hi everyone my name is Rachel Bron I'm the vice chair of the Environmental Quality commission um thank you for coming apparently the over Arrow doesn't work okay um so the motivation for this program was to help our local habitats um I noticed there was a big problem with Buckthorn in our nature areas and I just wanted to do something about it so um started coordinating with the city originally and then eventually I joined the eqc and wrote the volunteer habitat restoration proposal um here in Crystal we have um what's called Oak Savannah and specifically it's called Uh here specifically in Crystal we have a specific category of the oak Savannah called the oak Woodland brushland which basically just means that underneath the oak trees um are um small smaller Thicket species trees um so things like choke cherries and elderberries um those trees can actually survive in a prairie um and they commonly do so what we have is sort of a combination of a forest and also Prairie plants um and so because of that we have great biological diversity potential um unfortunately um here in Crystal um there's so much Buckthorn that has taken over um the the habitat is just very very degraded because of that um so that's what I was trying to uh do you want to mention that was intentionally planted you can mention that if you want I wasn't planning to across the upper west as a hedge as okay as a decorative hedge yeah it's fast growing F gr I know and the birds love it the Birds love it yeah so a lot of the areas old Hedges ofn so I really wanted to think longterm and um CommunityWide um in this program um which is why there's an educational component um and so the idea is to help the community build a relationship to the ecosystem and then also teach the community how to care for that ecosystem ongoing so the Hope was that uh in doing this there could be new people and families passing down the um this information and just this activity um in the future generations and did you mention the walk around yeah so at the start of every um restoration session is um we do um I call it an interpretation so we go through the area um walk the paths and the people who are there um get to hear about what's blooming um any you know plants uh any animals that we see I I try to stay as informed as possible I tell them about plants that are edible that are also native um which is fun um sometimes I'll do um activity where I have them closed their eyes and count how many birds they're here in a minute um yeah so so that's part of developing the relationship with the ecosystem do we also want to mention that the DNR has has noted on their Sur that there are remnants of the yes it's original we actually have six of them and I don't have them listed here um but you can find them on on the city website it's Park all of our nature areas are are Remnant Oak savanas so there's less than 1% um of our native Oak savanas left um from pre-colonial times um I talked about some of this already I didn't talk about the endangered species there are some endangered species that are completely dependent specifically on Oak savanas um two of them are the redheaded W woodpecker and the carer blue butterfly um I don't know that we have either of those here because the the ecosystems here are just very very degraded we do have okay well thank goodness a big butterfly um well it would be blue so I don't see a lot of butterflies here but something to keep an eye out this link is just um um reference to where I got this information from okay so in 2008 the state did a natural resources inventory um and back then way back then um they actually listed all of our Oak Savannah remnants as being in poor condition that's a quote um so it's a long-standing issue um officially this program started in La last year um we started in Basset Creek Park last year and then um that project um was handed off to Great River Greening because they um they were going to be doing the Prairie installation there um where the disc golf course is um and they got they found additional funding to continue their work at in that Park and move into the area where we were removing the Buckthorn from um yeah so but this year um we were in heg um and uh we actually got way more area cleared this year at heg because the the trees that we had been clearing at Basset Creek had been cut um and so there The Roots were so strong and so deep that we were digging them out we were causing a lot of um erosion sort of issues too with doing that work um but it would take two volunteers an entire session just to take one of those trees out um so I think more on that it's also true that like just because we've been at P for one year doesn't me we're done continually clear right bu will come in seeds every right yeah um it's so a more more recent this year study um I don't know where the study came out of but I heard that um 95% or 90% of the Buckthorn seeds actually are no no longer viable after two years so they thought that it was like all of the seeds were good up to seven years and um they they've sort of narrowed down some of them can be good for longer but on average on average yeah okay I just wanna I just want to highlight that this year we got so much more it's it's it's incredible how much we were actually able to clear with just a few volunteers consistently coming throughout the season there were four of us us throughout most of uh the season and I I I would venture to guess we got a couple acres done um yes back is is the problem at Basset Creek Park now not a problem anymore so I don't think that they've actually started the Restoration in the forest there yet um but they have like staff that are going to be paid to be removing and they're probably going to be doing cut in treat instead of pulling them out I um the the way G Green Works actually is they just administer contracts they're going right now to get proposal from contractors to actually oh I see I thought okay they don't have I see okay um just photos I think a lot of people were happy or excited to see photos um oh wait we're not actually to photos yet sorry I thought this was the start of the photo section um I just uh in this slide I wanted to um sort of detail actually the scope of The Proposal that I actually wrote um and and differentiate that from what we've actually been doing um it's just that the Buckthorn is such a big problem that's kind of what we have to deal with first before we can do any of the other kinds of work um habitat restoration actually does include planting as well as invasive species removal um and within the proposal there was a number of different activities listed um such as um digging holes to plant trees and um planting Forbes or grasses um and there are other invasive species not just buckthorne too proposal that was presented to the council that was a collaborative we all work on it right okay yeah I think I did I not write it and then we like discussed it and approved it it was in okay okay it's not the it was the original reest right the idea of the program yeah yeah um this is just a couple of photos of volunteers um on the on the left um that's the the day that the New Hope women of today volunteered and one lady brought her kids and friend of theirs and then on the right is um just proud volunteers with their Tools in front of a huge pile of Buckthorn you're welcome okay um demographics um when I was write writing out a funding request um for this program um they asked for demographics I thought people here might be interested as well um we we don't actually have a lot of um racial diversity in the program at this point um be super happy to get more people of color um you know getting in there with us um but we do have quite a bit of gender diversity and age diversity who's in a 90 plus group wait B that's not you that you no there's a there's an old lady um who lives by uh uh Memory Lane Park that was um has been involved in the past so I included that one and she's 