Project Partners and Sponsors:
The Gores State Wildlife Management Area, between Hastings and Red Wing, consists of mature stands of silver maple and ash.
2012-2013: The US Army Corps of Engineers and MN DNR Forestry completed timber harvest at various plots throughout the project area, followed by tree planting.
2014: Audubon completed post-planting weed control on approximately 10 acres that had been previously planted with trees, and site prep including spot treating 3’ x 3’ patches with herbicide that were then planted with tree seedlings on an additional 10 acres.
This project is completed.
Funding was provided by the Outdoor Heritage Fund, McKnight Foundation, US Army Corps of Engineers, and Aveda Corporation.
This approximately 40-acre site consists of mature floodplain forest with open canopy patches and increasing amounts of Reed Canary Grass.
Site preparation and tree planting were planned for fall 2016, however, extensive flooding prevented the project from being implemented. This work was rescheduled for 2017, with post-treatment weed control through 2020.
This was a cooperative project with MN DNR Forestry.
This project is complete.
Funding was provided by the Outdoor Heritage Fund, McKnight Foundation, and Aveda Corporation.
This approximately 10-acre site is located about 5 miles northeast of Red Wing near the confluence of the Vermillion and Mississippi Rivers. The site comprises large fields of reed canary grass bordered by stands of willow. Willow are successfully preventing reed canary grass from encroaching into nearby high quality floodplain forest.
During 2015, reed canary grass was controlled on five acres along an approximately 20-foot strip adjacent to the willow stands. During winter 2015-16, willow were cut on 5 acres along a 20’ strip adjacent to the reed canary grass control. Willow respond vigorously to cutting with new regrowth, and are expected to expand into the area where reed canary grass was controlled. This will create a wider buffer of forested habitat to further protect the adjacent high quality floodplain forest. In addition, trees were planted in the areas where reed canary grass was controlled.
This was a cooperative project with MN DNR Forestry.
This project is complete.
Funding was provided by the Outdoor Heritage Fund, McKnight Foundation, and Aveda Corporation.
This approximately 50-acre site is adjacent to Red Wing near the confluence of the Cannon and Mississippi Rivers. The site consists of mature floodplain forest, with pockets of Reed Canary Grass.
During fall 2015, site preparation primarily for Reed Canary Grass control was completed on 15 acres.
During fall 2016, 7 acres were planted with trees. Plantings included larger potted trees, as well as bare root seedlings.
This was a cooperative project with MN DNR Forestry.
This project is complete.
Funding was provided by the Outdoor Heritage Fund, McKnight Foundation, and Aveda Corporation.
This project occurred on the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge just north of Weaver, MN. Portions of the site are dominated by Green Ash Trees which are expected to die from the invasive Emerald Ash Borer. By getting moderately shade-tolerant tree seedlings established prior to losing the ash trees, there is a greater chance of trees regenerating before reed canary grass invasion prevents regeneration.
During 2016 site preparation was completed and tree and shrub seedlings were planted on approximately 55 acres. Included in this project was a unique opportunity to work with a power company to plant native shrubs under a power line, where trees are normally not allowed to be planted. Follow-up weed control took place in 2017.
This project is complete.
Funding was provided by the Outdoor Heritage Fund, McKnight Foundation, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and Aveda Corporation.
This project was a study on Reed Canary Grass control methods and tree planting on four sites ranging from 5-10 acres each:
- Near Red Wing along the Cannon River
- Along the Whitewater River, upstream of the Mississippi
- Mouth of the Root River
- Near the Iowa border along the Mississippi River
At each site, there are 10 to 20 half-acre plots that will be evaluated. During fall 2016, plots were site prepped using various combinations of soil disturbance and herbicide treatment. During spring 2017 bare-root and large, potted trees were planted at all the sites. Follow up weed control was completed during fall 2017, and each plot has a strip that was direct seeded during fall 2017 and spring 2018.
This was a cooperative project with the MN DNR, US Fish and Wildlife Service, University of Minnesota, and University of Wisconsin – La Crosse.
This project is complete.
Funding was provided by the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund, Outdoor Heritage Fund, McKnight Foundation, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and Aveda Corporation.
This approximately 30-acre area is located along the Vermillion River Bottoms approximately 15 miles from Red Wing. The site comprises high quality floodplain forest, with isolated patches of reed canary grass.
The Minnesota DNR harvested portions of the site during winter 2017-18, and Audubon assisted by planting bare root tree seedlings on approximately nine acres during fall 2016.
This was a cooperative project with MN DNR Forestry.
Audubon’s participation in this project is complete.
Funding was provided by the Outdoor Heritage Fund, McKnight Foundation, and Aveda Corporation.
Located just east of Reno, Minnesota, this project area sits within a beautiful and diverse stand of floodplain forest. Reed Canary Grass is not widely pervasive on the site, and the tree quality is quite good.
The Reno Bottoms project is designed to ensure that a healthy forest stays healthy into the future, while enhancing the wildlife services that it currently provides. Swamp White Oak trees were released by removing nearby trees, allowing them more space to grow and thrive.
The few patches of Reed Canary Grass that were present within the stand were also managed to prevent their spread throughout the forest. In total, the site encompasses about 60 acres of improvement.
This was a cooperative project with MN DNR Forestry.
This project is complete.
Funding was provided by the Outdoor Heritage Fund, McKnight Foundation, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and Aveda Corporation.
Richmond Island sits in the Mississippi River just south of Trempealeau, WI. The island currently provides good upland habitat including many oak trees valuable for wildlife food production.
