Crystal Woman Leads City’s Battle Against Buckthorn
Rachel Braaten, a resident of Crystal, is looking for a few good volunteers to help her fight against buckthorn.
“Buckthorn completely takes over,” said Braaten. “And if you have an area that’s heavily infested in buckthorn, it’s pretty much the only thing you find.”
Braaten is the woman behind Crystal’s Volunteer Habitat Restoration Program; she’s on a mission to remove buckthorn from Hagemeister Pond Natural Area.
Left unchecked, the invasive tree can spread like wildfire and disrupt native plants.
It’s why Braaten and other volunteers have come to the park every summer for the last four years to clear as much buckthorn as they can.
“When we first started doing the habitat restoration, you could not see 15 feet in from here because the buckthorn was so thick,” Braaten said, pointing out an area where they’ve done restoration work.
She and her group have made progress over the years, but the battle is far from over.
Some sections of the park are covered in buckthorn, which is why Braaten is asking for help.
“I want to build community about keeping our habitat here in Crystal in perpetuity,” she said.
Braaten and the volunteers use tools to cut the buckthorn into stumps about four feet high.
But soon after, shoots pop out of those stumps.
Rachel Braaten holds a buckthorn stump in Crystal’s Hagemeister Pond Nature Area.
“What people can do, when they’re walking through the park and they see that these shoots are coming out of these stumps, they can just take them off,” she said while removing small sprouts from a stump.
It’s called defoliation, and over time, defoliation weakens the buckthorn’s roots.
“And maybe next year, maybe the year after, we’ll be able to just push this stump over,” she said.
A little effort that can go a long way to restoring the park’s natural habitat.
The volunteer group’s last buckthorn battle will take place on July 31 at Hagemeister Pond Nature Area from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Anyone is welcome to join. Participants should wear close-toed shoes, long pants and long-sleeved shirts.
If you can’t join the volunteer effort, Braaten encourages folks to take part in buckthorn defoliation.
Rachel Braaten (far left) and other volunteers from Crystal’s Wildlife Habitat Restoration Program. Photo Courtesy: City of Crystal
Related: Plymouth Brings in Goats To Get Rid of Buckthorn
