MAP FROM JUNE OPEN FORUM RESPONSE SHOWS REMEDIATION AREA AT GREY CLOUD DUNES SNA

by Joseph Back

Deer may like buckthorn, but it’s invasive, and when it starts outcompeting the local plant life, it’s time to take action.

As such, the Friends of the Mississippi will be holding an Oak woodland brush haul on October 9 to help restore the oak woodlands at 3M’s Cottage Grove facility. It’s part of a partnership between Friends of the Mississippi and 3M to care for the environment.

If you happen to be impatient and can’t wait, meanwhile, coming up somewhat sooner there will also be an event to haul and stack buckthorn at Vermillion Falls Park in downtown Hastings this September 14, while a September 18 event will plant trees and shrubs at Gores Pool Wildlife Management Area, also near Hastings. Interested parties should contact Sophie Downey, with more information including contact info at the Friends of the Mississippi website at www.fmr.org. Minors will need to have their parent or guardian sign a waiver form.

In the meantime, the Friends also completed a sumac haul recently at Grey Cloud Dunes, off 103rd Street and Hadley Avenue. Sumac isn’t bad in itself, but it’s super competitive like buckthorn, and letting it go can lead to issues with the local plant life. The story of Grey Cloud Dunes SNA, meanwhile, is one of creative thinking after a private entity had despoiled the site, using it for illegal dumping.

Managed today by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Grey Cloud Dunes was once owned by Marathon Ashland Petroleum, being donated by them as part of a settlement with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). You wouldn’t know its past from visiting the site today though.

Visitors to Grey Cloud today will be treated to many different landscapes—but not environmentally contaminated ones, or at least, not known contamination.

As part of an agreement with the EPA, Marathon Ashland as former owner cleaned up polluted soil and

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buried oil drums, having once used the site to illegally dump materials. Those days, however, are gone, as the emphasis on ‘former’ rather than ‘owner’ as descriptive adjective means the site is returning to nature. So what can you do at Grey Cloud Dunes?

Lots of stuff, chiefly walking and hiking, but also general exploration. There are no official trails, but footpaths worn into the land by the entry and along the hillsides give plenty of area to explore. See a large hole?

Probably an animal home. Its occupant may not want to be disturbed, and blue racer snakes are among the landscape’s many residents. If snakes aren’t quite your thing—looking at you Indiana Jones—the Grey Cloud Dunes SNA also has rare birds and a monarch butterfly or two, as one-time farmland returns to prairie. Speaking of which, did you know prairies depend on fire?

It helps them grow. That part of management would be taken care of by the DNR if and when necessary though. Just be sure to leave it as you left it, without litter. Otherwise, obey the signs at the site’s entrance and enjoy the Dunes!

Be sure to check for common wood ticks afterwards though, as these also call the Dunes home. Light-colored clothing to help in detection, is advisable.

A map of Grey Cloud Dunes greets visitors to the nature area just off 103rd Street and Hadley Avenue. Photo by Joseph Back.

Responding to the concerns of resident Eleanor Clancy on possible site contamination at Mississippi Dunes, the City of Cottage Grove in June mailed a letter with detail to show the localized nature of dumping to Grey Cloud Dunes across the railroad tracks. The contaminated area was cleaned up by 1997, in line with an agreement between the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Marathon Ashland Petroleum, which had used the present Grey Cloud Dunes site for dumping before donating it as part of a settlement.Image courtesy meeting archive from June 16 Council meeting.