WaterFest 2017

Wilderness Voyager canoes travel between the Phalen Channel and Phalen Lake

Photo credit: Carrie Magnuson

 

WaterFest 2017, held on June 3rd at Lake Phalen in St. Paul, was a busy, fun-filled event with well over 2,000 attendees. The temperature reached 88 degrees and the sun was shining. It was a perfect day for this year's festival.

Thank you to all our wonderful partners, exhibitors, volunteers, sponsors and you who attended - the people who love to "Make Waves!" And a big round of applause for our WaterFest consultant who helps make it all happen - Debbie Meister! 

 The photos below provide a great overview of the event.



Farnsworth Aerospace Marching Band



Breck School Bato Bato! Marimba Ensemble perform in the amphitheater.

 

This band was a great hit!

CHAT - The Center for Hmong Arts and Talent - helped coordinate performances.






Senator Foung Hawj provided the welcome and introduced the Farnsworth Band.

 



Hmong traditional dancers performed in their beautiful costumes.

  

 


Catch-a-Critter in a net was organized by Harriet Alexander Nature Center.



Our neighbors, Children's Discovery Academy of Early Learning, were planting bean seeds.

 





The Minnesota Dragonfly Society talked with over 400 people.



Families Outdoors, a service of the Jeffers Foundation, encouraged families to un-plug for a day.



We had multiple opportunities for fishing provided by Tips Outdoors and Joe's Sporting Goods.



It's never too early to learn the finer points of fishing.

  

The pier provided a great place to offer tips for fishing.

 

  

Kids signing in to get their wristbands for Voyager canoes





Frogtown Green "Don't Feed the Algae" display

 





Great River Greening provided information on volunteering with their organization.

 



St. Paul Parks and Rec is a key partner in WaterFest.

 

The jump castle is a big hit!

 

Wilderness Inquiry provides paddling equipment and instruction for all ages.

 

 

"I hope somebody's balancing this thing!"

 

The MN Army National Guard provides a challenge with the climbing wall.

 



The kayaks and support at the boating dock were provided by St. Paul Parks and Rec and Twin Cities Paddle Sports.

  





It was a great day to be on the water!



 

 



Putt Putt Golf provides a fun challenge and information about keeping our water clean.

 

 





The St. Paul Public Library set up a StoryWalk leading up to the entrance of the pavilion.



 

 

The St. Paul Public Library Bookmobile provided an opportunity to check out books.

  



Capital Region Watershed District provided several displays that helped teach about water pollution and ways to prevent it.

  

 



Sherry Brooks and Gene Christenson talk about pollinators.

 

 



The 3M Clown Club came to provide fun and animal balloons for the children.

 

 

Dana Boyle brought attention to Tamarack Nature Preserve while painting a portrait of a marsh cinquefoil.

 

  

The Minnesota Herpetological Society exhibit always provides excitement.

 

 



"Want to pet the iguana?"

 

 




Jenn Radke, Tina Carstens and Mark Gernes show off their new WaterFest T-shirts.

 

  



Ramsey County Master Gardeners provide advice on gardening and seed packets.

 

 

Which water did you like best at the Water Bar?

Photo Credit: Carrie Magnuson

 



Maplewood Nature Center brought toads and salamanders.

 

 

Ramsey County Parks and Rec shared nature neighbors.

 

  

Anna Beining, RWMWD Intern, at the natural resources display.

 

 

Senator Foung Hawj checks out one of the reptiles.

 

 

Which kind of surface creates the least runoff?
The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service provided the answers.

 

 

Thanks to the parking lot attendants led by Terry Noonan and Joe Fox for their good work.
(Terry Noonan pictured above on left.)

We're looking forward to WaterFest 2018. We hope to see you there!

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**All photo credits to Anita Jader except where noted.

