Arbor Day, Birch Island Woods style

Light rains held back last Friday afternoon in Birch Island Woods, leaving a damp, overcast gloom. But it was Minnesota’s Arbor Day, and the conservation area’s trees were brushed with the fairyland greens of April. Its small parking area was packed with cars and pickups. At one end of it, an assembly of 20 or so adults and a few kids wrapped in jackets stood on bare, woodland duff littered with twigs and broken branches.

Executives and staff from New Wave Design, an advanced computer tech company on Viking Drive, had committed to planting 500 tree seedlings over three acres in less than two hours. New Wave Design, founded by Eden Prairie native Josh Dirlam, serves the American aerospace and defense industries.

The disturbed area they would work in had recently been cleared of buckthorn thickets and distressed ash trees. Birch Island Woods volunteer steward Jim Millin had spread a native grass seed mix over the area by request of EP’s forestry unit. Minnesota tough grasses will inhibit the spread of garlic mustard, an invasive spring weed.

Tree planting demo in the woods

City forestry specialist Erika Commers showed the group how to use a tree planting bar. The tool works like a shovel, but has a flat and pointed blade. With boot force and arm muscle, Commers cut a vertical wedge in the soil, answered a few questions, laid the tool down and grabbed one of several seedlings from a 5-gallon bucket.

She explained that if the root is longer than the depth of the opening, “It’s better to just prune it or cut it than it is to fold it.” The seedling is then hand-held over the wedge hollow and back-filled with loose soil. Commers lightly tamped the soil so the above-ground part of the baby tree remained above ground.

During the demo and welcoming comments by EP Forestry and Natural Resources Supervisor Karli Wittner, Mike Nicklow darted about with a “pocket” video camera possibly for, it seems, a tree planting tutorial intended for a website.

Nicklow and wife Carrie founded Let’s Plant Trees, the new nonprofit organization that had donated the 500 seedlings for the Birch Island Woods project. Based in the North Shore village of Lutsen, Let’s Plant Trees directs most of its attention to supplying free seedlings and saplings to reforestation projects in Cook County. But the Nicklows have close ties to Eden Prairie. For starters, Carrie is New Wave Design’s chief financial officer. 

On Arbor Day, fitted with a baseball cap and a smile as bright as her windbreaker, the spreadsheet navigator waved a hand over buckets of northern red oak, hackberry, swamp white oak, and silver maple seedlings on display for her work colleagues. “These are all native Minnesota species,” she said. “They’re all supposed to be here, which is great.”

The oaks and hackberries were carried off to upland areas with sandy loam soils. Swamp white oak and silver maple would be planted in organic wetland soils.

Note: The Let’s Plant Trees website provides a guide to planting saplings.

Why Birch Island Woods?

Eden Prairie Local News (EPLN) learned from Mike Nicklow that New Wave executive assistant Kaitlyn Schlinz had suggested that her company and Let’s Plant Trees could easily partner on an Arbor Day project. The idea made sense with the Nicklows and others, including New Wave President and CEO Martin Nyman.

Schlinz began searching for a place to plant. Of the various city and county agencies that she contacted, Eden Prairie was ready and eager to partner on a project that would help Birch Island Woods. Parts of the celebrated conservation area that had been cleared of buckthorn by volunteers 20 years ago had again been overtaken by what this writer labels “the devil’s weed tree.”

The hardscrabble swath between the Indian Chief Road parking lot and TC&W Railroad tracks needed help. The Let’s Plant Trees, New Wave and City of EP partnership kick-started the makeover.

It also provided New Wave co-founder Brian Sparby an opportunity to show daughter Ruby the woods he had played in as a kid. Working on a planting tool, he said: “Ruby, you can be the spot picker.” She picked up a fallen branch and skipped off to mark a few spots for infant hackberries.

The two were teamed with New Wave production manager Bryan Knutson and a bucket of seedlings. Knutson had also grown up near the woods; his parents still live near Birch Island Road. During a short break, he pointed to Camp Eden Wood. The site of his Eagle Scout project could be seen through leafless branches about 100 yards to the north.

Nyman was among the New Wave Design volunteers. He seemed pleased to duck into an Eden Prairie sanctuary for a few hours, one that has nothing to do with integrated circuits, field-programmable gate arrays and high-speed serial interface hardware.

Mother Nature does not have favorites. She only smiles when her global estate or pockets of it are in balance. Arbor Day Friday was part of a larger City of Eden Prairie vision to restore that balance in our natural areas.

Check out the sidebar below to connect with local earth-friendly groups and agencies.

Editors note: Writer Jeff Strate is a founding board member of Eden Prairie Local News and founding president of the Friends of Birch Island Woods.

The organizations and agencies listed here provide a variety of nature-friendly educational and habitat restoration projects that welcome and need volunteers.

• Friends of Eden Prairie Parks (FEPP): FEPP partners with the City of Eden Prairie’s natural resources and forestry staff for volunteer-driven habitat restoration and educational projects. It also helps recruit and train park stewards. For more information, visit the FEEP website.
• City of Eden Prairie Parks and Natural Resources: Website.
• Let’s Plant Trees intends to expand its free seedling distributions within and beyond Minnesota’s Arrowhead Region. LPT’s website tells how to connect with its programs.
• Friends of Minnetonka Parks: Serves Minnetonka. Website.
• Riley Purgatory Bluff Creek Watershed District: Website. Phone: 952-607-6512
• Nine Mile Creek Watershed District: Website. Phone: 952-204-9691
• Lower Minnesota River Watershed District: Website. Phone: 763.568.9522