Cottage Grove residents have likely noticed a change in the appearance of Crestview Elementary School’s grounds this summer. Perhaps they were cruising down Hinton Avenue one June day and witnessed goats grazing on its north end. Maybe they were biking down 80th and the bright yellow of Black Eyed Susans captured their attention. Goats and flowers are just some of the results of South Washington County Schools (SWCS) deciding to collaborate with South Washington Watershed District and ecologically restore the area. Learning opportunities, obstacles, and the promise of a better planet have been consequences as well. Ecological Restoration: All One Needs to Know Ecological restoration occurs when plant communities are reintroduced to their native location. It exists in many different forms. There is prairie restoration and savanna restoration. Even the restoration of wetlands and woodlands can be carried out.

These processes are necessary today because humans have altered the early North American landscape. Minnesota was once fledged with coniferous and deciduous forests, prairies, and oak savanna. Then, Europeans settled in the state. They farmed and developed the land, failing to preserve prairies and oak savannas. In fact, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MNDNR) claims that 2% of original prairie and 1% of native oak savanna remain in the state today. Early Years of Crestview’s Environment Crestview Elementary School is planted in a spot that used to be an oak savanna ecosystem. Oak savannas are not quite a prairie nor a forest. Rather, they are grassy plains in which oak trees make up 10-50% of their area. The diverse species of oak savannas were accustomed to plains and forests.

By 1936, the expanse of oak savanna that is now Crestview’s campus was removed. Row crop agriculture had replaced it. The 1960s came along and both Park High School and Crestview were assembled. These developments “entirely altered” the soil and arrangement of landforms of the area, it reads in a pamphlet by SWCS and SWWD. Thirty years later, several non-native trees, such as ash, were planted on Crestview’s campus. In 2017, the northern end of the Crestview campus was complete with many invasive trees, evergreens, buckwheat, and Tatarian honeysuckle.

Purposes for Ecological Restoration The top of the new decade brought the launch of “Campus Greening at Crestview Elementary School.” SWCS wished to meet some of their water quality and quantity requirements amidst upgrading parking lots and buildings. In place of establishing ponds or conventional stormwater treatment practices, they contacted their existing partner, South Washington Watershed District (SWWD). The district’s mission in serving Cottage Grove and nine other townships is to “manage water and related resources of the district in cooperation with our citizens and communities.”

SWWD would help SWCS try to reach their water goals while restoring native organisms. Tony Randazzo is a Watershed Restoration Specialist for SWWD. In an interview with The Journal, he summarized, “We’re working with them to expand these natural areas on campus and we see all sorts of benefits to doing this kind of expansion of natural areas.”

Enhancing Prairie and Sedge Meadow

The east side of Crestview already has some pre-European settlement features. Randazzo described the section as a stormwater wetland with a “nice” surrounding buffer. Native grass completes most of the buffer. While all of this is true, the landscape is lacking diversity and contains weeds, like spotted knapweed. “…We’re having them augment this with more with more flowers,” stated Randazzo. “So, right now, it’s a matter of just the contractor is going to come in here and burn this.”

In his opinion, fire is an “amazing tool” for diversifying a prairie. “When you go out and see a prairie the first year after it’s been burned, you just have so much of that flowering that you want to see in a prairie. And, over time… if you don’t burn that off, it just gets a lot of fat and it becomes more difficult for stuff to grow,” Randazzo illustrated.

Goodbye Turf, Hello Prairie What was once futile turf on the south and west portions of Crestview’s campus could one day become rich prairie. During an exchange with The Journal, Randazzo explained that prairies protect birds and pollinators. First of all, native flowers offer food and nectar to them. Additionally, the stalks of native grasses serve as habitats where the species can lay eggs. Restoring the habitats of birds and pollinating insects has “enormous” benefits. Randazzo noted, “One of the things that we’re seeing globally is this massive decline in insect populations, in pollinators in particular, but then associated with that are just massive decline in bird populations…That’s happening for a whole variety of reasons. Probably, the biggest reason for that is just loss of habitat.”

A declaration by the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) justifies Randazzo’s guess: “Habitat loss—due to destruction, fragmentation, or degradation of habitat—is the primary threat to the survival of wildlife in the United States.”

Prairies also protect the Earth’s basins and water-unlike turf grass. Plants such as tallgrass have deep root systems. When those roots perish, they leave cavities behind. These cavities can become habitats, but they can also be a retreat for stormwater runoff. When runoff continuously occupies deep soil, that dirt can become nutrient-dense. “For instance, if you…go out in western Minnesota where it’s all corn and soybeans. The reason that that’s perfect for corn and soybeans and for agriculture is because tallgrass prairies created this great soil that’s 5, 6, 10 feet deep of just rich black soil and that’s basically all the detritus and all the stuff from those old roots that are down there over thousands of years,” cited Randazzo.

