There's more on the loss the City of North Mankato's crusade against an established natural lawn at the Star Tribune, where John Reinan reports North Mankato man's natural yard is no nuisance, court rules and the local television station's Marissa Keyes reports Court rules in favor of North Mankato homeowner and his natural yard.
The latter article closes with:
North Mankato officials say they need to take some time before responding.
“It is a public nuisance, and we believe that the court sided with the city, however, they didn’t, and again now we just need to investigate what options we have moving forward,” North Mankato Community Development Director Michael Fischer explained.
Three keen-eyed local sources in the North Mankato area tipped us off yesterday about a possibly related action the City took. Certainly, it happened after the appeals court issued its opinion.
But following our reports in July: North Mankato lawn wars: local man cuts lawn buckthorn suckers, sees buckthorn in city park
and Another dispatch from North Mankato lawn wars: City removes buckthorn in Spring Lake Park and our observation in our Monday post:
Meanwhile, we're wondering whether the City of North Mankato has attended to its own buckthorn problem we last posted about on August 23 in North Mankato lawn wars: resident maps buckthorn in Bluff Park, citizens badger council.
. . .we received news--along with photos--Tuesday that North Mankato had attended to the Spring Lake Park buckthorn problem in the worst possible way.
The city had brought in a commercial tree service crew with a brush hog to remove all vegetarian under the park's trees, reducing the chopped underbrush to mulch. Everyone who has battled buckthorn, as we have, will respond with a facepalm.
As North Mankato resident Tom Hagen, the source of our photos, wrote in an email to City Council members:
Today, a city hired tree service used a brush hog to destroy ALL the vegetation other than mature trees on the western slope of Spring Lake Park. The goal was evidently to remove buckthorn. In the process an entire ecosystem was destroyed. But the worst part is that this action will actually ENCOURAGE buckthorn growth. The stumps will resprout with multiple stems in the spring and buckthorn seeds are now under a layer of dried plant mulch …ideal condition for sprouting next year. Was the council aware of this ignorant act? The cost would have been less and the result permanent if individual plants had been cut and the stumps treated. (check with the DNR about the efficacy) Does no one at city hall ever check with people knowledgeable in the field BEFORE they act?? Can anyone explain this mindless act to me?
More in the photos: on the slopes, the tree service cut oak, maple, cottonwood and other plants, not just buckthorn by hand:
What the forest floor looked like before the brushhog action:
After the brushhog:
Sometimes, we can't even. Maybe the city might consider asking the retired botany professor (or the DNR) what to do here.
Related posts:
- North Mankato lawn wars: MN Court of Appeals opinion reverses city resolution against natural lawn as unsupported by the record
- North Mankato lawn wars: resident maps buckthorn in Bluff Park, citizens badger council
- Another dispatch from North Mankato lawn wars: City removes buckthorn in Spring Lake Park
- North Mankato lawn wars: local man cuts lawn buckthorn suckers, sees buckthorn in city park
- Mankato Free Press: Borchardts' North Mankato lawn war case heard in Minnesota appeals court
- North Mankato lawn wars: City Council passes natural yards ordinance limiting pollinator habitat
- North Mankato natural lawn fight update: Borchardt sues city for public nuisance order
- Buzz kill: North Mankato Planning Commission not so much into lawns to legumes
- North Mankato declares “Monarch Wayfair” lawn a public nuisance from “infestation of the premises by plants, animals, and birds”
- Strib picks up North Mankato lawn police story
Photos: A brushhog rips up the ecosystem under trees in North 9above). A pile of underbrush (below). Submitted.
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