couple days, I drafted a full response. It is pasted below for your consideration. In short, my message is: Please draft an explicit Buckthorn policy that specifically addresses the problem of Buckthorn, and the need to manage this serious threat to our natural areas. As written, this policy is at best worthless, and in reality environmentally dangerous and damaging, socially destructive, fiscally irresponsible, managerially negligent, and socially, economically and geographically inequitable. If you support the idea that MPRB should assume a more active role in managing Buckthorn, all or in part based on some of the arguments presented below, I urge you to submit your feedback to the Park Board in this form: Submit your public comment MPRB Integrated Pest Management Policy - revised draft (April 2023) [PDF] Here is the existing “policy” which is just lifted from the State of Minnesota DNR: Page 12 - Buckthorn is a shrub brought into Minnesota from Europe in the 1800s. Buckthorn was frequently planted as an ornamental hedge and can still be found today in many Minneapolis neighborhoods. The fruits of buckthorn are spread by birds, moving buckthorn seeds from residential properties into park lands. As a restricted noxious weed, buckthorn can no longer be planted or sold in Minnesota nurseries. Here is my personal response on their feedback form: This is the MPRB policy to address Buckthorn? Please, please tell me there is more somewhere in this Integrated Pest Management Policy and Operations Manual. After all, Buckthorn is nothing short of a cancer that is destroying its host, our park system’s natural areas and ecosystems.. Please draft an explicit Buckthorn policy that specifically addresses the problem of Buckthorn, and the need to manage this serious threat to our natural areas. As written, this policy is at best worthless, and in reality environmentally dangerous and damaging, socially destructive, fiscally irresponsible, managerially negligent, and socially, economically and geographically inequitable. Environmentally Dangerous and Damaging According to the MPRB’s Natural Areas Plan, the Park Board is responsible for managing about 2,800 acres of natural areas, representing 41 percent of all of the Park Board’s real estate. Does the Park Board know what share of that 2,800 acres is infested by Buckthorn? It seems doubtful given, for example, that in the recent final draft of the Cedar Isles Plan that Buckthorn was listed along with, but not distinguished as an invasive, amongst the varieties of tree species of the Cedar Lake Park forest. If residents who walk these areas regularly were asked, you could get reports that some areas are as much as 99 percent Buckthorn. Environmentally, this policy ignores many realities. It ignores the fact that Buckthorn is predominant in too many of MPRB 2,800 acres of natural areas. Public forests, shorelines, and walking and biking paths are infested by Buckthorn to the extent that they are choking out native trees. For example, this early spring I counted just about 100 cedar trees along the southwest shoreline of Cedar Lake. Prior to volunteer eradication efforts over the past year, tens of hundreds of mostly mature Buckthorn trees were removed by Park Steward volunteers along this segment of shoreline. Piles of cut trees were left for Park Board staff to pick up. Many were picked up. Many piles remain to this day. Around much of Cedar Lake, tens of thousands of Buckthorn from mature trees with diameters greater than 8-inches, to saplings to tiny seedlings canopy and carpet the majority of wooded areas. This is not unique to Cedar Lake natural areas. It is like this in too many other natural areas throughout the park system. Buckthorn’s dominance is of no surprise, thanks to who knows how many years of the existing policy, or more actually described as a non-policy. The environmental impact of Buckthorn’s dominance has been repeatedly stated in the MPRB’s Natural Areas Plan that states both species of invasive buckthorn (Common and Glossy) are included on the list of "Invasive plant species that pose the greatest threat to MPRB’s upland natural areas.” In addition to the Park Board’s science, there’s an abundance of citizen volunteer data, including organized bird counts, nature observations, and frequent self-reporting and sharing that paint a picture of sick and dying natural areas. These MPRB and citizen-reported data are within the context of a volume of global research that repeatedly informs us that ecosystems are diminishing at an alarming rate, as biodiversity narrows and species are forever becoming extinct. Socially Destructive In the best case, our urban public parks are safe and welcoming places. They are places where we connect to nature and to one another. Taking a walk in the woods, we connect with nature and all of the self-restorative values it delivers. Picnicking at the beach, we share a communal joy of being amongst friends and strangers in the context of fresh air, clean water, pleasant beaches and parklands, as well as the birds and bees and fish and bugs. Social gatherings in safe environments are paramount. And so are moments of peaceful solitude and reflection. We re-create and recreate in nature. Too many natural areas where the presence and spread of Buckthorn has been