Keller Creek - A Channel for Restoring, Learning and Recreation

By Sage Passi

Mounds Park Academy biology students kick off this year's planting season at Keller Creek.

e
Keller Creek is a passageway that has long been a thoroughfare for people traveling up and down the Phalen Chain of Lakes. Planting along Keller Creek is an annual affair as we restore this corridor. This spring, the relatively cool weather and frequent rains helped to make the buffer planting a success. Amazingly, not a single restoration session had to be cancelled despite the imminent rain forecast on many of our scheduled planting days!



Chris Klatt, Natural Resources Intern, Tracy Leavenworth, education consultant, and Don Vegoe, Ramsey County Master Gardener, assist Mounds Park Academy students in restoring native plants along the Keller Creek buffer.

Now in its third year, this latest phase of the restoration creek buffer project encompasses an area along the east side of the creek between the north parking lot at Lake Phalen near the boat launch and just south of the Frost Avenue Bridge. To prepare the area, invasive trees and shrubs were removed. The turf grass along the edge of the path next to the creek was killed and a seed mix planted beneath the erosion blanket fabric that covers the planting area.


To prepare the site, discs on the seeder cut slits in the dead turf and seed
was then dropped onto the soil. A heavy roller helped to close the slits and increase the seed-soil contact.

In mid-to-late May, over 375 students in fourteen classes from Mounds Park Academy, L’Etoile du Nord French Immersion, Weaver Elementary, Level Up Academy, Harmony Learning Center and Roseville Area Middle School gathered at the site to install 3,500 native plant plugs with the help of Natural Resources staff, Simba, interns Chris, Matt and Anna, education staff, Sage and Tracy, and Ramsey County Master Gardeners. These native plantings are now in the ground and thriving.

A student in Harmony Learning Center’s Adult ESL
class plants at Keller Creek.

Liddy Rich, ESL teacher at Harmony School, helps her students learn new
vocabulary words while they are oriented about the planting.

In the coming weeks, Natural Resources staff and Ramsey County Corrections inmate crews will install plants on steeper slopes and in the water in areas that were too hard for students to navigate.

Prior to coming out to the creek, classes studied the history of changes along the creek, learned about the planting zones (the upland prairie, wet meadow and emergent zones) and the ecological value of buffers and their role in preventing erosion. To review some of the creek’s many changes over time, go to this link.

Since the restoration project began three years ago, park patrons that walk by the restoration area often share positive comments and express appreciation for the work that is taking place in the park. Kayakers, canoeists and even paddle boats glide by on the creek, taking in the beauty of the area. A bicycle and walking path along the creek often carries people who are traveling between Phalen Lake and Keller Lake or others who are making connections to the Gateway Trail. At the weir or other bridges over the creek, you will often find people fishing. One sunny morning during the restoration project, a student spied a sturgeon lingering by the weir’s wall. When asked what he has been catching, a nearby fisherman reported that he often sees blue gills and big mouth bass in the creek.

The weir in Keller Creek

 

On most of the planting days, time was built into the schedule for students to explore the aquatic life in the creek. They collected samples of water and found abundant damselfly nymphs, an occasional dragonfly nymph, a variety of beetles, aquatic worms and other macroinvertebrates. Beneath the weir and other bridges you can see vibrant colonies of eel grass waving in the shallow flow of the stream. This vegetation provides habitat for some of this aquatic life. 

Anthony Larkin, a Level Up Academy teacher, climbs down along the weir to point out a turtle to his students.

After planting, many of the classes tried out some newly learned techniques for monitoring water in the creek. They collected water and then carried it onto the weir to measure the creek’s pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen and transparency.

Jodie Hardenbrook, a science teacher at Roseville Area Middle School,
looks on as her students pour creek water into a transparency tube
to measure its clarity.

Except for the first day of the planting when the turbidity of the water was somewhat murky after a rain, the water was remarkably clear. Dissolved oxygen levels were in the 8-9 ppm range and the pH measured around 8.6.

A Harmony ESL student carries water up from Keller Creek
to test it for dissolved oxygen, pH and temperature.

The portages near the weir make it handy
to get down to the water’s edge.

