nna / oak woodland. During that event, we planted, watered, mulched, staked, and put up deer guards around all of the new trees and shrubs. The kids were great and so much fun to work with. They didn’t even complain when it started raining, and when we finished early they started in on pulling dame’s rocket, an invasive species that was quite prolific in the area.
Joe recently had another extra credit opportunity for his high school biology class. This one involved planting wetland plants around a stormwater pond at the Sand Coulee. The Sand Coulee is a 2.5 mile-long former glacial stream valley with deposits of wind-blown sand. It provides ideal conditions for a sand prairie, and has
been identified as one of the most biologically significant sites in all of Dakota County. The pond receives a lot of the stormwater runoff from the surrounding community, and adding more native plants to it will help increase diversity and filter the water, thereby improving water quality, and wildlife habitat.
Karen Schik, FMR's Restoration Ecologist, Tom Lewanski, FMR's Land Conservat
ion Director, and I had the rubber boots, which meant we were the ones in the water putting the plants in. Some of the species planted included water plantain, arrowhead, and sweet flag. The plants were in these cool earth mats, which made putting them in pre
tty easy. Each mat had a few plants on it, and we just took the whole mat and stuck it in the shallow water, and used a few metal staples to stick it to the ground. The kids collected a bunch of rocks that we also placed on the mats to help hold them down. Once again, the kids were hard working and super fun to work with. This time when we finished early, they focused on pi
cking up trash, of which there was plenty. In addition to the wide variety of candy wrappers, soda cans, and plastic bottles, we pulled out some fishing line and lure, and even a whole lawn chair! So we took out a bunch of bad stuff, and put in a bunch of good stuff, and hopefully gave the place a bit of a boost!
