Sustainable
Maplewood
Maplewood Seasons The Greening of Maplewood
Summer 2009
Wetlands Add Value To Our Community
remaining wetlands continue to function as environmental and community assets. The best way to do this is to protect wetlands from impacts that surrounding land uses can By Shann Finwall, Environmental Planner cause. The city’s wetland ordinance does One of my best memories from childhood this by requiring buffers around wetlands. was my connection with nature. I grew up A wetland buffer is the land surrounding a in Maplewood on a large lot that had mature wetland. The science reviewed by the trees, a wetland, and plenty commission showed The wetland ordinance can serve as of open space behind my that a minimum 50-foot an educational tool to help us improve house. These natural buffer is needed to surroundings created great our properties and adopt practices that adequately filter childhood adventures - one help protect and preserve this valuable pollutants and deter summer I helped a backyard natural resource. human disturbance. nesting mallard raise her young! This experience made me appreciate wetlands The growing environmental threat to as being part of the natural system that made wetlands is not the giant industrial polluters my community a great place to live. What of old, but from the way we all live. This I didn’t appreciate or understand as a child includes stormwater that runs off our roofs was the environmental value of wetlands. and driveways and finds its way into storm The Maplewood Environmental and Natural Resources Commission was charged with reviewing the city’s existing wetland protection ordinance to ensure the city’s
The wetland ordinance can also serve as an educational tool to help us improve our properties and adopt practices that help protect and preserve this valuable natural resource. These improvements can be as simple as installing a rain barrel at the end of your rain gutters, planting a rain garden in your yard, or more complicated like re-establishing a wetland buffer with native plants. Wetlands add value to our community. Protecting the wetlands falls on all of us. To learn how you can help protect wetlands and to view the proposed wetland ordinance amendment, visit the city’s website at www. ci.maplewood.mn.us/wetlands.
drains and eventually into our wetlands. Water does not stop at property lines, so what you do on your property may have an impact on nearby water bodies, whether you live next to the water body or not.
Nature Center & Watershed District Wetland programs Peer into the Pond Sat., June 13, 1:00 - 2:30 PM Tamarack Swamp Nature Hike Thurs., July 16, 6:30 - 8:30 PM Lake Phalen Wildflower Walk Wed., July 22, 6:30 - 8:30 PM www.ci.maplewood.mn.us/nc or 651.249.2171
Value Of Wetland Buffers
Trap Sediments & Pollutants
Control Flooding
Recharge Groundwater
Provide Wildlife Habitat & Open Areas
Resident Spotlight: Living Next To Monet’s Garden
By Shann Finwall, Environmental Planner Carol Mason Sherrill and her husband David built their house in Maplewood in 1997. Huge oak trees and a wetland made their yard a nature preserve. To restore the degraded woods and wetland, they removed almost an acre of buckthorn, honeysuckle, and trash. But even those efforts couldn’t keep the edges of the wetland from becoming completely dominated by invasive reed canary grass. To manage the reed canary grass and restore a diverse wetland plant community, Carol and her neighbors worked with the Ramsey-Washington Metro Watershed District on a cost-share project. The project began with the removal of nonnative plants through herbicide treatments. A native seed mix was installed in 2003, and in 2004 a group of school children helped plant native seedlings such as cardinal flower, Joe pyeweed, prairie blazing star, and sedges. Seven years later, the watershed district reports that the wetland restoration has been a huge success. Carol attests to this success by stating that “every time I look out the window or walk in the yard I am surprised by some new plant, flower, insect, or animal that wasn’t there before.” In addition to the improved plant and wildlife habitat, the watershed district reports that the success of the restoration has helped water quality in the wetland by filtering the storm water through the native plant buffer prior to entering the wetland. Carol’s house is only ten minutes from downtown St. Paul, yet she feels like it is worlds away in contrast. “Being in such a beautiful and peaceful place when we are surrounded by city life is quite amazing,” she says. “The colors of the native plants are so vibrant it’s like living next to Monet’s Garden.” In addition to working on the wetland ordinance amendment as the chair of the Environmental and Natural Resources Commission, Carol states that she knows from personal experience just how valuable and important the restoration and protection of wetlands are to our community. To learn more about this project and how you can make improvements to a wetland near you, visit the city’s website at www.ci.maplewood. mn.us/wetland.
