FMR wins Sustainable Saint Paul Award!
From left: St. Paul Councilmember Dave Thune, FMR Executive Director Whitney Clark, FMR River Corridor Director Irene Jones, FMR Stewardship Coordinator Karen Solas, FMR Volunteer Coordinator sue rich, and St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman.
In 2008, FMR's Gorge Stewards Program added Crosby Farm Regional Park as a restoration site and focus. Three years, 500 volunteers and over a thousand prairie plugs later, FMR is pleased to announce we have received a 2011 Sustainable Saint Paul Award in the Natural Resources Restoration category for our work with volunteers at Crosby Park.
The City of Saint Paul initiated the Sustainable Saint Paul awards program to honor outstanding achievements of individuals, businesses and organizations that are protecting and restoring the environment of Saint Paul. On Wednesday afternoon, Mayor Chris Coleman and the Saint Paul City Council honored FMR, along with the winners in 10 other award categories.
Crosby Farm Regional Park is an ecologically significant site with some of the best wildlife habitat in the City of Saint Paul. The site offers an excellent living laboratory for learning about native plants and animals, and includes floodplain forest, wetland, prairie and woodland habitats. On the Mississippi River at the Minnesota River confluence, the site has enormous geographical significance and is used by millions of birds during spring and fall migration.
Although the park is a gem among riverside parks, it is threatened by invasive species such as buckthorn, garlic mustard, narrow-leaved bittercress, burdock, reed canary grass and others. These aggressive species outcompete the native plants that many birds and insects rely upon for survival. Ongoing and vigilant monitoring and management are needed to keep the park healthy. The park also floods periodically, and maintaining healthy native plant communities in the floodplain areas can help to control flooding downstream.
FMR's Gorge Stewards program aims to build a network of trained, dedicated volunteers and a sustainable approach to ecological management of native plant communities. At Crosby, the Gorge Stewards work has included planting, monitoring and tending a four-acre prairie next to the parking lot. The prairie provides important habitat for the millions of migratory birds that pass through each year, and in high water, it provides additional treatment and storage of floodwater. Each year dozens of dedicated volunteer prairie tenders are eager to come back to the site, learn about native species and help dig up invasive plants, even on hot summer evenings.
FMR initiated an annual "Pledge to Pull" event at Crosby to train volunteers in removing invasive garlic mustard from woodland areas, especially places with delicate ephemeral native wildflowers. Volunteers work together to remove garlic mustard and then pledge to return on their own for 6 additional hours. (This year's Pledge to Pull Kickoff is May 11th.)FMR also organizes educational programs and other restoration efforts in the park.
The City of Saint Paul is a leader in sustainability and livability, and FMR is thrilled to receive this award. We look forward to continuing our work at this site. Saint Paul Parks and Recreation staff have been an excellent partner on the project, and their support and involvement has been invaluable to its success.
We are also extremely grateful to the funders who have supported this effort and without whom the program would not be possible. They include Capitol Region Watershed District (CRWD), Xcel Energy, REI, Aveda, Patagonia, Gannett/Kare 11, RBC Wealth Management, Beim Foundation and the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund as recommended by the Legislative Citizen Commision on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR).
And last, but most definitely not least, a very special thanks to our dedicated volunteers.
To learn more about upcoming events at Crosby Park, visit FMR's event listing page.
To learn more about the last three years of the project, read about our work in FMR's Stwardship Blog: