Creek near Mall of America becomes trout stream
Minnesota DNR stocks Bloomington stream with 1,450 rare brook trout
The Mall of America got the most unlikely eco-neighbor Friday – a stocking of rare native trout.
A previously unknown trout stream – with headwaters just 800 feet from Bloomingdale’s at MOA – was stocked by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources with 1,450 ecologically sensitive brook trout.
About two dozen volunteers carried 2-inch trout in pails from a special truck and gently released them into the chilly stream, which gurgles out of the ground near Old Shakopee Road and travels eight-tenths of a mile to the Minnesota River.
While jets roared overhead, the volunteers – many of whom helped clean up and study the creek – expressed amazement that a cold stream could still exist in an urban jungle.
“To be able to rehab a trout stream in a metro area is a big deal,” said Josh Tierney, a teacher at Groves Academy, a St. Louis Park school that surveyed plants in and near the stream. “And trout fishing is a big deal to me.”
The creek officially has no name, but it’s popularly called Ike’s Creek after the Izaak Walton League conservation group that raised fish in nearby ponds in the early 1900s.
The city of Bloomington and a handful of private landowners own the creek’s upper half. The lower half is part of the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge.
Two years ago, refuge biologist Vicki Sherry was surveying the creek when she noticed the water was unusually cold and saw watercress – a plant that thrives only in cold, clean water – growing abundantly.
Students at nearby Trinity School at River Ridge had collected stream water data for years, and when fisheries experts looked at the data and tested the stream, they were startled to find it pristine enough to support trout. One thing that spared the stream was Bloomington’s decision to direct its stormwater pipes away from the deep, tree-lined ravine.
The creek is fed year-round by 60-degree groundwater from limestone aquifers. It begins as a trickle, but widens to about 15 feet with small riffles and pools.
Historical documents show it supported 6- to 10-inch brook trout until the 1940s, but they disappeared for unknown reasons.
Brian Nerbonne, the DNR’s stream habitat specialist, said it is one of only 12 viable trout streams remaining in the seven-county metro. “It’s my job to protect these streams from being lost to development,” he said. “It’s the first time I’ve been able to re-create one. It’s a pretty exciting.”
The stream is not open to public fishing, but the lower portion in the wildlife refuge is open to the public. The stream was stocked with “heritage” brook trout, a species native to Minnesota since the last ice age. They should reach 8 inches in about two years. It is unknown whether the stream will ever be open to fishing.
Employees of nearby Cypress Semiconductor have picked up trash along the banks, while the Twin Cities chapter of Trout Unlimited plans additional improvements to the fish habitat.
The next step is to officially designate the creek as a trout stream, which means further development restrictions. DNR and Bloomington officials are hopeful they can reach an agreement.
“I think those issues with designation are not insurmountable,” Nerbonne said. |