Waterfront Property
By Virginia Gaynor, Natural Resources Coordinator
Carrie Mack, RWMWD
Last summer, one of my colleagues took a boat tour on the Mississippi River. As the boat steered towards a large storm drain the guide explained “that is where storm water from the Phalen Chain of Lakes enters the Mississippi.” Seeing that runoff flow into the river was a dramatic visualization that Maplewood is part of the Mississippi River watershed. It is amazing to think that the storm drain on your street leads to a neighborhood lake, stream, or wetland, then to the Mississippi River, and ultimately to the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean.
One of the many agencies and units of government in Minnesota responsible for protecting and managing water resources are watershed districts. These districts are based on watershed boundaries, not political boundaries. Three watershed districts have jurisdiction in Maplewood. Each has taxing and regulatory authority. Their programs focus on monitoring water quality, permitting, educating, and conducting projects to enhance water resources. The City of Maplewood works closely with these districts on storm water management and environmental protection. Many residents and businesses also work with the watershed districts, serving on boards or taking advantage of the districts’ educational programs and cost-share grants. The cost-share grants promote landscaping strategies that help protect water quality, such as rain gardens, rain barrels, and native plantings. Most of Maplewood is in Ramsey-Washington
Metro Watershed District (www.rwmwd.org). The Silver Lake area is in Valley Branch Watershed District (www.vbwd.org). And about one square mile of western Maplewood is in Capitol Region Watershed District (www. capitolregionwd.org). People who view the world through watersheds will tell you, “Everyone has waterfront property,” since curb and gutter on every street leads to a body of water. Visit your watershed district website or stop by their office. Find out what sub-watershed you live in and the route storm water takes from your yard to the Mississippi River.
A Watershed is the area of land that collects rainfall and snowmelt and drains to a particular area (lake, stream, river, or wetland).
Maplewood Seasons 2
What Is An Impaired Water? By Steve Kummer, Civil Engineer II
The Federal Clean Water Act of 1972 requires states to adopt water quality standards to protect water bodies from pollution. These standards define how much of a pollutant can be present in a water body and still allow it to meet designated uses such as drinking water, fishing, swimming, irrigation or industrial purposes. An “Impaired Water” is a water body that does not meet one or more of these water quality thresholds for certain pollutants. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) is charged with assessing and evaluating the state’s water bodies and publishing Minnesota’s list of impaired water bodies. Data collection for water quality may include tests for turbidity, heavy metals and bacteria levels. After assessing a lake, the next step is to set pollution reduction goals for the lake. This is typically done through a Total Maximum Daily Load allocation study or TMDL. A TMDL lists the allowed amount of certain pollutants that can enter a water body any given day. TMDL goals are typically set through an engineering study of past and present land uses and potential pollution sources. Typically, TMDL studies are performed by the area watershed district, but can be done in conjunction with local cities. Maplewood has 11 lakes and one creek on the impaired waters list. Impairments range from excessive phosphorus, heavy metals (mercury), PFOS (industrial chemical), and excessive chloride (road salting can create excessive chloride in lakes). The watershed districts are preparing TMDL studies for Maplewood’s impaired waters. Once complete, an implementation strategy will be drafted that describes the best way to clean up our impaired waters. Clean up will be the responsibility of all pollution “contributors,” which means the city would share responsibility with the county, Minnesota Department of Transportation, The first 100 rainbarrels have been sold. watershed districts, or others. Strategies could range from additional Due to popular demand, Maplewood has street sweeping, rain gardens, or ordered an additional 100 barrels – If you didn’t education to more complex and get one the first time you still can. Call the nature costly strategies such as dredging, center for a form or go to the city’s website regional ponds, or alum treatment to order a rainbarrel. Rainbarrels are systems. Clean of or our impaired being sold for $45.00. waters will be dependent on a www.ci.maplewood.mn.us/rainbarrels cooperative approach by all within the coming years. For more or call 651.249.2170. information visit the MPCA website at www.pca.state.mn.us.
