HomeMy WebLinkAbout1981 08-05 Nature center controls erosion with native grasses THE REVIEW Nature center controls erosion with nativeg rasses
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By JONATHON CLYDE GLASS could plant the grass, said Greg Smith, , ,� , ;, 4°' _ 4 34
Staff Writer supervisor for Albrecht.They brushed the �� : �" °
stumps with a poisonous solution to kill
The naturalists at the Maplewood the trees, said Tom Peterson, con ,
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Nature Center are making efforts to servation specialist with the soil and , . t
revive native prairie grasses at the same water district.
time as they control erosion on the slopes The workers skipped over several .. '° °
above the marsh. patches of the north slope where the , �;lari�' ' ,;
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Working with the Ramsey County Soil groundcover was adequate, and one .
and Water Conservation District, the where Soutter wanted to preserve a plum "; ,- ..
nature center recently planted Big and tree. ° �`
Little Blue Stem, Indian Grass, Switch The grass seeds were covered with a * _s .
Grass and Side Oats Gramma on.7 acres thick mulch of blond aspen curls held in �,` ,t '
on the north side of the marsh. The place with a poly propelyne net. The net, k11
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grasses will enable the center to show,at and the six-inch staples used to secure it
least in part, the native prairie habitat, will both decompose within two to three
said center naturalist Christine Soutter. years,Soutter said.The mulch and seeds '
The center already contains patches of both held up well under the heavy rains of0-444* _
or
'panic and muhly grass, she noted. July 23, increasing the naturalist's op- ,.� ;
"In two years it will look real good," timism that the grasses will take hold.
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said Soutter,explaining that it takes that Native prairie grasses are increasingly t °
long for the grasses to become firmly popular species for use in stabilizing soils. ? ,
established. The grasses are "sod- The Minnesota Department of Tram ��'�� $�
formers," creatinga smooth coverage of sportation uses them in lar a uantities
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the soil, rather than growing in clumps, on road projects and Washington County "
she continued. planted several thousand acres of them at R,
The north slope around the large marsh Eagle Lake Park,according to Peterson. • •
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has presented erosion problems several Native grasses can still be found oc- ".:
times in the past. The construction of a casionally growing wild along abandoned
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ew road and curbs above the hillside railroad tracks, said Russell Adams,
Haround Michael Lane altered the grade, district supervisor for the soil and water f ""�
as
making it steeper. The growth of box district.
elder and other scrubby brushes squeezed The cost of the conservation project was a.
out most of the ground cover,making the $7,869, according to Soutter. The water
problem even worse, said Soutter. and soil district,one of 92 districts in the
In the late 1970s, the city built several state, will pick up 75 percent of the cost,
tire walls on the hillside to help hold the according to Peterson.
dirt. The district has two other conservation POSING IN FRONT OF the seeded and mulched em- Soutter of the nature center, Ted Peterson and Russell S.
The workers for Albrecht Nursery, the projects planned this year in Maplewood, bankment at the Maplewood Nature Center are those Adams of the Ramsey Soil and Water Conservation District,
contractor which handled the job,cleared one at Wakefield Park and one on the responsible for designing and executing the new erosion and Greg Smith, a landscaper from Albrecht Nursery.
out hundreds of box elder before they river bluffs in Battle Creek, he said. control system. From left to right they are: Christine