November buckthorn busters cap an encouraging year for Eden Prairie park habitats

Thickets of buckthorn in Birch Island Woods and Edenvale Conservation Areas were attacked four weekends ago by small platoons of volunteers armed with loppers, herbicide applicators and enthusiasm. They were recruited by Jim Millin, the appointed volunteer steward for the two north central Eden Prairie preserves. Millin is a member of Friends of Eden Prairie Parks (FEPP). The young organization partners with the city’s Forestry and Natural Resources Department to care for the native habitats in our parks.

That Nov. 9 weekend, another Friends group collected seeds from native grasses and plants in the Prairie Bluff Conservation Area. That’s the one that overlooks the Minnesota River Valley and is edged by Hennepin Village. The seeds will be planted in bluff areas that need replenishment.

The Birch Island Woods pull

Nine volunteers joined Millin at 10 a.m. for the Saturday morning pull along Birch Island Road. It marks the southern edge of the Birch Island Woods Conservation Area. Some parked their cars near a trailhead; others walked in from their homes. Millin, a retired medical device engineer, greeted folks as they arrived. Upbeat, “get-to-know-ya” chats dialed down when he laid out the tactics for the next two hours.

Millin knows a thing or two about “bustin’ buck.” He has removed buckthorn from his own yard and two conservation areas and helped True Friends CEO John LeBlanc’s impressive habitat restorations at historic Camp Eden Wood.

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Buckthorn’s harmful impact on North American woodlands has become a newsworthy and familiar, if not tiresome, sermon in the metro region. The aggressive tree-like shrub crowds out forest plants, insects, birds, frogs and other animals that have thrived here for thousands of years. It can also shroud scenic views and make driving along narrow roads risky. The invader, say the experts, is not going away, but it can be managed in select areas.

The swath of Birch Island Woods between a hiking trail and Birch Island Road is one of those select areas. The Saturday pull could be considered good management

Millin explained how to identify the smaller and younger weed trees that his platoon would be removing. In November, when native trees have dropped their leaves, many of buckthorn’s small, oval, slightly-toothed leaves remain green and attached to branches.

As the pullers stood on a lush carpet of fallen leaves courtesy of maples and aspen, they could see the telltale green as Millin demonstrated how to cut buckthorn and paint herbicide on freshly cut stumps. The outer rings of the stump cuts absorb the herbicide that kills the roots. Mission accomplished.

Uprooting the entire buckthorn, roots and all, with an extractor tool can be time-consuming and messy. Nonetheless, they are commonly used. Because the Saturday morning soil was softened by rain, Bob and Mary Beth Berg used another technique: they simply pulled shrub-sized buckthorn and saplings by hand.

After a few questions and answers, Millin’s posse eagerly went to work as if spending a few hours with Mother Nature was therapy for the soul. Some cut the buck a few inches from the ground. Others carefully guided the herbicide applicators to the fresh cut stumps as if they were expensive Italian dress oxfords needing a dab of liquid shoe polish to hide a scuff.

Within 15 minutes, trunks and branches were being dragged to a curbside pickup location. A few days later, city crews carted them off to the city’s yard waste site near Flying Cloud Airport. The buckthorn will be mulched and then hauled to an organic composting facility for recycling in gardens.

Among the nine pullers that morning were some of Millin’s Forest Hills neighbors, Lisa and Tom Baker and Tommy Johnson. Two decades ago, Johnson had busted buckthorn during the many pulls run by the Friends of Birch Island Woods. He told EPLN that the pulls are still fun. “They put folks in touch with nature and with one another. They’re feel-good, community events. And what’s more,” says Johnson, “you can see right then what a few hours of teamwork can do.”

This particular pull instantly provided a welcoming and open viewshed for woods hikers and folks passing by on Birch Island Road. The slightly brighter fallen leaves in the above photo mark the course of the trail.

The Edenvale Conservation Area Pull

The morning after the Birch Island Woods pull, Hennepin County District 6 Commissioner Heather Edelson and her teenage sons, Sam and Caleb, joined a handful of others to remove buckthorn in the Edenvale Conservation Area. Their target was a dense thicket along the hiking trail near the hockey rink at Edenvale Park, which edges a vast wetland and a stretch of Purgatory Creek.

The Edelsons live in Edina and were accompanied by Cole Roepke, one of the commissioner’s aides. Roepke had recommended the event to his boss; he had read about the pull in Eden Prairie Local News.

Welcoming them to Edenvale were five EP parks stewards, including habitat maker Marilynn Torkelson and Friends of Eden Prairie Parks Co-President Bridget Beyer.

“Jim and Bridget are amazing,” said Edelson during a post-pull interview with EPLN. The commissioner was inspired by all the buckthorn that Jim and the city had already removed.

As a DFL state representative, Edelson had represented only parts of Edina and Bloomington. On the county board, she now represents 16 west suburban cities. Edelson is looking for community service events in each one of them.

She figures that showing up as a volunteer herself will help residents to more directly connect to Hennepin County and its services. Edelson can be reached via the Hennepin County District 6 website with suggestions, invitations, ideas, questions and information. 

Jim Millin says he was heartened by Cole Roepke’s role in setting up the commissioner’s visit and impressed with his sack-the-quarterback approach to buckthorn.

Edelson laughed before confessing to this reporter that she had become so engaged talking with Bridget and Jim about Friends of Eden Prairie Parks that son Caleb called out to her from a thicket, “Mom, get to work!”

The commissioner did.

A preliminary (unofficial) review of FEPP’s year

The Friends of Eden Prairie Parks recently reported that park stewards led more than 35 invasive removal efforts at Staring Lake, Miller, and Edenvale parks, as well as the Edenbrook, Riley Creek Woods, and Birch Island Woods conservation areas.

Stewards also conducted habitat projects at Smetana Lake Park, Fredrick-Miller Spring and Cardinal Creek Conservation Area.

Karli Wittner, Eden Prairie Forestry and Natural Resources supervisor, said stewards and their volunteers have cleared more than 27 acres of parkland from buckthorn this year alone. The city itself has removed buckthorn from approximately 32 acres.

Wittner finds habitat restoration partnerships critical in managing Eden Prairie’s hundreds of acres of public open spaces, including its signature prairie bluffs, remnant forests, woodlands, and wetlands. “Volunteers, especially the dedicated volunteers with FEPP,” says Wittner, “are integral to improving habitat restoration success.”

Editor’s note: Writer Jeff Strate organized buckthorn pulls and workshops for the
Friends of Birch Island Woods 20-some years ago. He is a founding member of
EPLN’s Board of Directors.

Individuals, neighborhood, scout and religious groups, employers, etc. can learn about creating or volunteering for native habitat restoration projects through the following resources:

• The Friends of Eden Prairie Parks website is also the portal for further information on becoming a park steward.
• The City of Eden Prairie Parks and Natural Resources division’s dedicated buckthorn page.