How to Get to the Restoration Area

Starting from the South:

To give you a feel for the restoration’s progression, take a stroll along the creek from bottom to top or the reverse. It is really easy to access. One option is to park in the lot on the north end of Lake Phalen. Take the walking path to the north along the creek. The straw erosion control blanket delineates the restoration. If you look closely, you will see thousands of young native plants popping through the blanket. On your way you will pass by a monument near the Frost Avenue Bridge that provides pictures and history of the area.

Starting from the North:

You can also access the full length of the creek restoration from the north, starting with the first stretch of the restoration completed two years ago. Enter Keller Creek Regional Park through the Golfview Picnic Area entrance. This entrance is just north of Roselawn Avenue (south of County Road B in Maplewood). You need to be traveling north on Highway 61 in Maplewood to get to this entrance. Take the road in the park to the top of the hill, park in the lot at the top and walk down the newly paved pervious asphalt trail to the bottom. On your left you will see the newly dedicated Tuj Lub courts adjacent to the creek. Tuj Lub is a traditional Hmong top spinning game. These courts officially opened on June 10 with a grand opening celebration.

 

Senator Foung Hawj presents spinning tops to partners who helped make the Tuj Lub Courts possible. Partners include Ramsey County, the City of Maplewood and the Legacy Fund.

Proceed south along the east side of the creek to the weir where the restoration was done two years ago. If you cross over the weir and walk along an informal trail on the west side of the creek you can see the now thriving wet meadow areas planted by students and other volunteers in 2016. 

The vibrant wet meadow was established last year on the west side of the creek. In the background you can see the Tuj Lub dedication celebration held at the new courts on June 10.

Cross back to the east side of the creek and continue to walk along the creek. You will pass under several arched bridges and eventually arrive at the north parking lot of Lake Phalen. The creek opens up into Round Lake and then its waters flow through a channel into Lake Phalen and eventually south to the Mississippi River!

You can also paddle the creek and put in at a number of spots including any of the following lakes in the Phalen Chain of Lakes: Lake Phalen, Keller Lake or Lake Gervais. To download our WaterTrail map go here.

 

Kayaks are commonly seen along Keller Creek. If the water is deep enough they can pass right through under the weir, but when the water in the creek is shallow the stone portages make it easy to get around the weir and re-enter the water.

 

Roger Svendsen Champions Cigarette Litter Clean-Ups

By Sage Passi

Roger Svendsen has been picking up cigarette butts around Lake Phalen for almost a decade. He brought his stash to Lake Phalen for Waterfest this year to call attention to the litter issue.

 

Roger Svendsen keeps a log count of every cigarette butt he’s picked up for the past nine years in the Phalen/Round Lake area. He has a regular beat and walks around these lakes each day. His love of Lake Phalen and the natural areas in the park are a strong driving force behind his commitment to keeping this park clean.

 

 

Roger Svendsen walks around Lake Phalen every day, no matter what season.

One late May morning this spring, while I was out at Keller Creek near Round Lake helping classes during our restoration efforts, I spied Roger coming down the paved path. I decided to seize the moment and take some time to accompany him on his route to get a closer look at what has become Roger’s passion for almost a decade. As we proceeded on our walk, I asked him how he first got started on this mission.

He told me that he was discussing litter problems in the park with some park staff years ago and asked them if they picked up cigarette butts during their rounds. “We’re paid by the hour,” they told me. “There isn’t enough time in the day or money to do it.” This was the prompt that drew him into taking on this issue with full gusto.




I ran into Roger near Keller Creek while he was on his “beat”.




Roger searches for cigarette butts in a storm drain
emptying near Round Lake.

As we walked along the path, Roger soon deviated from the sidewalk and headed down some brushy, overgrown trails to several stormwater outfalls and storm drains hidden back in the woods.

 







Roger determined that this outfall empties run-off from nearby streets
like Larpenteur Avenue into Round Lake and then into Lake Phalen.
It’s one of many regular stops along his beat.