90 probably 93 now so she's pretty active still um yeah and people with um known disabilities and health conditions have been able to participate in different ways um earlier here the lady brought her kids she was not able to actually do any physical labor because she recently had hip surgery but she was there and she brought her kids and that's awesome and you can sort of see the back my back brace and yeah yeah back braces um also if people um would like to help out with this stuff and you can't get down on the ground at all you can haul Buckthorn You' be happy to have someone just moving the Buckthorn from one place to the big pile um yes and for people who have a hard time um using the tools we're happy to have people sitting down pulling smaller Buckthorn um and there are other invasive species too that um have just required different kinds of motion so very happy to accommodate anyone who's interested incoming okay here are the photos um all right so it says here progress in May I just want to be clear this isn't going to be like a May June July kind of thing this just happens to be that this was in May um if you look on the sort of the left half of these photos and compare um on the left side um sorry the left photo um you can see that there are a bunch of what looks like sticks coming out of the ground um those are all Buckthorn trees and then on the right you can see that it's just kind of cleared you do su before things can go to seed say it again is it most the work that you do earlier in the summer well we do we run the program May June and July um so is that early in the summer yeah okay so I guess yes um but a lot of other programs that I know about actually do Buckthorn removal in the fall um and one of the reasons they do that is because um the trees uh the Buckthorn leaves uh remain very green while the other trees are changing color so um for volunteers who aren't super confident with identification um that can help them um make sure and pull the right things um but a lot of those programs are also using the cut and cut uh cut and treat um strategy and we're not using any pesticide in our in our program yet yes I can mention that it's not really depicted here but this the sunlight dapples in when we removed a lot of that buck door it really was an impressive site to see the sunlight shine through that area that we had remediated yeah and that's part of the oak Savannah is you have these oak trees and the oak trees actually let a lot of light through so you have a tree that's way up in the you know the canopy is way way up and it's it's able to also let so much light come through that so much biodiversity can happen underneath it's like having a prairie and U and a forest all in one I think I said that before but I love it so um this is a photo of photo comparison of the shoreline um if you look sort of down the middle of of these photos you can see that the one on the left has a bunch of foliage and the one on the right has is sort of bare in that area um this is actually from one of the last events we held um and this one is also on the shoreline and um I think you can just see that it's sort of cleared but the nice thing about this especially that it's on the shoreline um there are actually a lot of plants left here we make sure to leave the actual native plants right um so there's actually a lot of um protection against erosion so even though we tore out those buckthorns there are all these other plants still holding the soil together here and and if there hadn't been I would have probably made made the decision to just hold off and yeah and this is where again this is at heg Meister it's right over there yeah could walk from here if it weren't so dark yeah it's just easier to see when it's not so dark yeah so then this is just in um in the Woodland um yeah I think if you're if you're looking like at those big trees like the big clump of trees slightly to the left of center and then you look slightly to the right of them you can see that there is a bunch of stuff that was cleared out there I have to say getting good photo comparisons is quite challenging um I really feel like none of these photos truly do justice to the um uh the difference that because you can't even walk in there when you when you first you know before you start clearing the Buckthorn out and then you clear the Buckthorn and it's like I mean you can see trees that you couldn't see before and you can actually walk in there anyway um so looking to the Future um we have some very um motivated volunteers um we you know something I was thinking about earlier today is it seems to me that when a volunteer shows up for one of these they have a tendency to come for the rest of the season there like they they see what it is and it's there is something that clicks and they sort of realize that they can they actually can make a real difference here um and they just put it on their calendar and keep coming it's cheaper than a gym membership yeah it is a good it is for some people it's a very good cardiovascular workout yes for most of us [Music] um at this point um we would plan to continue at heg Meister um we have always relied on John El hols um Direction with what we do each year I always Park Park directory um so really it's up to him I suppose um we are I I have been working to try to secure funding I went to a meeting yesterday with the natural resources um people and I it was a training on how to fill out this one Grant it's uh it's actually called a good Steward Grant and we can ask for up to 25,000 with that and I have I already had everything written out and stuff they did say that they do want as much information in after each question so they actually do want quite a bit of wording so that they get a good idea of what the project actually is gr that so it would have to go through the city but I have um I have sent it to one of the people um that was in the meeting and they apparently can look over it and give me feedback on it so I'm gonna do it right this time and there's apparently a portal there a special place and I have everything portal yeah portal anyway I think that does anyone have any questions so going forward yeah you're you're going to be basically relying on volunteers yes yes that's been the for the most part I'd like to get funding for uh uh cut and treat um a pesticide applicator is just for the biggest Buckthorn trees the ones that are just too difficult to right because they just take so much time so for volunteers it doesn't it's just not a very I think it's not a very good use of volunteer time I agree yeah and what other plans do you address through habitation there a short list right it's not just right right we've been focusing primarily on buthorn just because that happens to be the worst offender um but um Burdock is one so I do have one um tool is called a Parson predator and you can sever the the berock root with that um some people think that you have to dig that out and you don't you can sever that route and it will actually kill the plant and garlic mustard and garlic mustard is another and so yeah and garlic mustard typically comes after you've cleared an area of Buckthorn so we have that to look forward to oh yes it's very invasive um it is edible and the reason it uh it it came over from Europe originally people used to make pesto with it um which is why it's here um yeah tastes quite good actually um but each um each plant can make thousands of seeds um and they readily germinate so yeah um there's also um creeping bell flower which comes from from Korea um the roots of that are edible so you can guess why that was brought over um okay yeah we have some we have some um plants that are not native that are growing in our nature areas that aren't necessarily invasive um um mother's wart is one yeah but they it doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to cause a problem I think they're considered to be endemic there's also Dandy lions