Harvest Time - Autumn Carp Removal

Justine Koch, U of MN, with one of the largest fish caught yet.  Could this fish be old enough to retire?!

October marks harvest season in many counties in Minnesota, including here in suburban Maplewood. The difference here is that the ‘crop’ is carp, and the harvest will breathe new life into our lakes.

Our farmers in this scenario are the U of MN Carp Research Team (see the keyword ‘carp’ in the right column for more articles). They have had great success recently harvesting thousands of pounds of carp using something called a box net enclosure. This type of enclosure requires a large 70ft by 70ft net to be submerged at a presumed carp hangout. The carp find and feast on bait corn that is placed on top of this net for days or even a week or more. When the U of MN crew determines that enough corn is disappearing fast enough, signifying the carp school has relaxed about the free meal, the cue is given to hoist the pulleys supporting the sides of the box net up to trap the carp. This has to be done in the early morning while the carp are positioned over the net, actively feeding on the corn.

The U of MN crew harvest the carp using an electrofishing boat in
the box net enclosure, now with the sides of the net above water.

It’s 4:30 a.m. on October 2nd and Justine Koch, Reid Swanson, Brett Miller, and Mary Headrick have parked the trucks on Keller Lake island in the darkness. Their early-morning actions must be stealthy in order to get the sides of the net above water without startling the fish. Once done, they must wait until the sun rises to safely harvest the fish from the large pool of water enclosed by the box net. At dawn, an electrofishing boat is used to stun the carp to the surface of the lake and a team works to net them into a boat. From there, each carp is individually assessed to see if they have fin clips, floy tags, pit tags, or radiotags. Any one of these would indicate the carp had been previously captured by the UMN team and could provide valuable information about the carp population. A subset of these fish are measured for length and fin clips are taken to further a genetic study determining what strains of carp are in the Phalen Chain and where they come from. 

Reid Swanson measures one of the largest carp caught by the U of MN research team.

Reid and Justine check each fish for signs of previous captures.

The netting was very successful. The team removed 446 carp for a total of about 3700 lbs from Keller Lake!

The box net was then moved to Gervais Lake where the team coordinated with a friendly lakeshore owner to use their property for the harvest. Another exciting catch, 227 carp totaling over 2,000 pounds were brought in with some of the largest carp we have caught to date. Three or more of the carp were over 900mm long. By comparison, one of the oldest fish previously caught and assessed during this research measured in the 800mm range and was in its 60s! Otoliths will be taken from these large fish to determine their age.

These fall nettings bring us closer to our goal of having a manageable carp population in District lakes. Many thanks to Justine, Reid, and their crew for the long, stinky, and heavy work this harvest season!

Mystery of the Month - October 2013

The photo this month resembles a scary Halloween mystery. What ever could it be?

A clump of Buckminsterfullerene?

A medieval mace?

Lady Gaga’s newest headdress?

Read more to see if your guess is closer…

It’s a close-up-and-personal shot of a bur-reed seed head – Sparganium eurycarpum to be specific.  “Giant” or “broadfruit” bur-reed is the most common species of the 8 species known to occur in Minnesota. It’s a stout perennial plant that looks a bit like a very short sturdy cattail, with a fuzzy round cream-green flower that develops into the amazing seed head shown above.

Giant bur-reed is a good choice for shoreline restorations.  It grows well in shallow water and can also tolerate periods of dryness. The plants are interlaced by rhizomes, root-like extensions that produce new plant shoots. This helps them reduce shoreline erosion and spread quickly to protect the shore.  Bur-reed provides excellent fish and bird habitat, and the seeds are eaten by waterfowl. Although muskrat will eat the entire plant, in experimental plots bur-reed was the last plant selected by munching muskrat. This is an important consideration in areas where muskrat grazing can wipe out emergent plants. And of course, in the fall it will gift you with a fine assortment of miniature medieval maces!

The Truth About Ms. Canthus

Miscanthus infestation.  Photo by Paul Erdmann.

This time of year, perhaps more than others, our eyes are drawn to the landscape. Trees reveal amber and gold, prairies display deep oranges, asters pop purples, and fluffy tufts of grassy seed heads sway in the wind. 


As we get caught up in this long autumn (as we should), someone must play the unfortunate role of party pooper to keep us grounded, right?  

 
Hearing no answer to the contrary, we will assume you’ve decided that the only way to peacefully return to your landscape gazing is to know the truth about a villainous vixen in our gardens, ditches and fields. Meet Ms. Canthus and her like-minded cousins.

