NEWS, UPDATES, AND NATURE NOTES
Our Winter 2023 Newsletter has just been published! December 16, 2023
Watch the Legacy of Stewardship video, test your squirrel and acorn knowledge in the nature trivia, and learn about our ongoing efforts to track changes in bird diversity.
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Our Spring 2023 Newsletter has just been published!
May 25, 2023
Learn more about the oak tree flowers, the featured native plant, bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis), and city staff member and Cullen project manager, Matt Kumka. Don't forget to partipate in the nature quiz! |
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Our Winter 2022-2023 Newsletter has just been published!
December 14, 2022
Learn more about the Friends' work on the island, why oaks are keystone plants, and the featured native plant, poke milkweed (Asclepias exaltata). Don't forget to partipate in the nature quiz! |
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Our Spring 2022 Newsletter has just been published!May 28, 2022
Learn more about the oak savanna restoration, forthcoming volunteer opportunities, and the featured native plant - Aquilegia canadensis. Don't forget to partipate in the nature quiz! Read the newsletter. Click on the additional links below to learn more about the oak savanna restoration. |
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Our Winter 2021-2022 Newsletter has just been published!March 1, 2022
Learn more about the oak savanna restoration, forthcoming volunteer opportunities, and the featured native plant - Geranium maculatum. Don't forget to partipate in the nature quiz! Read the newsletter. Click on the additional links below to learn more about the restoration. |
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Friends of Cullen Featured in Hennepin County Green Notes Newsletter
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April 20, 2021
Friends of Cullen Featured in a Sun Sailor Newspaper Article
The Friends recently met with a local reporter, Kristen Miller of the Sun Sailor, during one of our bird survey events to talk about our Friends group and Ann Cullen Smith's vision for the property.
The article, linked below, includes a historical aerial photo of the property and house that Bill Cullen (son of Ann Cullen Smith) shared with us. Bill was also interviewed for the article.
Click Here to Read the Sun Sailor Article
The article, linked below, includes a historical aerial photo of the property and house that Bill Cullen (son of Ann Cullen Smith) shared with us. Bill was also interviewed for the article.
Click Here to Read the Sun Sailor Article
April 10, 2021
State DNR Grant Prepared by the Friends of Cullen Awards the City of Minnetonka with $45,000 to Restore Nine Acres of the Preserve
We just learned that the Department of Natural Resources CPL Expedited grant application prepared by the Friends on behalf of the City of Minnetonka was approved for funding. The City of Minnetonka will receive $45,000 to restore nine acres of the preserve to oak savanna. This grant is in addition to the $25,000 grant awarded by Hennepin County. With City matching funds and the in-kind volunteer contribution by the Friends, we will be allocating $100,000 to fund the ecological restoration of the preserve!
March 15, 2021
County Grant Prepared by the Friends of Cullen Awards the City of Minnetonka with $25,000 to Restore Five Acres of the Preserve
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The grant application prepared by the Friends on behalf of the City of Minnetonka was recommended for approval by the grant committee to the County Board. If approved by the board, the City of Minnetonka will receive $25,000 from Hennepin County as part of the Good Steward Grant. We were one of six out of eighteen applicants awarded funds that applied for water and natural resource restoration projects! This grant funding will restore five acres on the west side of the property to oak savanna. More information. |
June 14, 2020
Biological Control of Purple Loosestrife
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By Jerrold Gershone, Board Member
The southern portion of the Cullen Nature Preserve is a marsh. There are a number of invasive plants that have choked the native flora in the marsh such as reed canary grass and purple loosestrife. Fortunately, there are a few types of beetles used for biological control of purple loosestrife.
Some of these biological control insects feed on the plant's leaves, another on the flowers (preventing the plant from producing seed), and a fourth bores into the plant's roots. In some exciting news, the City has contracted with Fortin Consulting to release one of these beetle at the marsh at Cullen. As long as a released population has a food source (purple loosestrife) it will remain in the area helping to combat the invasive plant. We look forward to seeing a reduction of the purple loosestrife population at the Preserve in the next few years if this release was successful. We can hope for the day when we have a biological control for garlic mustard and buckthorn! To learn more about the biological of purple loosestrife in Minnesota, click on the following link to the Minnesota DNR website: https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/aquaticplants/purpleloosestrife/biocontrol.html |
May 27, 2020
Spring Bird Surveys
Veery © Russ Sandstrom
Red-bellied Woodpecker © Russ Sandstrom
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By Rita Sandstrom, Board Member
The Friends continue to work with the City and County on the habitat management/restoration plan. Part of the plan involves getting a baseline of flora and fauna.
