Bloomington tackles wetland management along Nine Mile Creek
The Bloomington City Council discussed a comprehensive plan to map, understand, and manage the wetlands along Nine Mile Creek, addressing ecological challenges that require long-term stewardship of these sensitive ecosystems.
The council's discussion centered on the Nine Mile Creek Corridor Renewal Project, an initiative designed to create detailed records of all wetlands in the area and develop strategies for their long-term care. The Nine Mile Creek Valley contains multiple types of wetlands—including stream-adjacent wetlands, floodplain wetlands near the Minnesota River, and seep wetlands—each requiring different management approaches.
Council members learned how wetlands are formally defined and mapped. A wetland is characterized by having enough water during the growing season to support specific plant life. To identify wetland boundaries precisely, managers use "wetland delineation flags" to mark where wetlands begin and end on the landscape.
The discussion highlighted several management strategies already underway. These include removing invasive woody plants like buckthorn, controlling invasive grasses such as reed canary grass to boost native species diversity, and maintaining walking trails through the corridor. However, managers face a significant challenge: black ash swamps in the area have been devastated by the emerald ash borer, an invasive insect that has made black ash trees functionally extinct in these wetlands. This forces difficult decisions about how to restore or adapt these ecosystems without their former dominant tree species.
The Nine Mile Creek Corridor Renewal Project represents a commitment to sustained stewardship of these ecosystems. By establishing comprehensive records and developing long-term management plans, the city aims to maintain a healthy relationship with its wetlands for years to come. The project underscores the complexity of environmental management—wetlands require ongoing attention, adaptive strategies, and careful planning to preserve their ecological value.
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[0:00] (cheerful music)
[0:01] - One of the really cool parts
[0:02] of the Nine Mile Creek Valley
[0:04] is all the different types of wetlands.
[0:06] So you have wetlands that
are right next to the stream.
[0:09] You have the floodplain wetlands down
[0:11] by the Minnesota River,
[0:12] and then you have a lot of
these little seep wetlands
[0:14] that are scattered throughout the parks.
[0:16] And these seep wetlands
are from groundwater
[0:18] that are literally
seeping out of the ground
[0:21] and it creates these wet zones.
[0:22] And so we know where
wetlands are by mapping them.
[0:26] And a wetland is a wetland
when it has enough water
[0:30] during the growing season to
support water loving plants.
[0:34] And with that definition,
we can literally go through
[0:37] and map out where a wetland
starts and where a wetland ends.
[0:40] And you might see a lot of these
little pink flags scattered
[0:42] around the park right now,
[0:43] and that is wetland delineation flags.
[0:47] Each wetland is gonna need a
unique management technique,
[0:50] and that'll depend on what
kind of wetland it is.
[0:52] This one's kind of a wet meadow area
[0:55] that's been kept clear trees
[0:56] just because of how wet
the ground usually is.
[0:58] But managing for removal
[1:01] of non-native woody material
that's like buckthorn
[1:03] and other things moving in,
you might manage for some
[1:06] of the invasive or
really aggressive grasses
[1:08] like reed canary grass and
improve that species diversity.
[1:12] And it could just be
that it's a healthy site
[1:14] and you wanna make sure that it continues
[1:15] to be healthy in the future
and manage like walking trails
[1:18] and everything that go through it.
[1:19] One challenge in managing
wetlands in the corridor
[1:22] are the black ash swamps,
[1:25] and swamps are wetlands that
are dominated by woody plants.
[1:28] And the black ash have
become functionally extinct
[1:31] because of the emerald ash borer.
[1:33] As managers, we're gonna
have to make decisions
[1:35] about how we bring back
[1:36] that ecosystem without these
big black ash, which are dying
[1:40] and many of them, if not
all of them now are dead,
[1:44] and what that wetland looks like
[1:46] as it regrows without that
keystone species there.
[1:49] Every wetland plays a
unique role in the ecosystem
[1:53] and that makes it
complicated to manage them.
[1:56] But part of the effort
[1:57] that we're gonna make
[1:58] in the Nine Mile Creek
Corridor Renewal Project
[2:01] is to ensure that one, we have good record
[2:04] of where all these wetlands are,
[2:05] and that we have a game plan
[2:07] to do really good
management in the long term.
[2:10] And we're gonna have a
relationship with these wetlands
[2:12] for as long as we're caretakers of them.
[2:14] (cheerful music continues)
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Other Topics from This Document
Wetland Types and Management Strategies
Challenges in Wetland Management: Black Ash Swamps
Nine Mile Creek Corridor Renewal Project Objectives
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