allowed to grow unabated have become uninviting, unwelcoming, and undesirable landscapes. A wooded area so thick with Buckthorn is welcome only to those who wish to be unseen. A case in point, my work as a Park Steward clearing the 3-acre Cedar Lake Point Beach wooded area has included cleaning out about 5 cubic feet of glass shards from broken liquor and beer bottles (some as old as maybe 50 plus years), dozens of beer cans (including many very rusty), multiple pairs of womens’ underwear, and an assortment of objects that tell an unsavory story and one unwelcoming of families. Many who pass through the area while I am cutting, clearing and planting remark how the area now feels so much safer and more welcoming. The beach is used by a broader base of the public than anytime in known history. Four trash cans are now placed to handle the volume of summer waste, an indicator of its growing popularity. Densely thickets of Buckthorn creates screening and repels the public by creating unsafe places. My on-site observations and conversations with Park Board police confirm it. More eco-healthy environments support and encourage healthy human connections and community. Fiscally Irresponsible Within the context of an almost $100 million budget, the Park Board seems to fail to recognize the value of the some 2,800 acres of natural areas’ real estate the Park Board is responsible to protect. I’m still searching for a per acre valuation reflective of the value of this real estate asset. But using what would be an incredibly conservative statewide $5,500 per acre land value average, the natural areas designated land alone is estimated to be worth at least $15 million. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s worth ten times that amount, or $150 million. Why is a $15 million to $150 million asset not being recognized and valued enough to fiscally manage it? A Buckthorn policy that says new Buckthorn trees may not be planted is irresponsible and as written will result in the continued spread of Buckthorn. It will result in the continued decimation of existing keystone trees including Cottonwoods and Burr Oaks that are unparalleled in their carbon processing, shade rendering, earth cooling benefits. It will result in the decline of biodiversity and creation of a monoculture that will destroy the economic health and vitality of the forest. A forest of soil-poisoned Buckthorn is worth a fraction of a forest filled with an biodiverse healthy self-sustaining ecological system of plants, animals and humans. The impacts go well beyond the city. Global seasonal bird migration patterns will reroute. Water quality will diminish. The “City of Lakes” known for clean water for swimming, fishing, boating, and as an attraction for the some 30 million visitors will become but a faint memory. Safe places have more value than dangerous places. When a healthy body is struck by cancer, it grows weaker. It needs attention and treatment to fight the infectious intruder. Buckthorn is too strong of an invader to believe the existing organism will take care of itself. It needs deliberate investment in financial resources to protect itself, of the value of that living body will undeniably diminish. In financial management, what gets counted counts. The Buckthorn policy may need to begin by explicitly quantify the value of natural areas as an asset. Manage this asset by recognizing its baseline value and utilize the Park Board’s “Asset Life Cycle Response” system to plan effectively to address whether the asset needs to be maintained, repaired, rehabilitated, or reinvested. When will the Park Board recognize that the final option in asset management, to replace, is not an option when it comes to natural areas? Once the natural areas of Minneapolis parks are destroyed by Buckthorn, the real estate valuation will drop. By necessity, natural areas that lose their heartbeats of healthy organisms will by necessity be converted into lifeless non-natural man-made areas, paved parks, artificial turf, with lots of plastic trees to serve as a canopy. Wisconsin Dells is not something I wish our parks to become. Managerially Negligent The Natural Area Plan states, "Ecological management is not routinely conducted by MPRB in portions of the Cedar Lake Park outside of the planted prairie; however, volunteers have been actively removing buckthorn and other invasive species from around the lake.” For too many years, the Park Board has played a passive role in managing natural areas throughout the park system. Too few MPRB resources have been dedicated to removing invasive species and restoring natural areas. For too many years, resident volunteers have been the backbone of protecting and restoring natural areas. The Park Board has at best been passive in response to volunteer initiatives, and at worst made volunteers feel like they are graced by some higher order the privilege to touch the Park Board’s untouched areas. In this document, as well as other Park Board correspondences with Park Stewards, there is a tone. Almost condescending, but surely missing the mark in capturing energy and spirit of where Park Stewards are coming from. “The Park Stewardship Program allows volunteer groups or individuals to restore, maintain and beautify gardens and natural areas within Minneapolis