Kinsel Park restoration
Kinsel Park is a 19.5-acre community preserve park north of Glen Lake and south of Excelsior Boulevard. It’s a passive-use park with hiking trails through mixed woods and a cattail/willow marsh. Most of the park is marsh, but it is bordered by upland woods on the east, north and west sides. Only two acres of the park are developed, with features that provide parking, access, picnic tables and a small gazebo shelter.
Kinsel Park habitat restoration began several years ago when the Glen Lake Optimists and local Boy Scouts volunteered to partner with the city to remove invasive buckthorn from the woods west of the marsh. Buckthorn removal and subsequent tree loss from wind storms created a much more open look in the woodland understory—and a place for weeds to thrive.
The 2007 park renewal process resulted in two outcomes: a new boardwalk that was built through the marsh in early 2008, and a plan for habitat restoration in five areas.
The first restoration planting was completed in October 2008 by volunteer Boy Scouts, led by Hopkins High School Senior Mike Hirl. Together with a few neighbors and city of Minnetonka natural resources staff, they planted 55 trees and 30 shrubs in the woods west of the marsh. Prior to planting, many hours were donated by the same groups to prepare the site by removing perennial weeds, especially bitter nightshade, motherwort and burdock. The new plants were container-grown trees and shrubs raging in height from one to ten feet tall. All plantings were mulched and protected from deer and rodents with wire plant cages.
The species chosen for the west woods of Kinsel Park were selected from the big woods forest community, characterized by sugar maple and basswood trees in the canopy. The species planted grow together naturally in the big woods and will tolerate the shade canopy of existing boxelder trees in the park. The new trees are intended to outlive and ultimately replace the boxelders. The diversity of the new native plantings will add excellent fall color and wildlife value to the Kinsel woods.
City staff extend thanks to the three Minnetonka residents who donated many hours to the fall planting project: Michael Hirl and Randal and Elizabeth Neal.
Buckthorn cutting completed
In December 2008, the last remaining buckthorn trees were removed from Kinsel Park by a restoration contractor and a Minnetonka work crew. The last to be cut were in the east woods and the marsh. Buckthorn brush was recycled in upland areas by chipping it back into the woods on site. While the results look very nice, many buckthorn and weed seedlings will germinate in the future from the seed bank in the soil, starting the battle with invasive species over again.
What’s next?
Minnetonka restoration staff plans to work with volunteers and contractors to control the next generations of invasive species and carry out new planting projects along the north perimeter of the marsh and along Kinsel Road. Volunteers are needed to help ID and hand pull invasive species and spread mulch. If you’d like to help, please call Janet Van Sloun Larson at 952.988.8423.
Notable Kinsel Park trees
If you visit, there are a few large trees in Kinsel worth seeing. Three large, wide-crowned bur oak trees grace the open lawn in the northeast corner of the park, remnants from the oak woodland and savanna of pioneer days. The largest known ponderosa pine tree in Minnetonka stands south of the trail in the southeast corner of the park. Ponderosa pine is native to the western United States, and this large tree was likely planted by a settler.
