Environment | Page 52

Minneopa Falls

Minneopa Falls, Minneopa State Park, October 21, 2010. Photograph by Wikimedia Commons user McGhiever.

Sounds of Minneopa State Park, April 2017

Sounds of Minneopa State Park on a walking trail in the northern section of the park, April 8, 2017. Recorded by Karin J. Green.

Minneopa State Park, located in southern Minnesota, is Minnesota’s third-oldest state park. It was created in 1905 to preserve Minneopa Falls, a two-tiered waterfall once described as nature’s masterpiece. The park has since expanded to include Minnesota River frontage, the historic Seppman stone windmill, and a herd of American plains bison.

Flooded NWSA campus

The flooded NWSA campus during the 1920s. Earlier, it had been known to locals as a good duck-hunting grounds.

Red-headed woodpecker

Red-headed woodpecker, 2010. Photographed by Faith Balch. Used with the permission of Faith Balch and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

Oak savanna map

Map showing the extent of the oak savanna ecosystem in Minnesota created by Faith Balch. The areas colored dark green are oak savanna lands. Used with the permission of Faith Balch and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

Oak savanna in spring

Oak savanna in spring, ca. 2010. Photographed by Linda Huhn Photography. Used with the permission of Linda Huhn and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

Oak savanna in summer

Oak savanna in summer, ca. 2010. Photographed by Craig Thiesen. Used with the permission of Craig Thiesen and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

Oak savanna landscape

Helen Allison Savanna Scientific and Natural Area, Anoka County, ca. 2010. Used with the permission of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

Oak savanna

Oak savannas—open grassland studded by tall, spreading oak trees—once covered 10 percent of Minnesota, mostly in the southeast quarter of the state. They are an attractive ecosystem for animals such as deer, turkeys, and red-headed woodpeckers. Before European immigration, indigenous people valued the savannas for the good hunting they provided, fostering and maintaining them through the regular use of fire. In 2017, only about 1 percent of the savannas that existed 200 years ago remains.

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