Rainbarrel Cost Share Program
Maplewood Seasons 3
Watershed Watchers
By Oakley Biesanz, Volunteer Coordinator
Youth really can and do make a difference for the environment. Hundreds of school kids have shown the City of Maplewood this over the years by helping plant rain gardens in the city’s Watershed Watchers program. The Watershed Watchers program is taught by Maplewood Nature Center naturalists. Students learn about watersheds and how to protect ponds, lakes, wetlands and rivers. Part of their hands-on learning experience is doing a service project for the city such as planting a rain garden, stenciling storm drains, picking up litter, and helping educate the public. Watershed Watchers has been in place for 10 years. It has taught hundreds of students about water quality and has been responsible for planting over 20 large city rain gardens with thousands of plants. The city gives a very special thanks to all the students, teachers, and parent chaperones who have participated over the years. This spring, over 200 fourth and sixth graders are planting rain gardens for Maplewood. Students from Presentation Elementary, Weaver Elementary, Footprints Academy, and John Glenn Middle School will plant rain gardens at Wakefield Park, John Glenn Middle School, and at Maplewood Nature Center. Most of the flowers, grasses, and shrubs being planted are native to Minnesota and many are specially selected to attract birds and butterflies. To learn how to become a Watershed Watcher, call 651.249.2172.
By Ann Hutchinson, Lead Naturalist As spring turns to summer, the croaking calls of the wood frog fade like the early morning mist. If you were lucky enough to be hiking near an ephemeral wetland (a.k.a. temporary pond or vernal pool) this early April, perhaps you heard their distinctive ratchety quack. Adult frogs breed and lay eggs in a fist sized mass. Wood frog tadpoles are able to find food and begin to develop into frogs before the pools vanish. Since fish don’t live in ephemeral wetlands, frogs, salamanders and invertebrates can breed with great success. These wetlands, found in forests, savannahs or prairies, temporarily hold water in the spring and early summer after winter snow or heavy rains. Usually these wetlands dry up, often in mid to late summer. They are isolated without a permanent inlet or outlet, but may overflow in times of high water.
Nature Center Vernal Pool
Changing a seasonal wetland to a permanent wetland will change its ecology, and unique species would be lost.
www.vernalpool.org
Seasonal wetlands are an important, but little appreciated habitat. Creatures such as the wood frog have evolved life styles adapted to this wet-dry cycle. Another fascinating example is the tiny, beautiful crustacean called the “fairy shrimp”. Existing only in temporary ponds, its eggs need dry soil to hatch the following spring. Fairy Shrimp
Ephemeral wetlands occur throughout Maplewood, in several parks and open space sites, and at the Maplewood Nature Center. For more information please visit the Environmental Protection Agency’s website and download the Midwestern Ephemeral Wetlands Pamphlet (http://www.epa.gov/r5water/ephemeralwetlands/index.htm).
Photo by Bev Wigney
Female wood frogs lay up to a thousand eggs in rounded masses attached to small twigs and branches, just under the surface of the water (Tyning, 1990).
Salamander Maze:
Help Susie the salamander get from her forest home to the wetland to lay her eggs! She’ll need food such as worms along the way and a log to hide under to escape predators like raccoons. Keep away from houses where you could get stuck in a window well!
WETLand
forest home To sponsor this newsletter, contact Heidi Carey at 651.249.2021 or heidi.carey@ci.maplewood.mn.us.
Maplewood Seasons 4
Printed on 30% post-consumer waste paper
Ephemeral Wetlands: A Vanishing Habitat