Invasive shrubs, trees, and Reed Canary Grass have begun to invade the island. In total, 9.6 acres of invasive species work was conducted on the island, coupled with a US Army Corps of Engineers tree planting in fall 2017 to reforest gaps in the canopy and help maintain forest cover on the island.
Most notably, we thinned a stand of invasive Black Locust Trees, eventually eliminating them from the site. Managing locust can be quite difficult as it tends to florish when cut.
This project is complete.
Funding was provided by the Outdoor Heritage Fund, McKnight Foundation, US Fish and Wildlife Service, US Army Corps of Engineers, and Aveda Corporation.
This project took place on both the north and south sides of the Root River near where the river crosses HWY 26, just south of La Crescent, MN.
A variety of plantings and timber stand improvement type work took place across this tract of land. In total, approximately 76 acres of planting and improvement work took place on this tract by the fall of 2017. Other work done on this project includes:
- 8 acres have been planted with cottonwood pole cuttings
- 11 acres have been chemically and mechanically prepared for a spring 2017 bare-root planting of 7,200 tree seedlings
- 13 acres have been prepared for an under planting of potted trees
- 18 acres have had timber stand improvement work performed to release Swamp White Oak trees that were planted on the site in 2010
- 20 acres will be managed for natural tree regeneration and partially planted in an attempt to allow nature to plant trees for us
This project is complete.
Funding was provided by the Outdoor Heritage Fund, McKnight Foundation, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and Aveda Corporation.
The Turkey River property is located just across the Mississippi River from Caseville, WI.
A mixture of bare-root and Root Production Method® trees have been planted on the site across approximately 35 acres. These plantings began in 2015 and have been maintained to ensure that the trees are able to outcompete natural vegetation on the site.
In the future, more plantings will be implemented.
Funding is being provided by Aveda Corporation, McKnight Foundation, and US Fish and Wildlife Service.
The Vermillion Bottoms/Lower Cannon River Important Bird Area (IBA) contains over 11,000 acres of floodplain forest along the Mississippi River in southeast Minnesota. These unique forests are home to many species of wildlife and birds, including rare species like Cerulean Warbler and Red-shouldered Hawk.
Unfortunately, these forests are under threat. When trees are removed or die naturally, invasive Reed Canary Grass takes over and prevents natural regeneration. This is occurring at a number of locations within the IBA. Without aggressive, long-term management these floodplain forests will be greatly reduced or in some locations disappear completely.
Audubon, in cooperation with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, completed a floodplain forest restoration project on 20 acres within the IBA. The project consisted of controlling reed canary grass followed by planting large potted trees of four species (cottonwood, silver maple, swamp white oak, black walnut) that will grow fast and create a canopy to shade out the reed canary grass.
By selectively controlling invasive species and planting larger size trees, the forest can be sustained. Restoring small sites within larger tracts will ensure that a diversity of tree species, sizes, and ages are present. This approach over time will maintain the large contiguous blocks of quality floodplain forest needed for migrating and resident birds and other wildlife.
Funding for this project is provided by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund as recommended by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR).
The Wabasha Bottoms project area sits just south of Kellogg, MN.
The forest here consists of two major project areas. One of the units is quite diverse with oak, hickory, and walnut trees being crowded by Silver Maple trees. Within the first unit, nut and other “mast” producing trees were released from competition from Silver Maple trees so that they may grow more vigorously.
Within the second unit, large diameter Silver Maple trees currently dominate the forest canopy. Trees here are healthy, but nearing the upper end of their life span. Mature Silver Maple were harvested by cutting small gaps into the canopy in order to allow enough light to hit the forest floor and grow new trees.
This project is complete.
Funding was provided by the Outdoor Heritage Fund, McKnight Foundation, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and Aveda Corporation.
The Whalen site is just north of New Albin, IA. It is dominated by Reed Canary Grass and was previously managed for hay production before the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge acquired the property.
Various styles of tree planting are being done on the site to help shade out Reed Canary Grass and re-establish floodplain forests. Among the different methods being utilized, we have planted a stand of 2- to 4-inch diameter Cottonwood trees. This planting requires no herbicidal site preparation and should effectively produce an instantaneous cover of cottonwood trees.
In total nearly 52 acres were planted and improved on the site.
This project is complete.
Funding was provided by the Outdoor Heritage Fund, McKnight Foundation, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and Aveda Corporation.
This project occurred on the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge near Weaver, MN. Portions of the site are dominated by Green Ash trees which are expected to die from the invasive Emerald Ash Borer. Much of the area's understory is buckthorn.
By controlling buckthorn and getting moderately shade tolerant tree seedlings established prior to losing the ash trees, there is a greater chance of trees regenerating before Reed Canary Grass invasion prevents regeneration.
During 2016, site preparation was completed by removing buckthorn on 26 acres. During fall 2017 tree seedlings will be planted on approximately 37 acres of the overall site.
This project is complete.
Funding was provided by the Outdoor Heritage Fund, McKnight Foundation, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and Aveda Corporation.
This site is located along the Whitewater River, approximately five miles upstream from the confluence with the Mississippi River. The site is an old agricultural field that is being restored to floodplain forest. The site is surrounded by dense stands of Reed Canary Grass.
During summer/fall 2016, site preparation was completed including herbicide, mowing, and disking. Direct seeding with a variety of tree species was planned for fall 2016, however flooding prevented this from being completed. Additional site preparation and direct seeding was then planned for summer and fall 2017 and spring 2018.
This was a cooperative project with MN DNR Wildlife.
This project is complete.
Funding was provided by the Outdoor Heritage Fund, McKnight Foundation, and Aveda Corporation.
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