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.

Mystery of the Month: September

This is no ordinary wall at the bottom of an ordinary hole, my friends

The hole is new and a story of its own, but the wall is so old that it called for a real live archeological exploration right here in Maplewood as this wall was unearthed. How ancient is it? What stories could it tell of times gone by? What do you think happened after the historical assessment was complete? Museum? Strip Mall?

Welcome to the "Lost City of Gladstone," and the site currently known as Gladstone Savanna.
                       

Footprint of the Past
By Ginny Gaynor, Natural Resources Coordinator at the City of Maplewood


If you stood at the corner of Frost and English in the 1890’s, you’d be assaulted by the clang and clamor of the Gladstone Shops – a railroad repair operation complete with roundhouse, repair shops, and a 640-foot well. This was the heart of the “Lost City of Gladstone,” the historic center of what later became the city of Maplewood. By 1915, the railroad had pulled out and the buildings became warehouses for other businesses. Many Maplewood residents today remember the brick shops that graced the site until the late 1970’s when the last building was demolished. Maplewood purchased the site for open space in the 1990’s and named it Gladstone Savanna. 


Drawing showing the Gladstone Shops of long ago.

The Master Plan


When Maplewood set forth to develop a master plan for Gladstone Savanna Neighborhood Preserve, they knew it had great opportunities and challenges ahead. The preserve was rich with stories – a railroad history, toxic soils, a 1970’s era stormpond, a craggy bur oak with hinting at a long-gone savanna landscape, and a neighborhood in need of a natural area and playground. The task was to successfully integrate these stories in a master plan that balanced history, natural resources, and recreation.  



The Master Plan design.

 In 2011, Maplewood staff, consultants, and residents developed a master plan for Gladstone Savanna. The railroad history of the site became a driving force in the plan and is evident in many design elements. The straight lines and broad curves of the trails reflect the original tracks on the site. Pergolas over some of sections of the trail cast shadows reminiscent of rails. A special seed mix marks the footprint of the shops. And corner stones are called for at some points along the building foundations.

With the master plan in place, Phase I Improvements at the Savanna began in 2012 including brush removal, soil remediation, construction of stormponds and trails, and historic investigation.

A good sign you're entering the savanna.

Stormpond Past and Present

In the 1980’s, a stormpond was constructed on the west end of the Gladstone Savanna site. This was an era of holding ponds. The rectangular basin received only the large rainfall events and was built to protect the neighborhood from flooding. Stormwater from most rain events bypassed the basin and went directly to Lake Phalen.


The sandy soils on the site are ideal for infiltration and Maplewood’s design team knew it had an opportunity to improve the basin aesthetics and help improve water quality at Lake Phalen. Early in the design process, the consulting engineer and city staff met with staff from Ramsey-Washington Metro Watershed District (RWMWD) to explore ideas. The project fit well with the District’s goals and in 2012, RWMWD’s board awarded a $265,000 BMP cost-share grant to the city to help cover costs of the stormwater system.

Top: Several walking paths make the preserve accessible to the
public.  Bottom: Numbers etched into the wall of the stormbasin
dividing wall allows visitors to witness how much stormwater
a rainstorm can bring to the basins.

The stormbasin design for Gladstone Savanna is a two-cell system. Runoff from a 115-acre developed area is piped into the first cell, where the sediment can settle out. If the water levels rises enough, water flows to a second cell where it runs down a rock dry creek bed and spreads out into the infiltration basin. The basin can capture and infiltrate a 1.5” rainfall event. A trail perched on a concrete wall bisects the two cells. During a heavy rain, you can stand on the trail and watch the water flow from one basin to the next. Numbers etched into the wall mark elevations for the 2-year, 10-year, and 100-year storm event. The stormponds were constructed in 2012 and are being seeded with native prairie species in 2013. Future phases call for intensive planting along the dry creek and interpretive information for the stormwater system.

Soil Remediation

 In addition to a fascinating history, the railroad also left behind contaminated soils. The master plan’s solution to remediating that contamination involved rethinking stormwater management for the area. This in turn led to opportunities for natural resources restoration, recreation, and interpretation.

