Here's a helpful field guide featuring many marsh plants found in the Preserve. And click here for a slide show of over 50 native plants in the Preserve (it may take up to a minute to load).
This site guide brochure, produced by the Ramsey-Washington Metro Watershed District offers a quick overview of the Preserve, including a map.
For a bird's eye view, check out these drone shots of the Preserve from Winter 2018 (starting facing SE toward the intersection of Valley Creek Road and Radio Drive) and Summer 2018. And here’s a brief glimpse of fall colors in Autumn 2022 from a drone video taken by Bob McSherry of the South Washington County Telecommunications Commission.
Familiarize yourself to avoid these toxic plants
History and geology buffs will find this survey from 1999 of interest
Nationally recognized botanist and author, Dr. Robert Mohlenbrock of Southern Illinois University, visited the Tamarack Nature Preserve over the course of 13 years, and published an article in his This Land column of the September 2021 issue of Natural History magazine. He describes the Tamarack Nature Preserve as a “bog fen,” a rare wetland combination that the Minnesota DNR classifies as a “Rich Southern Coniferous Swamp.” Bogs are rain-fed, acidic, and nutrient-poor for plant growth. In contrast, fens are fed at least in part by mineral-rich ground water and have a more basic pH. Different plant species are found in each, but the peat wetland at Tamarack Nature Preserve is a rare combination of both. Here, groundwater rich in minerals seeps into the bog wetland, and bog and fen plant species occur together. For a link to the video recording of a presentation given by Dr. Mohlenbrock in February 2022, click here
LEARNING & SHARING
We recommend several helpful apps that are easily accessible to Mac and Android technology users. They serve as more comprehensive field guides and phenology lists for the Tamarack Nature Preserve. These apps allow individuals to record their sightings, identify what they've seen and share their observations with others, helping us all learn more about this unique wetland, as a community. We hope you'll share what you find!
iNaturalist is a free app, developed by the California Academy of Sciences. It is extremely helpful in identifying wild living things of all types (small plants, trees, birds, insects, reptiles, amphibians, mammals, fish, butterflies - even fungi and lichens), and engages a global community of scientists and avid naturalists to confirm observations. The app features a specific Project called "Tamarack Nature Preserve in Woodbury, Minnesota." Visitors are encouraged to make observations of wild plants and animals they spot in the Preserve - using a smartphone or tablet - and tag them to this Project. Click here for a link to iNaturalist training tutorials.
eBird is a free app, developed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. There is a Tamarack Nature Preserve "hot spot" within the eBird app, which suggests birds that are likely to be spotted at a given time. As with iNaturalist, eBird allow individuals to record their sightings and share them with others. Here's a handy "how to" for eBird users.