Volunteers and Caterpillars at Riverside Park

The first FMR volunteer event at Riverside Park in Minneapolis was held on May 15, 2010. About 40 volunteers, many from the neighborhood, came together to remove invasive species like garlic mustard and buckthorn from key areas of the park. After all the time and energy invested by neighbors and partners to get the restoration of this park underway, it was very

exciting to finally get our hands dirty! To see more photos from the event, check out FMR's Flickr page.

Another event will be held at the park in the fall. Watch FMR's events calendar for details.

Throughout the event, forest tent caterpillars were raining down on the volunteers from the trees above. They were all over everyone's clothes and in their hair, covering equipment like the blue bucket in the photo, everywhere! If you've been back to the park since the event, you've probably noticed that the caterpillars wreaked some serious havoc, leaving some trees almost completely defoliated. This may look shocking and disturbing, but these trees should put out a second smaller set of leaves later in the summer and recover.

Tent caterpillars are native to Minnesota and have a natural boom and bust cycle - outbreaks occur at intervals of 5-10 years and each outbreak can last for 5-8 years. You'll notice defoliation starting in late May and lasting through late June, till the caterpillars have spun themselves into cocoons and pupated. Tent caterpillars have a whole slew of natural controls that keep them in check, including diseases and native predators (insects, spiders, birds, etc.) that evolved along with them.

For more information on forest tent caterpillars, check out this page from the DNR.

Photos courtesy of Karen Solas and Carolyn Carr.

Gorge Birds

Larry Risser took these amazing photos during this year's Gorge Birding Hike. Enjoy!

pileated woodpecker

wood thrush

blue-gray gnatcatcher

Spring Restoration Highlights

Volunteers removed garlic mustard from the floodplain forest near 34th St & W. River Parkway in Minneapolis on May 1. Volunteers have been working in this area every spring for years to protect the floodplain habitat and the nearby oak savanna and prairie bowl from invasive garlic mustard.

A carpet of wild ginger at Crosby Park's spring wildflower patch in St. Paul. Wild ginger's single purple flower is at the base of its stem, low to the ground to attract insects like ground beetles to pollinate it. Rain storms and an unexpected road closure could not deter volunteers from pulling garlic mustard in this area on April 24, and pledging to return to pull for an additional 6 hours!

If you click on this photo to enlarge it, you will see a variety of ephemerals and other spring wildflowers growing all together - the mottled leaves of trout lilies, yellow flowers of violets, and the fine feathery leaves of dutchman's breeches. Rest assured that the solitary garlic mustard stalk sticking up was promptly removed after this photo was taken! This wildflower patch is looking better than ever, thanks in part to the efforts of our volunteers!

For their first Team Outing of the season, the Gorge Leadership Team worked at a spring ephemeral patch at Hidden Falls Park that has gotten less attention over the past few years. Team members removed garlic mustard as well as narrowleaf bittercress, an invasive species that was only first reported in Minnesota in 2008, and has been rapidly invading forested areas along rivers in eastern Minnesota.

Ecologist Karen Schik teaches Gorge Leadership Team members about the biology of invasive earthworms.

To learn about upcoming volunteer events and how you can participate, check our events calendar or sign up for our twice monthly e-newsletter, the Mississippi Messages.

photos courtesy of Karen Solas and Karen Schik