Roger at the inlet to Round Lake

 
As Roger bent down with a stick to push a cigarette butt closer to him that was floating in the murky detritus near one of these drains, I realized that this was both a healthy obsession and a commitment with some physical demands.

No cigarette butt goes undetected!

“People have suggested that I get one of those trash grabbers so I don’t have to bend down to pick up the cigarettes, but I figured out that if I bend over to pick them up, I stay much more limber. “

At age 73, Roger has acquired a fair amount of notoriety for his role in cleaning up Lake Phalen. He’s been the subject of multiple local newspaper stories and videos. His take on his public image was summed up in this comment,

“My daughter once asked me, “How would you like being known as the daughter of the Cigarette Butt Guy?” I told her that I figure at my age, I don’t think it matters if I am crazy!”

As we continued our stroll around the park, I could tell that this daily walk has multiple benefits for both Roger and the community. Walking around the lakes each day provides him with the opportunity to be immersed in the beauty of the natural world and keep fit. But it also allows him to stay connected to a life tied to helping people with chemical addictions. Roger tells me he worked in the field of chemical addiction for many years before he retired.

The puzzle pieces were starting to fit together.

Roger’s walks provide opportunities for him to experience both “Beauty and the Beast”. His bridge view in Phalen Park frames the “island” where Roger spends time each week looking for cigarette butt litter.

 
As we got closer to the “island” in Phalen Park, Roger relayed a rather troubling fact that on more than one occasion he has picked up as many as 2,000-3,000 cigarette butts on the island in one visit.

He dedicates certain days to focus on parts of the park, including parking lots.

Hearing this has prompted me to contemplate some of the statistics and research I have been digging out about cigarette butt pollution since getting acquainted with Roger. Here are some facts I have learned;

The Scoop on Cigarette Butt Litter

 

• 5.6 trillion cigarettes are sold globally every year; 360 billion are sold annually in the United States.
• Butt waste is toxic: Cigarette butts leach organic chemicals and heavy metals (including lead, chromium, and arsenic) into the water and the environment that are toxic to fresh and salt-water fish. 
• A 2009 study found that the chemicals in a single filtered cigarette butt have the ability to kill half the fish living in a 1-liter container of water. They are poisonous when ingested by children and other living organisms. 
• Whatever their direct health impact on or benefit to smokers, cigarette filters pose a serious litter and toxic waste disposal problem. Cellulose acetate is photodegradable but not bio-degradable. Although ultraviolet rays from the sun will eventually break the filter into smaller pieces under ideal environmental conditions, the source material never disappears; it essentially becomes diluted in water or soil.
• In a review of litter cleanup project reports, the Keep America Beautiful campaign reported that cigarette butts comprise from 25 to 50 percent of all collected litter items from roadways and streets.
• The overall littering rate for cigarette butts is 65%, and tobacco products comprise 38% of all U.S. roadway litter. 
• Cigarette butt littering is often associated with the physical environment (38%), i.e. for every additional ash receptacle, the littering rate for cigarette butts decreases by 9%. Cigarette butt littering is also attributable to individual motivations; for example, 77% of individuals in a survey stated they did not consider cigarette butts as litter.

  

Tallying the Cigarette Litter in Phalen Park
 

Roger Svendsen with his stash of cigarette butts at WaterFest 2017

I decided to invite Roger to have a display at WaterFest this year about his stewardship efforts. He told me he stores the cigarette butts he has collected over the years along in boxes in his garage. When he showed up at WaterFest, he lugged the boxes he has accumulated full of cigarette butts up to the Pavilion and placed this shocking amount of litter at one of the entrances.

As visitors walked by, they experienced a rude awakening with the potent aroma of tobacco. It made quite an impact. His tally revealed he has picked up 481,929 butts in nine years. He told me his goal is half a million butts which means he’s close to reaching his goal. That’s quite a remarkable achievement.

We’d like to thank Roger for his awesome dedication to this cause! Imagine the impacts on our treasured lakes if he hadn’t taken on this mission!

