Dellwood Nature Notes – June 2025

Dellwood Nature Notes

By Lisa Cortes
Minnesota Master Naturalist
Dellwood City Naturalist

Though June is the wettest month of the year in Dellwood, it also ushers in warmer temperatures and marks the beginning of summer. Woodlands, now lush and green, are dotted with wildflowers including wild geranium and marsh marigold. It is also a vibrant time for birds with many species nesting and fledging their young. Look for loon chicks and red-breasted merganser ducklings on White Bear Lake. You may even see baby trumpeter swans or cygnets.

Wild Geranium	Marsh marigold	Loon and chicks	Red-breasted mergansers	Trumpeter cygnets

Garden Tips

Keep your yard and woods bird and butterfly friendly by removing buckthorn. Buckthorn is a small invasive tree which degrades the woods by outcompeting with native plants and trees. It readily spreads though its ability to reseed. Birds eat the black berries in late summer and fall, spreading the seeds wherever they fly. The best time to remove buckthorn is before it produces seeds and fruit. Small buckthorn can be pulled by hand. Be sure to pull out the entire root system. For larger plants, use a weed wrench or shovel. If the buckthorn is too large to pull by hand, Cut the tree down and treat the stump with Brush and Stump Killer.

Identifying Buckthorn

Leaves are dark- green,	oval and slightly toothed.	Single, sharp thorn	Black berries

Coming soon to a woods near you!
The Dellwood Community Buckthorn Pull.

Meet your neighbors, have some treats and help rid Dellwood of an invasive tree!
Date and location to be announced soon.

Kid’s Corner

Making waves

Have you ever noticed that after a storm the water in the lake looks cloudy or murky? This happens because the wind blowing on the water makes waves and stirs up the bottom of the lake. Later, the soil settles again into layers on the bottom of the lake. Do this activity to see how soil settles.

1. Fill ¼ of a glass jar with soil. Add some small pebbles and then a scoop of dirt.
2. Fill the jar 2/3 with water.
3. Cover and shake for two minutes.
4. Set the jar down and let it sit for 20 minutes.

What do you see?  What is on the bottom of the jar? What is on top? This is what happens in lakes and rivers.