Oak Savanna Restoration along an Urban River

The National Park Service led an oak savanna restoration project along a 5-acre stretch of the Mississippi River Gorge in a Minneapolis neighborhood. The project sought to eliminate the threat of exotic species, reintroduce the appropriate gorge plant community, and address erosion concerns with the collaborative effort of national and local agencies, and the advocacy of the local community. Through the project, non-native woody plants such as Buckthorn were treated with herbicide and replaced by oak savanna and native prairie plants. As a result, the amount of mesic oak savanna doubled in the metropolitan area.