 

Amur or Chinese silver grass (Miscanthus sinensis, Miscanthus sacchariflorus), or Ms. Canthus in my book, incorrectly referred to as pampas grass are perennial, ornamental grasses, 3-10’ tall. These plants spread and dominate, excluding and replacing beneficial native plants, resulting in a thick monoculture that is nearly impossible to walk through. It provides no known benefits to wildlife. Miscanthus sacchariflorus prefers to grow in wet places including in ditches, near stream, lake and wetland edges. This is the grass that has overtaken the cloverleaf at highways 36 and 694 in Oakdale.

 
Miscanthus species begin to bloom in late July to early August in central Minnesota. Flowers start out thin and shimmery; then become silky and/or plume-like. Fluffy flower tops may remain on plants into winter. Leaves are ½” to 1” wide x 40” long with a prominent white mid-vein. Serrated edges on the leaves can cause painful cuts.

 

Over 50 varieties exist, brought and cultivated for their aesthetic contribution to gardens, but alas, they wander far beyond. These species are spreading into road sides, woodland borders, wet and open areas, although how they do so is still somewhat of a mystery. It was previously thought that the seed of Miscanthus was sterile, but their status as an invasive species indicates that either this notion is wrong, or they have another highly-effective means such as rhizomes, root-like extensions that produce new plant shoots. A study is underway at The Ohio State University to determine this through sampling many plants and finding those that are genetically related. The Ramsey County Cooperative Weed Management Area (RCCWMA) is contributing to the study by collecting DNA and seed samples.

While some invasive species are better known such as buckthorn, sly Miscanthus is still often used in plantings. Revise your view of the landscape this fall and see that this plant can be very problematic.


The good news is that there are several other options that are equally as eye-drawing.


Native grasses such as big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii), little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), switch grass (Panicum virgatum), and Indian grass (Sorghastrum nutans), provide habitat for native wildlife while being show-stoppers, especially this time of year. Please consider replacing any plantings you may have of this invasive species with one of these Minnesota originals. 

Little bluestem is a native plant that makes
a great substitution to miscanthus.

 
You may now return to your regularly scheduled autumn viewing. 



[RCCWMA receives support from Ramsey Conservation District, RWMWD and the Minnesota Board of Soil and Water Resources. Check your yard and neighborhood for species on our watch list: https://www.co.ramsey.mn.us/cd/cwma.htm.]

On the Screen: Sustainable Food and Nature on the Same Plate– A Welcome “Mixed Message” at Bruce Vento Nature Preserve

By Sage Passi

Introductory screen in the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary guide video #1.

This month’s Watershed Weekly video, The Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary , playing Thursdays in October at 5 PM on SCC (Suburban Community Channels) Channel 15 is a replay from a couple of years ago (November 2011). You can now also link to this series of videos on You Tube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LowerPhalenCreek. Airing this video at this time is auspicious, given the latest developments in store for the area. But I mean development in a different sense of the word that doesn’t threaten the progress that has happened there over the past ten years. 

A train yard was just one known use of this area. Video Clip from Tour #1 with Sue Vento.

On the edge of downtown St. Paul on the Mississippi River (in the area where Phalen Creek once flowed into the Mississippi River) is a centuries long sacred place for the Dakota Indian people which in the 19th and 20th centuries was turned into a dump, a train yard and a brewery. Over the last ten years it was transformed into the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary. The story of the park’s cultural history and transformation is told in the video by Dakota elder Jim Rock, National Park historian John Anfinson and others. We also get a good description of the

A lot of remediation had to be done to the area.  Video clip from Tour #2.

ecological transformations of the large prairie, flood plain, wetland, oak savanna and woodland restoration which was done largely by volunteers including the East Side Youth Conservation Corps from the Community Design Center (now known as Urban Roots). The video ends with a description of the next phase: the design and development of a cultural and interpretive center. Since this video was completed, new developments are on the horizon for the center.


The Urban Oasis - A hub for connecting food, nature and culture

The building currently located at the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary.
(Video clip from YouTube video listed below)

 

A sketch of what the existing building makeover might resemble.
(Video clip from YouTube video listed below)

In a recent announcement, The Urban Oasis, a concept for a hub to connect food, nature and culture is the winner of the $1 million dollar Forever Saint Paul Challenge to transform existing space in the vacant four story building at the Bruce Vento Sanctuary. Tracy Sidles, an entrepreneur and activist submitted this award-winning idea to create a commercial kitchen and classrooms at the hub that would house a catering company, food truck, worker-owned food processing cooperative for local produce, entrepreneurs who create healthy value-added food products, and offer classes in food growing, preservation and cooking skills to the community. Imagine buying tomatoes at the St. Paul Farmers Market and learning to can them at the Oasis kitchen! You can get a glimpse of her vision for the Urban Oasis by checking out this You Tube video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKYvCpoKnJA, or by reading this article from UofM News.


