Gravel beds for the future
We want to grow climate resilient trees, not just plant them. So how do we ensure saplings have a better chance of survival? By nurturing their roots in a giant gravel bed tree nursery!
Mississippi Park Connection and the Science Museum of Minnesota were honored with a Climate Adaptation Award at the Minnesota Climate Adaptation Partnership Conference in January. Together, we launched a major effort to establish a gravel bed tree nursery and educate the public about the benefits of using them to grow climate resilient trees.
A gravel bed tree nursery, also known as a community tree nursery, is an irrigated bed of small rocks that stores bare root trees. These trees are planted in a foot of gravel in the springtime, irrigated during the summer, and replanted in their “forever homes” in the fall. Gravel enables the trees to develop roots that are three times heartier than they were in the spring. This drastically increases their chance of survival by reducing transplant shock at the time of planting and increasing their water and nutrient uptake.
Roots in the spring.
Roots in the fall after spending the summer in a gravel bed nursery.
With partners and volunteers, we have installed 7 gravel bed nurseries in the last three years between Minneapolis and Cottage Grove, capable of housing about 2,000 young trees and shrubs. Trees grown in these gravel beds will be planted in the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area to replace ash trees lost to Emerald Ash Borer. To date, we have planted 8,800 trees with the National Park Service, volunteers and partners—more than halfway to our goal of 15,000 trees by 2021! These new plantings are diverse tree species intended to withstand Minnesota's changing climate, such as silver maple, northern catalpa, cottonwood, hackberry, river birch, and swamp white oak.
Our Mississippi River Crew, in partnership with Conservation Corps of Minnesota and Iowa, installed the first gravel bed in front of the Science Museum of Minnesota in 2017.
Thanks to our project partners who make this work possible:
Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science, Science Museum of Minnesota, Saint Paul Natural Resources, City of Saint Paul Forestry, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, National Park Service, The Raptor Center, the City of Cottage Grove, Urban Roots, and Surly Brewery.
And to our funding partners:
3M, MPCA - EA Fund, National Environmental Education Foundation, McNeely Foundation, The Mcknight Foundation, Mortenson Family Foundation, Patagonia, Surly Gives a Damn, Tennant Foundation, The Wildlife Conservation Society’s Climate Adaptation Fund made possible through the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and Mississippi Park Connection’s members.