Olmsted County Parks Newsletter - Winter 2023

In this issue

Fall foliage, Zumbro Stream water monitoring, winter recreation, Soil Day, and more...

New look for the Badger and Prairie Dog Exhibit

by Lonnie Hebl

In the summer of 2016, we built the new Badger and Prairie Dog exhibit at Zollman Zoo. Although it was well planned and beautifully built it has always looked very stark and bland to me. Because of that, I have spent an enormous amount of time trying to find someone that could add color and life to those walls. As often is the case in Parks, someone comes along and shares not only their love for Oxbow Park and Zollman Zoo but their talent and time as well. While walking through the Zoo one day with Annika Anderson, a second-year maintenance seasonal, she mentioned her desire to achieve a Graphic Art Degree from Minnesota State University - Mankato. The light bulb went off in my head and we talked about her taking the project on as a summer task. She happily agreed. I had my person and plan. Now all I needed was the time. As always, the case, the summer flew by and soon Annika wrapped up her season and headed back to school. I had missed my opportunity, or so I thought. One day while visiting, Annika mentioned she has free time and would be willing to take on the project we talked about months ago. I jumped at the offer. We got the materials ready, and Annika came and got the job done. It accomplished exactly what we needed. Thanks to Annika and people like her, Zollman Zoo is, and will always be, a beautiful place to visit.

Vibrant fall

by Celeste Lewis

Fall means a lot of things for people, pumpkin spice, apples, sweatshirts, cool evening campfires, and of course the beautiful colorful changing of leaves!  This fall has been especially beautiful and vibrant!  What causes the leave colors to change and why does it seem like some years (such as this year) they seem super vibrant and others not so much? 

We will first look at what causes the leaves to change color…. Photosynthesis is the process of changing water and carbon dioxide to oxygen and glucose, which requires sunlight.  This is how the tree produces it’s “food.” The chemical in the leaves called chlorophyll is what allows the tree to do this.  It also gives the leaves their green color.  As the days get shorter and shorter, trees produce less and less chlorophyll, allowing the other chemicals to start showing their “colors”.

Each color you see in the leaves is caused by a different chemical in the leaves.  Xanthophyll is the chemical that cause the yellow color, which is the most abundant of the fall leaves.  Carotenoid causes the orange color, and lastly (and least common) is anthocyanin which causes the red and purple appearance in the leaves. 

When there is an abundance of dry weather and sunlight, it leads to more sugars in the leaves which in turn leads to brighter fall reds.  Therefore, with the hot, dry summer of 2023, it explains the vibrant colors that we are experiencing this fall!

Winter recreation

by: Celeste Lewis

Living in Minnesota folks are very fortunate that they have the opportunity to experience all four seasons.  While it is easy to find outdoor activities to stay busy in the spring, summer and fall (camping, kayaking, biking, etc.) sometimes winter recreation can be a bit more of a challenge.  But, to keep folks physically and mentally healthy, there must be ways to get them out! 

Chester Woods Park received an outdoor recreation grant from the state and with those funds purchased all new snowshoes, cross country skis, and kick sleds!  These items will be available beginning this winter for rental at the park. Rentals will be available 7 days a week starting at 10:00 a.m. and must be back by 3:00 p.m. beginning January 2, 2024 (snow conditions permitting). The rental fee is $5.00/per rental. 

Chester Woods Park grooms over 10 miles of multi-use trails in the winter when snow conditions are good.  There are trails for all ability levels and snowshoers can explore even more (as no grooming is needed for those)!  The winter trail map can be found on our trail's webpage.

Zumbro River stream monitoring

by Lisa Hartzheim, Oxbow Park Volunteer

Upon completion of the Minnesota Master Naturalist Prairies and Potholes class in May 2023, I was eager to explore some of the diverse volunteer opportunities that were introduced throughout the program. During each class we were introduced to different experts, their roles, and processes used to evaluate the health of our natural world. Throughout the program, my interests and ways I wanted to volunteer grew quite long!

I became particularly interested in water monitoring during a class in which we learned how lakes, rivers and streams are monitored. The class was taught by Soils Conservation Technicians, and we monitored the Zumbro River at Oxbow Park. With waterproof footwear, we were able to experience a day in the life of a Soils Conservation Technician by evaluating water temperature, measuring water clarity/turbidity with a Secchi tube and identifying macroinvertebrates, all of which are a few means to directly assess the health of and threats to the water. 

Shortly after that particular class, I submitted a request to serve as a volunteer through the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) Citizen Lake and Stream Monitoring Program. Volunteer stream monitors are a critical component of Minnesota’s understanding, managing, restoring and protecting MN lakes, rivers and streams. Citizen water monitors collect and report data including water clarity/turbidity, appearance and temperature, air temperature, weather conditions/rain event, estimation of the stream stage (dry, low, normal, high or no flow) and take pictures of the site(s). This information supplements the work of scientists who study Minnesota’s waterways to ensure healthy drinking water and habitats for wildlife. “It’s important to track trends in water quality to monitor the effect of climate change. Warming air temperatures along with changes in precipitation patterns cause issues with the quantity and quality of surface water including increases in toxic algal blooms, flooding and infrastructure failures, and changes to biological communities” says Betsy Nebgen, MPCA Environmental Specialist.

In May I started monitoring two sites along the south fork of the Zumbro River in Rochester. I was excited to observe these sites from spring to summer to early fall and assess the water for potential changes! I was hopeful for rain to see how it affected the data I was collecting, but the rain didn’t come - or if it did it was exceedingly minimal. Given that 2023 was one of the hottest and driest summers on record, water levels remained low. While I didn’t exactly see certain water changes, I was anticipating, I was delighted when I noticed water plants growing, footprints of ducks and raccoons along the shoreline, saw a variety of plants and flowers blooming, heard frogs croaking and observed minnows and small fish mid-way through summer - all wonderful signs of healthy water.

Chester Woods Soil Field Day

by: Friends of Chester Woods (FOC)

On September 16, 2023, Chester Woods Park hosted a Soil Field Day. Peter Hartman with the Minnesota Driftless Chapter of The Prairie Enthusiasts conducted the Soil Field Day with a lot of help from Chester Woods volunteers and staff. Peter, a retired Soil Scientist demonstrated through six soil sites the relationships soil has with: geology (the soil parent material), plants, topography, climate, and time.

It was a beautiful September day. The Soil Field Day participants traveled between stops on the Prairie Cruiser. At the stops Peter described the soil found there. Participants saw soil profiles, the combined layers, or horizons in a soil - which were shown to be a window into the past. We saw evidence in the thick dark surface horizon that many of the soils at Chester Woods developed under prairie and savanna plant communities. We saw loamy and sandy horizons in the soil that spoke of relatively recent Wisconsin Age (60,000 to 10,000 years ago) erosion and deposition by water and wind. We saw relatively ancient pre-Illinoian (more than 500,000 years old) glacial tills that still had traces of an ancient soil in them. And we saw very ancient Ordovician Aged (488 to 444 million years old) bedrocks.

There were many handouts made to illustrate the natural features of Chester Woods Park including: the prepared presentation, maps (soils, 1850’s vegetation, bedrock, landscape boundaries), and cross-sectional diagrams of soil/soil landscape. Here is a link to these handouts.

The Prairie Enthusiasts have field trips, workdays, and conduct prescribed burns. TPE help landowners with prairie, savanna, and oak woodland restoration projects. Contact Stephen Winter at wintersl8944@gmail.com for more information about the Minnesota Driftless Chapter of TPE.

Friends of Oxbow (FOX) update