Ramsey County Plant Survey

Beginning in Spring 2008, a plant survey is being conducted in selected areas of Ramsey County. Wildflowers, trees, ferns, grasses and sedges are all targeted for cataloging. This project is sponsored by Ramsey County Parks and Recreation.

What you can do to help

It's easy: just go to one of the selected parks and record what you see growing there.

No experience necessary, no long-term commitment

Spend as little or as much time as you like, from a 1-time outing to year-round. If you are a beginner at plant identification, information can be provided to get you started. A digital camera and GPS tracker are helpful, but not required.

The only requirements are:

• Be able to read a map
• Be able to positively identify plant species
• Email your findings in a timely manner - within a week of your outing if at all possible. An Excel spreadsheet or Word doc is desireable, as are Open Office documents, PDFs, RTFs, and plain text files. HTML email is not accepted.
• You're mindful of where you tread in your efforts to collect info. We don't want to inadvertently destroy that which we wish to preserve, so try to disturb the sites as little as possible.

Reporting requirements are simple. For each species list:

• The date spotted
• Scientific name, and optionally common name
• The location—which park and location within the park.
  • For common plants, a general location within the park is sufficient.
  • For uncommon plants, either GPS coordinates or approximate grid reference from the map (see maps below) are needed.
• Any special notes or observations you care to make.
• You may want to record how much time you spent, as well.

You can keep a running list and send it in each time it's updated. See a suggested report (pdf).

If you see something you are unsure of, please do not guess, but either leave it for someone else to record, or take some photos, note the location, and email it in so someone may help identify it.

About Trash

In your saunter through the park you may come upon trash scattered here and there. You are not obligated to do any trash collection on your outing, but it is your choice. I sometimes take a trash bag and garden gloves with me, but don't go out of my way to pick up trash. If I did, I wouldn't get anything else done.

If you come across a trash dump or other problems, it's much appreciated if you would report it to Ramsey County Parks at (651) 748-2500. If you come across any suspicious material or activity, call 911 and request law enforcement to investigate. Ramsey County Sheriff is responsible for law enforcement at all parks except Long Lake Regional Park. The New Brighton Police Department is responsible there.

Survey locations

The following parks are targeted for the survey:

1. Long Lake Regional Park
   • map 155KB
   • aerial map 321KB)
2. Vadnais/Snail Lake Regional Park
   • map 280KB
   • Grass Lake aerial map 343KB
   • Sucker Lake aerial map 325KB
3. Rice Creek Trail Corridor
   • map 419KB
   • Rice Creek North aerial map 371KB
   • Rice Creek South aerial map 374KB
4. Battle Creek Regional Park
   • map 226KB
   • Battle Creek West aerial map 375KB
   • Battle Creek East aerial map 320KB
5. Bald Eagle/Otter Lake Regional Park
   • map 340KB
   • Bald Eagle Lake aerial map 319KB
   • Otter Lake aerial map 321KB

Use whatever maps work best for you. Other maps are available on the Ramsey County Parks and Recreation web site.

Please contact me, Katy Chayka, if you'd like to donate some time to this project.

Email: kchayka@c-net.us
Phone: (651) 399-4064