Tracy Sidles gives viewers a look at the inside of the current building.
(Video clip from her YouTube video)

I was thrilled to hear this news. Most of you may not know that the first phase of my career involved management of a neighborhood food cooperative in St. Anthony Park in St. Paul. It sat directly across from the University of Minnesota campus and had a remarkable shelf life for a small business. For 25 years University students, professors, grad students and neighbors came in daily to get lunch or food for dinner. They liked to purchase sustainable foods, chat and volunteer. The store helped connect people and most shoppers were volunteers who put in anywhere from 3-12 hours per month (or many more) to keep it viable. It felt much like a web of support and a model for the community that should keep widening and growing. But I experienced two hard learned lessons in the early nineties. Businesses fail and communities get disconnected and disempowered much like ecosystems. After 25 years, the lack of parking and competition with Hamden Park Co-op (a storefront it had once bailed out originally called Green Grass Co-op) located a mile and a half south of “SAP Co-op,” as it was once affectionately known, forced its closure.

Years later, as I got involved in environmental education on the east side of St. Paul and began working for the Watershed District, I would run into many of those same people who I sold organic food to or shared conversation with as we filled bins or washed lettuce. In the past these people had been the Board members, the bank depositors, the cheese cutters and the produce volunteers. But now they were the entomologists, the researchers, the stormwater engineers and the ornithologists I would cross paths with at conferences, sit on committees with or bump into at tours. And we were still working on the same page to resolve environmental issues and to make our community more sustainable and connected. 




Educator Don Booth sampling macroinvertebrates.with his fourth graders at Ames Lake.
Wouldn't an interpretive center here be a helpful addition to the community if we had money for it?

When one of the entomologists recently offered to help me teach macroinvertebrate lessons to kids at my favorite restored wetland, Ames Lake, I recalled fondly the vision I once had for this spot. Ames Lake, just south of Lake Phalen, is an urban area rescued from its 40-year fate as a shopping mall and turned back into a lake and wetland prairie.  At one optimistic point in the process of reclaiming this area, I had imagined having an interpretive center/food co-op on the edge of the lake where the shopping mall met its “fate.” After all, the Watershed District had invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in this location. Why not take it further, I had thought at the time, and foster the health and well being of the people who live in this community? I like the “mixed message” of locating “sustainable” food operations and teaching ecology in the same “back forty.” It helps tie our messages together and reminds us of the connections we share with the natural world and our own survival and viability.


I’m glad to see there are other people stepping up to the plate with the ability to make these visions come to life. The longer I work on projects the more I realize the threads of our connections are long, intertwined and repeat themselves. This week as I was coordinating a rain garden planting at First Hmong Assembly of God Church in east St. Paul, through conversation, I discovered that one of the church volunteers five years ago was part of that cadre of East Side Conservation Corps high school students who helped rebuilt Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary. She recalled that she had also donned waders and helped restore the shoreline at Lake Phalen. It’s a small interconnected world!

 
It is really exciting to hear about the Urban Oasis situated at the mouth of an area that was once connected to our Phalen Chain of Lakes. I look forward to learning how to can tomatoes while looking out the windows onto the wide expanse of prairie and wetland areas that kids I know helped restore.

The new outdoor classroom at Bruce Vento uses limestone
quarried in Minnesota.  Photo by Patrick Larkin - Lillie News

 Breaking update:
As this article was going to print, I just learned of another new feature at Bruce Vento that has recently been completed. Dan McGuiness of the Lower Phalen Creek Project has been working to build an outdoor “classroom” setting to enhance the park’s options, with the help of grant money from the McNeely Foundation. The classroom opens for a celebration Saturday, Oct. 19 at noon. See this link to the Lillie News article provided by reporter, Patrick Larkin - http://www.lillienews.com/articles/2013/10/14/new-outdoor-classroom-comes-vento-sanctuary#.UmAVhxCmZCi.

Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary entrance and interpretive signage.  Video clip from Tour #1.

Open Forum : Issues, Concerns, Solutions

Please use the comment area below to give us your thoughts on how we should prioritize issues or areas in the coming decade.  This might include:

*  What are issues or concerns you have regarding water in your neighborhood?
*  How do you enjoy the water, and what needs to improve or stay the same for this to continue?
*  What would be a good way to reach out to someone like yourself regarding clean water issues?
*  What would be a way to reach out to someone not like yourself?
*  What are some solutions you could see to improve water quality in your neighborhood?

NEW - Join us for a culminating Summit at Maplewood Community Center on January 30th.  Watch for more details on www.rwmwd.org in the coming weeks.