Parks. This program consists of agreements with volunteer groups doing a variety of activities including plant care and removal, community engagement, and trash clean-up. Of particular importance to this IPM, volunteers help MPRB staff to remove invasive species – including garlic mustard and buckthorn, seeding, planting, tend garden beds, and more.” In my experience and exposure to Park Stewards from around the whole park district, the impetus of Park Stewards is a compulsion, driven by individual citizens who need to take action because we are witnessing a neglect by the Park Board to address critical invasive management needs. The word “allow” suggests Park Stewards are granted a use permit, like a special event use, or a canoe storage space. The process of “applying” for a "Park Steward Agreement” requires the applicant to annually complete a planning form with goals, objectives and timeline. While these information items are reasonable, the application’s approval is presented as an agreement. But to Park Stewards, it doesn’t feel like an agreement. There is no reciprocal agreement offered by the Park Board to support the volunteers’ efforts. Piles of cut down Buckthorn sit for months without pickup, inquiry, or coordination. There is scant evidence of Park Board staff doing any Buckthorn management or restoration of anywhere. With the recent addition of three natural resources staff, things have greatly improved. But with a more investment of more dedicated staff personnel, volunteer activities and impact could easily multiply. And it would be nice to see the Park Board taking on some Buckthorn management practice of their own too. The communications with volunteers could be more supportive and acknowledging, to more accurately reflect the value that Park Stewards and their teams have contributed to the crisis of Buckthorn takeover of our natural areas. As Park Stewards, we are filling a void. I don’t believe it’s a stretch to say that we would rather be in support of the Park Board’s efforts to manage natural areas, than to be relied on as a silent resource that’s addressing something that’s of marginal importance to the Park Board. We are already cutting Buckthorn which is generally a multiple times a year and multi-year process. We are already communicating and learning best practices for ecological restoration that are being adopted elsewhere. We are already soliciting private funds from local non-profits such as the Cedar Lake Park Association, the Friends of Roberts Bird Sanctuary, and more to purchase native plants. We are already coordinating volunteer activities for group restoration efforts. We are already communicating with the public in person and via social media the needs and benefits of saving our Park Board’s natural areas. We as Park Stewards have for quite some time assumed a leadership role – largely because there is a leadership void unfilled by the Park Board, in policy and in practice. Recently, the Park Board’s planning staff actually marginalized many of these voices of the most involved citizens in the public input process of the Cedar Isles Plan, referring to us as “loud” and passively tolerating critics to refer to the most involved as NIMBYs. Socially, Economically and Geographically Inequitable What is of equal concern that is shared among many Park Stewards, is the fact that we acknowledge that the way natural areas are being managed by volunteers is socially, economically and geographically inequitable. We appreciate that many of us have the time, talents and treasures to try to save the natural areas closest to where we live. Not all areas have these resources. While we’d love to save other parts of the city and the whole world for that matter, we realize we can only do what we can do. The work is already overwhelming. We celebrate small battles. But we as a city and a park system are sorely losing the war against Buckthorn. Are we going to accept that healthy natural areas are limited to where people with time, talents and treasures live? We don’t like that. We need the Park Board to step up. We need the Park Board to seriously see what we on the ground, in the woods, literally at the grassroots level see. We need the Park Board to assume responsibility and take on an active leadership role in managing natural areas, beginning with an explicit policy to eradicate Buckthorn. In a conversation with a Park Board Commissioner about Buckthorn, their response was, “You know we can’t get rid of Buckthorn, right?” Much to my dismay, this Buckthorn policy reflects that same attitude. The Commissioner followed, “But we can manage it.” Well, this policy fails to even attempt to do that. To me and many others, that is disappointing and unacceptable. We need to approach our natural areas with an attitude and actions to conserve, or con-serve, together-serve. If we serve the natural areas through protection and restoration, natural areas will serve us through offering connection to nature and one another as a nationally renowned urban park system can and must.
1 Comment
Dan Johnson
6/9/2023 05:36:29 am
Well stated Steve. It will require more than volunteers to adequately manage buckthorn throughout our parks.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
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. |