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

2010 Earth Day Cleanup

About 3,000 volunteers joined the annual Minneapolis Earth Day Cleanup on April 17, 2010, and almost 300 of that force volunteered at Friends of the Mississippi River's two locations in the river gorge. Volunteers removed over 15,000 pounds of trash from sites throughout the city - that's 15,000 pounds of trash that won't end up in the river! Thank you to all the volunteers who helped give the city a good spring cleaning!

Thanks to program partners and sponsors Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board, National Park Service, Longfellow Community Council, Peace Coffee, and Parkway Pizza!

Thank you also to volunteer photographer Ami Thompson who took the following photos:

Early Spring in the Gorge

Spring has sprung a bit early this year, giving a jumpstart to the growing season. Take advantage of this beautiful weather if you haven't already and get out to the river gorge to see what's popping up! Like...

bloodroot (left) and Dutchman's breeches (below). Spring ephemerals are doing their best to complete their entire life cycle during a very short period of time, after which they will disappear completely under the soil for the rest of the year!

Unfortunately for the spring ephemerals, garlic mustard is also already popping up, and threatening their success by crowding and shading the little beauties out, possibly even changing the quality of the soil. There are several upcoming opportunities to help remove garlic mustard from the river gorge - see our events listing for more details on how you can join the effort.

Very few native shrubs are leafed out right now, though one you might see is Sambucus racemosa (Red-berried elder, below).

Non-native shrubs Tartarian honeysuckle and common buckthorn are leafed out already. Leafing out early in the spring and retaining their leaves late in the fall is one of the major ways in which they are able to out-compete the natives: this longer growing season enables them to do extra photosynthesizing and simply outgrow everything else.

What interesting things have you been surprised to see popping up early this spring?

Photos courtesy of Carolyn Carr.

Progress at Riverside Park

Ecologist Carolyn Carr has been hard at work writing a management plan for Riverside Park in Minneapolis. At a March 1 meeting, she presented this plan to the West Bank Community Council and representatives of other stakeholder groups, including the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board and Friends of the Mississippi River. The plan includes a detailed look at the fascinating history of this park, and how its many uses over the years have contributed to the ecological challenges facing it now.

The WBCC voted to approve the plan, paving the way for concentrated restoration efforts to begin, with the help of MPRB crews and community volunteers. FMR will be coordinating volunteer restoration efforts, beginning with a garlic mustard and buckthorn removal event this spring, and continuing with a planting event in the fall. (Watch our upcoming events page for more information on how to get involved.) We are very excited to apply the energy and talents of our amazing volunteers to another site in the river gorge, and to help improve the ecological health, quality of habitat, and aesthetic beauty of this significant Minneapolis park!


Photo Copyright Regents of the University of Minnesota. Used with permission of the Metropolitan Design Center.

Longfellow Community Council

The Longfellow Community Council, longtime supporter of FMR's Gorge Stewards program, recently approved support of the 2010 and 2011 Gorge Stewards program! Using NRP Phase 2 funds, this support will help make another year of restoration efforts in the Minneapolis river gorge possible, with important activities like removing invasive garlic mustard from the floodplain forest near 34th Street and West River Parkway and buckthorn from the maple basswood forest at 44th Street and West River Parkway. It will also help support a third season of targeted restoration efforts by the Gorge Leadership Team.

On the snowy evening of Monday, February 8, LCC's River Gorge Committee held an open house, which provided an opportunity for community members to hear about the accomplishments of the 2009 Gorge Stewards volunteers and learn how to get involved in 2010. If you are interested in learning more about or joining the Gorge Stewards, check out the informational page for the program on the FMR website.

Thank you, Longfellow Community Council, for your continued and greatly appreciated support!

Photos courtesy of Meghan Dudle and Carolyn Carr.

King Corn & Big River Double Feature!

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 — 7:00-9:00 p.m.

Riverview Theater, 3800 42nd Avenue S, Minneapolis, MN

Following up on their Peabody Award winning documentary, the King Corn boys are back! Join filmmaker Curt Ellis, star of King Corn, for the Minnesota premiere of Big River. In their new documentary, Curt and Ian return to Iowa on a new mission: to investigate the environmental impact their acre of corn had on the people and places downstream.

Program:

7:00 p.m. King Corn
8:00 p.m. Big River
8:30 p.m. Discussion

All proceeds from this event benefit the Mississippi River Gorge Stewards Program.

Hosted by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), Friends of the Mississippi River, Land Stewardship Project, and Birchwood Café.

Tickets sold at the door. Advance sales at IATP and the Birchwood Café.

For information or for a student group-rate, contact Abby at 612-870-3433.