Minnehaha Creek Shoreline Restoration

When contacted by our client, we were presented with some major challenges that are all too familiar along urban shorelines. The client sought to “reclaim some order”, but we also knew we were coming in as a third attempt in the past eight years to get a handle on the invasive and most troublesome Reed Canary Grass. Previous attempts including controlled burns and multiple Round-up applications had proved unsuccessful.

This two part project began on the shoreline’s upper bank with an organic sheet mulching process. For the second phase closer to the 65 foot shoreline, we opted to use thick black plastic secured firmly with deep stakes that stayed in place through an entire growing season to eliminate the Reed Canary Grass without chemicals. While using plastics is not ideal for our company, other options were limited because we were working in a highly sensitive wetland buffer zone. The recent climate pattern had brought heavy rains through mid-June, so we had to plan for high water, eliminating the option to sheet mulch close to the shoreline.

After removing the invasives, we placed large boulders for a pathway along the shoreline and planted a unique plant palette of natives suited for the wetter environment. We selected flowers of many rich textures including Sedum, Cardinal flower, Culver’s Root, and Rattlesnake Master to plant this beautiful, dynamic shoreline.

In designing and planning for a restoration project such as this, we find the most important part is not getting rid of invasives and planting the “right plants”, but the subsequent maintenance plan for the first few years. With more frequent, shorter visits in the first few seasons to keep invasive species in check here, the native plants filled in to compete with the invasives, allowing future maintenance costs to go down.

Additionally, our partnership with the Minnehaha Watershed District made this planning and installation process very easy, which helped our homeowners restore their shorelines to ecological equilibrium and make them visually appealing. We also had the pleasure of working under a family of Grey Horned owls on this site, and we were often visited by hawks, eagles, and other smaller birds that find habitat along this shoreline.