Extensive soil testing was done on the site in 2007 as part of a Phase II Investigation and the City entered into the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s Voluntary Investigation and Cleanup Program. The approved soil remediation plan required that the City remove soil in one small area and cap several acres of the site with two to three feet of soil. Carving out and shaping the new storm basins provided enough clean soil from the western portion of the site to use as fill for the remediation.


Unearthing the Past

When construction began in 2012, protecting the integrity of historical features at the site was a priority. Maplewood hired Archeo-Physics LLC to use ground-penetrating radar (GPR) to determine whether there were foundations and debris under the soil surface. GPR is a non-invasive technology that uses instruments on the soil surface and does not require exposing the foundations. The crew surveyed approximately three acres of the site and found many intact foundations. In addition, the study included a Light Detecting and Ranging Analysis (LiDar). The images from both studies are quite edifying and can be viewed at: www.archaeophysics.com/gladstone. A grant from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund supported this historical work.


A blacksmith's shop in 1970 (photo courtesy of Bill Schwietz).

The geophysical study was done early in the construction process and the city was able to use the results as a guide during soil remediation. The investigation showed there was a 50’ section of foundation under an area of toxic soil that was going to be removed. During excavation of the soil, the city had an archaeologist from Summit Envirosolutions on site to document the structure.   After the toxic soil was removed, clean fill was added and the foundation was buried again. 

As brush was cleared from the site and the trail was excavated, more structures were exposed at the soil surface especially in the area of the roundabout. The archaeologist was able to document these as well. This documentation will become the basis of future efforts to nominate the site to the National Register of Historic Places.


Restoring the Savanna 

Majestic cottonwood trees stand sentry along the north border of Gladstone Savanna. We joke about having a “cottonwood savanna” rather than an oak savanna. But the master plan takes a long-term approach to restoring native plant communities at the site. The core of the site will be seeded with prairie grasses and wildflowers in fall 2013. In coming years, scattered oaks will be added. As the cottonwood trees die, there will be oaks in the subcanopy ready to take their place. 

A cottonwood (left) and bur oak (right) were protected during construction.

 The undisturbed areas of the site include a few pockets with prairie species. These prairie areas will follow a different restoration path: a prescribed burn, selective removal of invasive species such as knapweed and brome, and then interseeding. Future phases of restoration include restoring the degraded woodland along the south border to oak woodland vegetation. The woodland screens homes to the south and restoration efforts will balance removal of invasive trees and shrubs with planting of native species in a way that ensures screening is maintained.


Recreation and Play

Gladstone Savanna is one of 14 Maplewood Neighborhood Preserves. Each preserve is unique and offers different opportunities for human access and passive recreation. Because of the Savanna’s location, flat terrain, and “start-from-scratch” restoration, the site was a good candidate for asphalt trails. This gives people of all abilities a chance to access and experience a bit of the natural world. When the trails were installed in fall 2012, use of the site increased immediately.

Many prairie areas were left undisturbed on the site.

 

Adjacent to the Savanna is Gloster Park, which has a small playground and soccer field. The play equipment is aging and a new playground was on the must-have list. The master plan integrates the playground into the Savanna so children will one day play, swing, and climb surrounded by prairie grasses and flowers. The soccer field was displaced by the new storm basin and a new soccer field will eventually be installed at Flicek Park, just north of the site.

 
Looking to the Future

The improvements at Gladstone Savanna are being done in several phases. The first phase, completed in 2012, focused on soil remediation and construction of storm basins and trails. This fall restoration experts from Minnesota Native Landscapes are eradicating weeds and will seed the prairie. In winter, they will continue invasive brush removal in selected areas. Future phases of the project will include: planting native plugs and shrubs in the storm basins, enhanced landscaping at the entrances, benches, playground, interpretive features, additional restoration work, and a sidewalk and street parking along Frost Avenue.