Over ten months ago, contractors, the SWWD, and Crestview students planted seeds for native grass and flowers. Since then, some seeds have germinated, grounded roots, and sprouted. A large amount of Black Eyed Susans is a common sight in first-year prairies, for example. However, many prairie plants do not become visible until 2 to 2.5 years after seeding.

Centered inside of the west side’s prairie is a sedge meadow restoration project that is similar to the east side’s. A separate seed mix from the one applied to the prairie section was spread there.

Lowland, Forest, and Savanna Restoration

7.5 acres of woodland crowd the north side of the Crestview’s campus. White pine, red pine, jack pine, white spruce, scotch pine, silver maple, and black cherry trees are a part of the current community there. The MN DNR, through their Land and Water Legacy Amendment, has provided the SWWD with funding to restore it. Randazzo detailed the ways in which they plan to utilize that money: “We decided what we wanted to do in here was give it more diversity in the trees and really move it towards a community of plants. So, we’re looking to make an oak woodland community out here and oak savanna. And there really aren’t any oaks out here, unfortunately.”

Oak trees require much time to develop. But once they are grown, they live for hundreds of years. Oaks are functional to the organisms around them. First of all, its bark and branches can be habitats for insects and birds. In addition, the species minimizes the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is one of the most common greenhouse gases. By grounding more oaks in the Earth, climate change can be delayed. Alongside the placement of native trees, flowers are being introduced to the area. In fact, during May and June of 2021, Crestview students scattered a seed mix in the forest.

Difficulties with Mother Nature

If one has judged the current looks of the Campus Greening at Crestview Elementary School, they should consider this: the project idles in the “prep phase.” In Randazzo’s words, the initial year of ecological restoration “always looks terrible.” There are extra challenges that SWWD has encountered during this project.

First, the lack of rain this summer is causing progress in the prairies even more difficult” to achieve. The sections of new prairie contain many weeds. There is also very little growth. Randazzo pointed out a Black Eyed Susan that was shriveled on the west side of campus. “This, for instance,” he examined, “you would expect [this] to be looking like those flowering ones over there…you would expect more of them to be doing well…it is just so dry.”

SWWD hopes that most of the planted seeds in the future prairie do not completely germinate this year. This would allow them to fully germinate next year and not perish young.

As for the north side of the Crestview campus, there has been a struggle with Emerald Ash Borer and invasive shrub. From the start, SWWD did not mean to chop trees down. They desired to accommodate the non-native woodland with native oaks. Anyway, Washington County Sentence to Serve crews discovered that most of the ash trees were infested with Emerald Ash Borer. SWWD ruled to excavate every tree of that kind. Meanwhile, the invasive species of Siberian elm was targeted for removal. A more open space resulted from these two missions.

Up to this point, three efforts have been made to rid the north side of buckwheat and Tatarian honeysuckle. Two of those were mow jobs facilitated by The City of Cottage Grove. The final one consisted of introducing goats to the woodland. They consumed the shrub in June. Still, buckwheat and Tatarian honeysuckle invade the land. Randazzo identified what the fourth line of defense will be: “When you walk out here in the fall, you can see it because it stays green after everything else has lost its leaves. So, we’re going to get out next and do an herbicide treatment on that.” The Future of Crestview’s Schoolyard There are a couple of upcoming events in SWCS regarding the Campus Greening at Crestview. In the fall, SWWD and Carpenter Nature Center will be hosting a water-based educational program. For six weeks, they will teach the student body of Crestview. Additionally, elementary schoolers will have the chance to snow seed this winter and the one succeeding.

Crestview’s topography will resemble that of Middleton Elementary’s and Lake Middle School’s one day. Randazzo told The Journal that those Woodbury institutions are about four years into their restoration projects. Cottage Grove will need to practice patience until Crestview’s campus is that far along. “All of it is a slow process,” Randazzo summarized. “You think about, 100 years of removal of this, of these natural areas, and now, getting back to that is a slow process.”

Based on his concluding words, it is likely that the wait will be worth it: “[Ecological restoration], it’s just a part of the larger picture of trying to protect water.”

Middleton Elementary School is further along in their ecological restoration by three years, compared to Crestview. This picture reveals what Crestview’s prairie could resemble one day. Middleton’s project is complete with an outdoor classroom, too. This is a concept that will appear at schools across the district. Photo by Sadie Jones

When one stands on the east side of Crestview’s campus, they can see Park High School, a baseball field and enhanced prairie and sedge meadow. It is rough terrain that runoff can retreat to.Photo by Sadie Jones

Birds and pollinators will one day be able to call the space between Crestview’s bike rack and front windows “home sweet home.” Photo by Sadie Jones