Document: VIR-3-41-11

Reconstructing the historic ecosystems of Swede Hollow, Minnesota: An investigation in urban paleoecology.

CARD, V.*

Metropolitan State University, St. Paul, MN 55106, USA ¹

Abstract:
Swede Hollow is a small valley in St. Paul, Minnesota, about ten hectares in size, fifteen to thirty meters deep and one kilometer upstream from the Mississippi River. Swede Hollow was settled in the 1840's and abandoned in the 1950's, with a maximum occupancy estimated at 200 people. As part of the multi-stakeholder Lower Phalen Creek Restoration Plan, the goals for Swede Hollow include the reconstruction of its 'historic ecosystems'. While this is not an unambiguous concept, one component of it is almost certainly the identification of the pre-settlement plant communities. It was the goal of this project to identify the plant communities present in Swede Hollow before European-American settlement in the mid-1800's, and this goal was incorporated into the design of Ecology labs at Metropolitan State University in the spring of 1999 and 2000. Students in the class collected data on the current composition and distribution of woody plants in Swede Hollow, analyzed size-class distributions of mixed species groves, examined historical records and photographs, and visited analogous sites in other nearby valleys. Paleoecological analysis of pond sediments was not possible because the ponds are less than 40 years old. Results suggest that the area supported oak woodland on the uppermost slopes, mesic oak forest on middle to lower slopes, and floodplain forest on the valley floor. Dry cliff vegetation may have existed on the patches of exposed sandstone and limestone. Former house sites were identifiable by the presence of stonework and ornamental exotics such as catalpa, buckthorn, honeysuckle and mock-orange.

Keywords: paleoecology

This abstract is being presented at: 3:15 PM in session:
Oral Session #32: Paleoecology.