-------------------------------------------------------

References
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, ISSN 1660-4601
www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph

Keep America Beautiful
https://www.kab.org/cigarette-litter-prevention/problem-and-facts

Welcome Anna! Welcome back Zola!

Anna Beining - Natural Resources Intern

I am a student at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities studying environmental science and just finished up my junior year. I grew up in eastern Wisconsin on the shores of Lake Michigan in Sheboygan, surrounded by farms and cows. My love of horses and preserving the land that I could bring my horse to has opened my eyes to the world of soil and water conservation and preservation.  

Through my internship here at the Watershed District, I hope to expand my knowledge and gain valuable experiences that will help me define my path after graduation. 

In my spare time I enjoy petting people’s dogs, hugging red pines, riding horses, running and getting lost in the woods.
 

Zola Pineles - District Inspector Intern

Faithful Ripple Effect followers will recognize this face! Zola Pineles has returned as an intern for her third year with the Watershed District.

Trading in a double-XL, hi-visibility, orange Keller Golf Course polo for steel toe boots and a bright white hard hat, this summer will be Zola’s first year away from prairies and woodlands in five years.

A full-time student and "oldest undergrad ever" at the University of Minnesota, Zola has experience with the Conservation Corps of Minnesota and Iowa, the City of St. Paul Natural Resources Department, and Meritage, a Brasserie in St. Paul.

Outside of being an intern, Zola spends her time hiking with her dog Khloe, cleaning Khloe’s droppings, feeding Khloe, and making sure her dog, Khloe, is always attended to. She also enjoys going to breweries and cabins with friends, photography and biking.

So, if you see Zola around, give a wave! She is seventy percent likely to notice and wave back.

Summer Fun!

 Summer Family Pond Dipping

 

You are invited to a FREE family friendly event! We will dip nets into the water to catch a closer look at the creatures that live in the lake and what they tell us about how clean our water is. Please meet at the pavilion, dock or pier at each park. Wear outdoor play attire and be prepared to take an easy hike along paved trails.

• Forest Lake (Arts in the Park) Lakeside Park – June 20 @ 5-8 p.m. 
• Edgewater Park in Woodbury – June 27 @ 6:30 p.m.
• Autumn Hills Park in Oak Park Heights – July 6 @ 6:30 p.m.
• Tanners Lake in Oakdale – July 12 @ 6:30 p.m.
• Lions Park in Saint Paul Park – July 18 @ 6:30 p.m.
• Long Lake in Stillwater – July 24 @ 6:30 p.m.
• Pine Tree Pond in Cottage Grove - July 26 @ 6:30 p.m.

Youth must be accompanied by an adult. More details at www.mnwcd.org/events, email Jenn Radtke or call 651-330-8220 x44.

The Summer Family Pond Dipping is co-sponsored EMWREP and RWMWD.

Tamarack Nature Preserve Tour

Explore a little known natural area unique to Woodbury and to the Twin Cities metro. 

Join the City of Woodbury and the Ramsey-Washington Metro Watershed District on Wednesday, July 19th from 6:30-8:30 p.m. for a free, guided walking tour of the Tamarack Nature Preserve.

 

The Tamarack Nature Preserve has more than 150 acres providing home to plants and trees that are normally found only in northern Minnesota. Learn about the park’s history, geology, unique blend of ecosystems and diversity of plants.

Meet at the Tamarack Nature Preserve parking lot (1825 Tower Drive) at 6:30 pm. Then join the group on a guided walking tour on the boardwalk as plant ecologists answer questions and point out the diversity of unique bog flowers and trees.

 

There will be Tamarack Swamp BINGO, with prizes. Two tours will be leaving the parking lot 6:40 pm: one tour will be about 30-45 minutes and the other will return to the parking lot by 8:30 pm.

Pre-registration required. Call Deb at 651-792-7959 or e-mail to deb.barnes@rwmwd.org by 4:30 p.m. July 12. This event is free of charge. Participants of all ages are welcome.

Find the event on Facebook (Tamarack Nature Preserve Tour) to stay in touch with updates and weather.