Post contributed by Minnesota Conservation Corps Youth Outdoors Crew 2:
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| Erosion fabric with native grasses plugged in will make this section of lakeshore more natural and less prone to erosion. |
On Wednesday, we spent the day planting native grasses and forbs all along the Como lakeshore. These native plants will grow to have extremely long root structures which will help to prevent further erosion on the lakeshore and improve the water quality too!
On Friday, we continued planting for the majority of the day and also did other tasks around Como lakeshore. Through the day we worked on some trail erosion sites that we will try to transform into native grass areas. Funds for this project have been provided by a grant that the City of Saint Paul recieved from the Clean Water Funds for water resources restoration.
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| Volunteers recieving instruction for the volunteer event at Crosby Park on Saturday morning. |
On Saturday, the entire Youth outdoors program along with our youth participated in a volunteer event at Crosby Park near the Mississippi River. It was beautiful weather as we began the day with hauling buckthorn and other undesirable tree species that were recently cut down in the Floodplain Forest section of the park. This removal work created some more open space in the canopy which will create a more favorable environment for more desirable tree species to grow. Later in the morning, we planted seeds of hackberry, basswood, and bur oak trees to replace the removed invasives. Thank you to REI for helping us to recruit volunteers and for providing snacks and t-shirts to get us all movitated! We were excited to have groups from Audubon and Big Brothers Big Sisters working with us on Saturday as well. Great work everyone!
