April in Frontenac State Park
Frontenac State Park Association Newsletter
April 2023 (Vol. 1, No. 1)
SPRING’S MESSY INCUBATOR
WELCOME to the inaugural issue of the Frontenac State Park Association newsletter. We’re a group of volunteers who work with park managers Jake Gaster and Amy Jay to support the park’s mission. We greet and guide visitors at special events, clear fallen branches from the campground, pick up litter in the floodplain, plant trees, lead nature walks, and collect and spread native seeds.
Now we’re expanding our mission to include more educational activities for everyone interested in the park, not just our members. Down the road, we’ll do extra outreach to young people and to our area’s growing minority and immigrant populations.
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE PARK
RISING ABOVE Lake Pepin, a wide swath of the Mississippi River, Frontenac State Park is located in Florence Township in Goodhue County, south of Red Wing, about an hour’s drive from Rochester or the Twin Cities. It’s part of the so-called Driftless Area, which generally lacks the glacial deposits called drift because it escaped being flattened by glaciers in the last ice age.
Created in 1957, the park has been growing ever since. Its habitats include prairie, hardwood and floodplain forests, as well as lake/riverfront and, of course, the magnificent bluffs of the Driftless. Before European settlers arrived, it was home to Indigenous peoples, most recently the Dakota. (Some of those original inhabitants’ wise ways, such as seasonal burns, are now part of park practices.) Trails range from easy, meandering prairie paths amid wind-swayed native plants to tricky and dramatic switchbacks on bluffside slopes.
FUN FACT OF THE MONTH
VISITORS may spot remnants of the era when part of the park was farmland. Here and there, barbed wire pokes from stately old bur oak trees. In late summer, apple trees are weighed down with heirloom eating apples — at least on the higher branches where the deer can’t get them. And yes, you may even find small patches of what looks like marijuana — remnants of the hemp fields common here in the early 20th century. (Leave it alone, dude — it’s got almost no THC and will just give you a headache.)
APRIL IN THE PARK
WHAT'S TO SEE at the park in April? Where do we begin? The chill and mud of April make it spring’s mighty incubator. Wear your mud boots and bring your binoculars! Thrilling sights greet birders as the spring migration goes into full swing.
Frontenac is the undisputed capital of Minnesota’s warbler migration, including the Prothonotary Warbler, and more than 260 other bird species, such as Eastern Bluebirds, American White Pelicans, Tundra Swans, American Avocets, the Tufted Titmouse, Sandhill Cranes and threatened species like the Henslow’s Sparrow pass through or settle in here.
Spring ephemerals begin to brighten the deceptively drab landscape, from the pasque flowers on the prairies to bloodroot, hepatica and Dutchman’s breeches in the not-yet-leafed-out woods. In damp corners of the park, early mushrooms, including the beautiful scarlet elfin cup and turkey tail fungi, peek out of the duff.
Whitetail does grow heavy with fawns that will be born in May or June, while most bucks have shed their antlers. And in their discreet dens, coyotes are giving birth to five to seven kits that will begin stumbling out into the sunlight in a few weeks. (Listen for coyotes locating and communicating with each other as they howl late at night, especially after trains sound their whistles while passing through Frontenac Station.) Beavers and muskrats can often be seen at Sand Point in the early morning or evening.
CITIZEN SCIENCE
MANY VERY GOOD APPS are out there to enhance your nature experience. Perhaps the best is iNaturalist, which you can download for free, and which collects sighting information sometimes used by researchers, who can’t be everywhere at once. Every entry in FSP will become part of a Frontenac State Park project. Check it out to see the more than 250 species that have been reported so far in the Park. Other great apps are Cornell University’s free eBird and Merlin bird ID apps, Picture This for plants, and Picture Mushrooms.
WANT TO PARTICIPATE?
You don’t have to be a member of the Frontenac State Park Association to join our activities. We welcome your company, occasional help and insights. Here are some of our upcoming events and activities. More information about each of these is on our website. There is no need to register — just show up, but check the website or Facebook if you have questions or doubts about the weather.
EARTH DAY, April 22
Most years, the park’s Sand Point Trail floods, leaving behind lots of debris, most of it plastic. We’d love your help in cleaning up some of it on Earth Day (flood conditions willing). The FSPA will provide information, equipment and snacks at the trailhead. Park entry is free for everyone on Earth Day. Meet at the Sand Point trail parking lot at 9:30 am.
BIRD WALKS
Beginning on April 15th, bird walks will be led by Master Naturalist Volunteers every other week. A complete list is here. Note that different walks start at different sites.
TREE-PLANTING MONTH, May 17
We could use your help planting some new trees in the camping area, especially as this task will be more intensive after the loss of so many ash trees to emerald ash borer. Meet at the main parking lot at 4:30 pm.
JUNE FAMILY-FRIENDLY ART ACTIVITY
On the 10th Artist and Master Naturalist Volunteer Heidi Bacon will lead art activities up top, next to the kids' nature play area. Park entry is free on this day.
JULY SUSTAINABLE TRAILS
Did you know that FSP helps oversee the Hay Creek Forest Management Unit? In July, Park Manager Jake Gaster will lead a walk at Hay Creek and talk about sustainable trail construction.
AUGUST BIOBLITZ
August 19th will bring a brand new event to the Park: We plan to hold a bioblitz, during which teams of volunteers work with knowledgeable leaders to identify as many species as they can throughout the Park. It’s a great way to learn and a great way for the Park to learn from you about what is happening when and where in the Park.
INTERESTED?
We’d love to have your support. If you’d like to join the FSP Association dues are $30 per year. And coming for an occasional event is awesome as well. We’d love either! We aim to share our love of Frontenac State Park with as many people as possible.
Sign up for this newsletter here.
LAST BUT NOT LEAST…
Here’s a poem for this messy, life-incubating month. Happy April, everyone! -- Pam
April Poem by Sara Teasdale
(American; 1884-1933)
The sparrows twitter as they fly,
And with a windy April grace
The little clouds go by.
Yet the back-yards are bare and brown
With only one unchanging tree –
I could not be so sure of Spring
Save that it sings in me.
HANDY LINKS FOR MORE INFORMATION AND EDUCATION
Frontenac State Park website
Frontenac State Park Association website
If you take pictures in the Park, tag us on Instagram
Frontenac State Park bird checklist
Frontenac State Park on iNaturalist
Website for our township, Florence Township
Minnesota Master Naturalist program
Red Wing Environmental Learning Center
Lake City Environmental Learning Program on FB
THANKS TO OUR MEMBERS
Carol Bleizeffer, Steve Dietz (President), Barbara and Jim Fleishman, Linda Eisterhold-Karli (Treasurer), Kathleen Herron, Richard Herron, Debra Jeske, Deane Karli, Mary Kloepping, Janet Malotky, Pamela Miller (Newsletter editor), Jeneann Nolting Oppedahl, Nathan Oppedahl, Barb Partington (Secretary), Lee Partington, Harry Roberts, Brian Schrieber, Wally Siewert, Andrea Swanson
FSP Staff
Jake Gaster, Park Manager; Amy Jay, Assistant Park Manager; Amy Poss, Lead field worker