If you venture out to the Savanna in the next few years, bring along a bit of imagination. This initial stage of restoration is usually stark and then becomes weedy. But one day prairie grasses and flowers will flourish here, kids will play surrounded by nature, and visitors will have a glimpse of the site’s cultural and natural history. And when it rains, the storm basins will fill and then slowly infiltrate, nourishing plants along the dry creek and breaking down stormwater pollutants that were once destined for Lake Phalen.

[Gladstone Savanna is at the southwest corner of Frost Avenue and English Street in Maplewood. From Highway 36 and Highway 61, go south on 61 about 1.5 miles to Frost . Go east on Frost about .6 miles. Park in the neighborhood.]

A Different Perspective

Snail Lake in Shoreview

 

Hi. My name is Maddy Jackson. I just started my freshman year in the College of Biological Sciences at the University of Minnesota. I’ve had the good fortune to grow up on Snail Lake, and I’m sure it has contributed to my interest in Biology. I hosted a lake education session on September 15 as part of my Girl Scout Gold Award project. 


I’d like to share a little of my recent history with Snail Lake:


When I’m out on the lake with my family and it’s time to pull up the anchor, there is always one question that nobody wants to ask: Whose turn is it to pull the weeds off? None of us want to stick our hand into that brownish-green mass of goodness-knows-what. We all know it’s full of ‘weeds’ and ‘muck’ but there’s just something about those things that really grosses us out.


On a warm July day last summer, my dad had the strangest idea. He wanted to go snorkeling in Snail Lake! At first I thought he was kidding. How nasty would it be to go snorkeling in a lake that’s full of ‘weeds’ and ‘muck’? Alas, it was roasty toasty outside and I was up for a little adventure.


At first, I avoided touching the weeds as much as possible. The way they slithered on my leg was simply unpleasant. When I opened my eyes it was like I could finally see the lake for what it really was. The plants looked absolutely beautiful as they swayed back and forth with the waves. I couldn’t believe what I’d been missing the whole time. Here’s a little peek at what our lakes look like from a different perspective:

Snail Lake - What Lies Beneath

Tessa, Natural Resources Intern, checks the water
depth at each survey point.

Photo by Maddy Jackson.

Over the past few weeks, District staff had the opportunity to spend some quality time checking out the underwater plant communities on several of the lakes in the Grass Lake area. Since Maddy Jackson sent us her wonderful photos of the ‘underwater forest’ on Snail Lake, we thought we would take the opportunity to let you know about some of the interesting plants we found during our Snail Lake survey.

One of the most abundant plants we found in Snail is wild celery, (Vallisneria americana) also known as eel grass. Wild celery is a rooted aquatic plant with tape-like leaves that undulate with the waves. In the late summer this plant sends a stalk spiraling up to water’s surface, eventually producing a small creamy flower. This slippery plant is an important wildlife food source – keep your eyes peeled for scattered ‘corkscrews’ coming up from a stand of green ribbons.

A customized grid helps us hit roughly the same survey points on a lake each time we go out.  On most of our lakes, we aim to hit at least 100 points outside of the deepest areas where we don't expect to find much vegetation (the light blue areas in the above map).

Northern water nymph (Najas flexilis) is another common Snail Lake plant that is important to wildlife – ducks will eat the entire plant. This water nymph is a bushy, short-leaved plant often found in sandy areas 3 feet or more deep.


We found several of the broad-leaved pondweeds (Potamogeton amplifolius, P. illinoensis & P. richardsonii) in deeper waters. These plants are commonly called ‘muskie cabbage’ or ‘bass weed’ and the name pretty much describes their importance; they are marvelous habitat for fish

Photos by Maddy Jackson.

One thing we were happy to not see this year - invasive aquatic plants. We found the native, Northern watermilfoil (Myriophyllum sibiricum), but not the invasive Eurasian watermilfoil. We did not find any curlyleaf pondweed either; but that plant is generally not present this late in the season.

Although not accounted for in our plant survey, we also spotted nine egrets all fishing the shallows on the north end of the lake. The overall report is a happy one; we found a diverse, healthy native submersed plant community thriving in a lovely lake!