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Mounds View Silver View Park Pond
<br />Nonnative Woodland - Desired Future Conditions Overview
<br />BUR OAK —
<br />PIN OAK
<br />WOODLAND
<br />Vegetation
<br />Layer
<br />Cover
<br />Representative Plant Species
<br />Canopy
<br />>50
<br />Bur oak, white oak, black cherry, hackberry, American elm, aspen,
<br />cottonwood, red pine
<br />Shrub/Sapling
<br />10-25
<br />Black raspberry, red -berried elder, gooseberry, chokecherry, American
<br />hazelnut, gray dogwood, Virginia creeper
<br />Bottlebrush grass, silky wild rye, Pennsylvania sedge, Sprengel's sedge,
<br />Herbaceous
<br />common woodland sedge, white snakeroot, violets, enchanter's
<br />75-100
<br />nightshade, false Solomon's seal, Clayton's sweet cicely, wild geranium,
<br />(Ground)
<br />lopseed, large -leaved aster, wild columbine, calico aster, arrowleaf aster,
<br />zig-zag goldenrod, tall bellflower, black-eyed Susan
<br />3.3 Lowland Hardwoods Existing Cover Type
<br />The lowland hardwoods cover type was mapped across a total of 3.5 acres of the project area. About 2
<br />acres occurred within very narrow strips along the pond shoreline. An aerial photo from 1991, Figure 4,
<br />illustrates that much of the hardwood cover along the shoreline has established over the last 30 years.
<br />Along some stretches of shoreline in 2023, this cover type was essentially only a couple of feet wide with
<br />trees and shrubs rooted in vertical banks and much of the canopy cover over water. Along other
<br />stretches, there were steep banks that dropped off from the mowed trail edges. The banks were covered
<br />by native shrubs but lacked ground cover below. Much of the steep -banked shoreline that did not have
<br />herbaceous ground cover was eroded and bare.
<br />Lowland hardwood canopy cover varied but was generally 50-75%. Boxelder was most common in the
<br />canopy, with occasional cottonwood, Siberian elm, and amur chokecherry. River birch and Amur
<br />chokecherry appear to have been intentionally planted around the pond. Other native trees that occur in
<br />this cover type, though infrequently, included paper birch, quaking aspen, black walnut, hackberry, silver
<br />maple, and black cherry. Invasive trees that occur occasionally throughout the lowland hardwoods were
<br />white mulberry, white poplar, and Siberian elm. In addition to Amur chokecherry, nonnative weeping
<br />willow and crabapple trees were present as well. Saplings of all the native canopy species were observed
<br />in the understory. One 4-inch bur oak was observed along the north shoreline in the understory.
<br />Common buckthorn and glossy buckthorn were the most common shrubs, comprising nearly continuous
<br />cover in much of the mapped lowland hardwood areas. They have formed thickets that significantly limit
<br />shoreline views of the pond from the paved trail and have also significantly restricted or eliminated native
<br />shrub and herbaceous plant growth. Buckthorn thickets also occurred under lowland hardwoods
<br />Project Number: 193806465 12
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