While removing invasive plants, we have been documenting the plants for the vegetation survey and to date, 86 species have been documented. We are posting photos of the plants found on our iNaturalist project page; check it out by going to this link https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/cullen-nature-preserve-project We have done a number of spring bird surveys as well. The preserve is still in a degraded state with massive buckthorn infestations, but we are encouraged to see as many species (flora and fauna) as we do. These plant and bird surveys will help us establish a pre restoration baseline so we can track the changes in species diversity over time. We have learned from members of the Cullen family that red-headed woodpeckers and meadowlarks were once commonplace on the property. Much of the property will be restored to savanna, the redheaded woodpecker's ideal habitat. In addition, the large oaks could provide a number of nesting cavities for this species in decline. Are you interested in helping with bird surveys? Connect with us. |
January 14, 2020
Aging the Majestic Oaks at the Preserve with Naturalist Larry Wade
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By Jerrold Gershone, Board Member
We hosted a winter snowshoe and animal tracking event at the Preserve this week with naturalist Larry Wade. We also aged some of the large oaks at the Preserve, measuring their diameter at breast height (dbh). Then, we used a specific formula for the tree species to calculate the tree's age. The white oak pictured here was 111 inches in diameter and was a sprouting acorn in 1844 or in other words, is 176 years old!
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November 24, 2019
Managing Invasive Plants at the Preserve
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By Jerrold Gershone, Board Member
We had an excellent turnout for our restoration event this weekend—thirteen people attended. The weather was perfect for working on European buckthorn, an invasive plant at the Preserve.
Volunteers made great progress on the southwest facing oak savanna hillside. Special thanks to Janet and Melissa from the Minnetonka Natural Resources for demonstrating their latest tool in the buckthorn battle. It's a pellet injector used on buckthorn above 2.5 inches in diameter. It slowly but surely kills the tree and saves a lot of labor. |
November 7, 2019
Protecting Outdoor Heritage in Minnetonka
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On Wednesday, October 30th I went to a great event at the Ridgedale Library that showed how the community is working to protect and restore its open spaces.
The event--Celebrating Cullen Nature Preserve—was put on by a new local community group, The Friends of the Cullen Preserve. The preserve itself, which I’ve written about before, is a 30-acre plot located next to Interstate 494 that was acquired by the city from a longtime resident in 2015. Link to full article |
June 12, 2019
Bringing Native Plants Back to Minnetonka
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During the month of May, I worked to help improve the Cullen Nature Preserve in Minnetonka. The preserve is 30 acres of woods and wetlands that Ann Cullen Smith sold to the City of Minnetonka to be preserved in perpetuity as a natural site for the whole community.
To have the biggest possible impact on improving this property, I partnered with the City of Minnetonka and the Friends of the Cullen Nature Preserve, a volunteer group of local residents dedicated to restoring the preserve to its native state and transforming it into a valuable community asset. Read full article |
May 24, 2019
Oak Seedlings Bring Hope for the Future
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by Angela Moreira, Board Member
The Friends had another successful volunteer event at the Preserve yesterday. Only a handful of garlic mustard was present and pulled by our dedicated team. While searching for garlic mustard, we observed several wildflowers including wild geranium, bloodroot, early meadow rue, wild strawberry, and jack in the pulpit. We also saw many oak acorns sending their long root shoots into the ground, and the ones in the lead were producing their first set of leaves. While the dominant tree at the Preserve is oak, many are very old (some aged to pre Civil War decades), and very few young oaks exist. Restoration efforts that include removing invasive plants such as European buckthorn and garlic mustard, prescribed fire, and seeding of native plants will help foster oak regeneration. |