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Cedar Creek Spring Survey: *CANCELED*

posted Feb 24, 2020, 11:19 AM by Jonathan Poppele   [ updated Apr 1, 2020, 12:41 PM ]

**In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, The University of Minnesota has canceled all public events and non-essential research activity at Cedar Creek through the month of May**


**We are cancelling our April 4 survey and look forward to returning to Cedar Creek when the University reopens it for regular research activity**


It's time for the Spring Cedar Creek Wildlife Survey   

The Cedar Creek Wildlife Survey is a joint venture between the Minnesota Wildlife Tracking Project and the University of Minnesota's Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve. It is a unique opportunity to improve your tracking skills, connect with nature, and help Cedar Creek scientists learn about the wildlife living on their property. You can read about our Winter Survey here.


Saturday, April 4

View on Google Calendar
Our Spring Survey will be an all day affair. We will head out in teams to survey the roads and trails for animal tracks, then come back in to share our discoveries with one another. Each team will be led by an experienced wildlife tracker, certified in Track & Sign identification. In past years, conditions during our spring surveys have ranged from completely bare ground to several inches of fresh snow. Either way, Cedar Creek offers great substrate for getting a window into the lives of the wildlife living on the reserve. With the bison enclosure still vacant for the season, we have a broader range of places we can roam. Who knows what we will find? Here is the schedule for the day:

9:00am    Gathering at Lindman Center
9:30am    Tracking teams leave for the field
~3:00pm  Return from the field for sharing, mapping and debriefing
4:30pm    Complete


Bring your own lunches and snacks. Weather permitting, some teams may eat lunch in the field. Cedar Creek will provide coffee and snacks in the morning.


New to Tracking?

Trackers, naturalists and enthusiasts of all levels are welcome to take part in our surveys--and having some experience with track and sign interpretation is definitely helpful. If you are new to wildlife tracking and would like to learn a bit about it before joining us for a survey, join us for Tracking Club on March 15 at Ft. Snelling State Park. Get all the details here.


Registration

Registration is required. To register, email Jonathan Poppele <poppele@umn.edu> or use our contact form.

Use this link to add the event to a Google Calendar.


Want to Carpool?

We have a new tool to help coordinate carpooling. If you would like to share the trip to Cedar Creek, you can use our Group Carpool page to offer or request a ride.

Bring Your Questions

In recent surveys, our teams have identified the tracks of about 30 species including black bear, fisher, mink, red fox and grey wolf. We have been noting the behavior of deer, coyote and fox in relation to the shifting wolf population, and seeing some of our sightings verified by Cedar Creek's new network of trail cameras. And the more we learn about this landscape, the more questions arise. Some of the questions that came up after our winter survey include:
  • The deer population seemed to spike this winter, perhaps in response to a large mast crop of acorns. How did this influx of large herbivores affect other wildlife? Has there been more food on the landscape for scavengers than in a typical winter? Has this affected the movements of the foxes, coyote and fisher? Will it have an impact on the black bear's behavior as they come out of hibernation?
  • Have the deer dispersed now that other food is available in the surrounding landscape? Might this dispersal affect the wolf's behavior? Or that of the scavengers?

What questions do you have about the landscape, the animals and their behavior? We will take some time to share questions before we head out into the field.


About Cedar Creek

Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve is a 5,400 acre experimental ecological reserve operated by the University of Minnesota. It is located about 35 miles north of Minneapolis and St. Paul, just east of Bethel.

Cedar Creek lies at the boundary between prairie and forest. It is a mosaic of uplands dominated by oak savanna, prairie, hardwood forest, pine forests, and abandoned agricultural fields and of lowlands comprised of ash and cedar swamps, acid bogs, marshes, and sedge meadows. The area was first set aside in the early 1940s to be kept in its natural condition for scientific and educational purposes. Much of the land remains pristine, and has never been developed for agriculture. You can learn more at www.cedarcreek.umn.edu

The diverse, pristine habitat supports a wide variety of mammals. Species seen on the property over the Reserve's 75 year history include white-tailed jackrabbits, badger, fisher, fox squirrels, porcupine & spotted skunks. Reserve staff and scientists are looking for our help to update their index of mammals. If you are a beginner, the surveys will offer an overview of the diversity of Minnesota Mammals. For the advanced tracker, you might get to try your hand at distinguishing fisher from otter; fox squirrel from grey squirrel; and a variety of tiny mammal tracks. You can take a look at some of what our tracking teams have found on our iNaturalist Project Page, or look read about our past surveys on our blog.

The property includes 25 miles of sand roads, which catch tracks beautifully. The roads will be grated shortly before our surveys, offering optimal tracking conditions for us to locate and identify a rich diversity of species.

Public access to the Reserve is limited. The Cedar Creek Wildlife Survey program offers you the rare opportunity to explore this exceptional landscape.


Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve
2660 Fawn Lake Dr NE
Bethel, Minnesota 55005


For a map & directions to Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve, click here

Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve