Rare Rewards

As a natural resource specialist for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources’ Scientific and Natural Areas Unit, I often am in the field at SNAs around the state. The most enjoyable field days have good weather, for sure, but are often also characterized by beloved places, great company, and the excitement of the unknown. On a classic summer day in late August, I headed into Mille Lacs Moraine Scientific and Natural Area near Garrison with three colleagues and a goal in mind: to find undocumented rare aquatic plant species in a lake in the SNA.

The day was already beginning to warm up as we carried our kayaks down a hill to the lake with excitement for our task ahead, mixed with the dread of knowing we’d be carrying them back up when we were done. Though it was late in the season, biting insects were plentiful. By the time SNA technician Natasha Schmid, naturalist Arika McGraw, and I made our second trip down to the lake with our supplies, Courtney Schirmers, an aquatic botanist for the DNR’s Minnesota Biological Survey, was in her kayak, not 10 feet from shore, and had already found a plant listed by the state as a species of special concern, slender naiad, previously unknown to the site. Slender naiad is as delicate as the name implies, with thread-like leaves radiating from a central stem. In the sunlight it almost seems luminescent green, floating just underneath the water’s surface.

The thrill of discovery prodded the rest of us to jump in our boats and join Courtney. A short time later, Courtney made another discovery: a state endangered pondweed known in only 10 other lakes in Minnesota. “I just knew this site was going to be good!” she exclaimed.

“I just knew” isn’t an offhanded comment. Courtney and others like her in the DNR do know—they combine years of training and experience, scour multiple sources for available data, talk to colleagues and local experts, and do extensive fieldwork to “just know” the possibilities of finding rare species on a site. This “knowing” is valuable to the SNA Unit as we strive to achieve our lofty goal of preserving the best examples of Minnesota’s natural heritage on these special patches of public land.

Created in 1969 by state statute, scientific and natural areas protect natural features including undisturbed plant communities, rare species habitat, seasonal havens for birds and animals, and geologic formations at 171 locations across the state, totaling over 193,000 acres.

Each SNA is established by the DNR commissioner through a designation order, and several orders contain the phrase “potential habitat for rare plant and animal species.” That potential is just as important to protect as the rare features that we know about, since it’s impossible to fully survey every site before we protect it as an SNA.

DNR staff continually visit sites not only to check up on known habitats, species, and features but also to survey for new ones. That means lots of preparatory work followed by field days that sometimes turn up exciting new species records. As Courtney did on that late August day, DNR staff use years of experience and expertise, along with a variety of tools and data, to arrive at these exciting moments of discovery.

Bee Prepared. The Minnesota Biological Survey Bee Team of Nicole Gerjets, Rachel Kranz, and Jessica Petersen begins its preparations early—in fact, soon after the previous season concludes. Throughout the fall and winter, the Bee Team conducts an end-of-season assessment, identifying where species were documented as well as geographic gaps in state records and establishing high-priority targets for the coming year. They look at soil types, research plant locations in the DNR Natural Heritage Information System, iNaturalist, and other records, consult SNA and other DNR staff, talk to land managers and stewards, and tap their personal knowledge from past visits. By the time the season arrives, the Bee Team is guided by a specific list of sites and targeted species, supported by backup plans that allow them to pivot if they encounter unpredictable weather or difficult site access.

In June, along the slopes of the dry sand-gravel prairie in Cottonwood River Prairie SNA in Brown County, the Bee Team puts its process to work finding Andrews’ cellophane bee. This bee is a specialist that relies solely on prairie alumroot flowers to complete its life cycle. Cottonwood River Prairie SNA has a good population of prairie alumroot, whose small bell-shaped blossoms appear in early summer.

During the initial search to find the bee, the team has simple tools: a net and a vial. When they see what they think is Andrews’ cellophane bee, they capture it with a net and put it in a vial to confirm its identity.

“With training, this bee can be identified on the wing, which has made it a great species to study as many other bees require a microscope to identify,” says Nicole, a bee survey specialist who has been with the MBS since 2017.

The work at Cottonwood River Prairie is part of a larger ongoing bee survey. During these surveys, the team walks through alumroot patches, timing themselves with a stopwatch, looking for their target bee. Populations are often small, fewer than 30 individuals. Once a bee is captured in a net, it is transferred into a vial, then into a “bee squeezer” that gently positions the bee so it can be marked safely with nontoxic paint. The bee is recorded and then released to continue its important pollinator business.

Prior to targeted alumroot surveys like those at the SNA, there were only three records of this species in Minnesota. Now, thanks in part to the persistent, targeted efforts of the Bee Team, Andrews’ cellophane bee has been documented across Minnesota at over 40 sites, including 11 SNAs.

How does the team feel about making such discoveries?

“Heart-pounding, thrilling, amazing, everything is awesome,” responds Rachel, an MBS bee and pollinator assistant.

“Rewarding, a reminder of exactly why I do this work, and grateful I get to make a difference,” says Nicole.

Kittentail Surprise.  Derek Anderson, an MBS botanist with over 20 years of experience in plant surveys, also knows the thrill of discovering a previously unknown rare species population. He found rare kittentails, with their small clusters of pale yellow flowers, on a fortuitous outing at Franconia Bluffs SNA in Chisago County.

Derek had originally set out to target rare species that grow in seepage areas along the St. Croix River. Unsuccessful in finding them, he started hiking out of the SNA.

“As I hiked, I noticed the soil was getting sandier, and the dominant trees switched from sugar maples and basswood to white and red oaks,” says Derek. “I also noticed the wildflower composition had changed. It was no longer the species of rich mesic forests seen elsewhere in the SNA, but instead I was finding northern bedstraw, harebell, pussytoes, and bastard toadflax—species more tolerant of drier soils.”

He decided to slow down and explore this small area.

“It only took a few minutes before I discovered a distinctive, large, hairy leaf lying flat to the ground,” he says.
No doubt, it was the state threatened kittentail!

Expanding his search, he quickly found a few more rosettes of flat hairy leaves on the ground. “Then, in a slightly more open area of the slope, I saw several spikes with small yellow flowers glowing in the afternoon sunlight. I found 25 plants that spring day.”

Derek grew up in the area, so in addition to his typical preparation of poring over native plant community maps, aerial photographs, and topographic maps, he already had a good sense of what rare species could be right in his own backyard.

As exciting as this discovery was, Derek didn’t just pay attention to one single species. He noticed that the kittentail population was slowly being shaded out by native species like ironwood trees. In the absence of natural disturbance like fire, the plant composition of the slope was changing. After returning to the office, Derek relayed this information to Kit Haveles, Central Region SNA supervisor, and they brainstormed management options, including fire, to maintain the woodland and savanna-like environment on this slope. Such management would benefit not only the rare plants found there, but also the native plant communities as a whole. SNA staff have already opened the canopy around the kittentails to improve and expand suitable habitat, and they are assessing the potential for prescribed fire at the site.

Even though they aren’t glamorous and flashy flowers, kittentails are one of Derek’s favorite species and one of the first rare species he surveyed for the DNR. He hopes to take a closer look around the SNA for more of them.

In the meantime, he says, “It was a very exciting find, and exciting to add to the list of plants here at Franconia Bluffs.”

Survey Support. The potential for finding new rare species and guiding their management remains only a potential if we don’t have the staff resources to research possibilities, do the fieldwork, follow up with reports, and make the data available to land managers. In recent decades, the SNA Unit has been able to do more surveys for new rare species on SNAs through increased support from the Environmental and Natural Resources Trust Fund as recommended by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources. The fund has aided Minnesota’s natural heritage and resources since 1988, and thanks to overwhelming support from Minnesota voters in 2024, it will continue to do so at least through 2050.

Back at Mille Lacs Moraine SNA, the four of us were able to search the entire lake in a few hours, documenting the extent of rare species populations and keeping our eyes peeled for anything else of interest. Eventually, we three SNA staffers returned to land to monitor nonnative buckthorn and honeysuckle populations that we’ll work to remove, since the health of adjacent uplands is directly tied to the health of the lake where we now know we have two rare species.

Courtney, ever in her element, continued surveying the lake to make sure we hadn’t missed anything—still looking for that potential that we “just know” is out there.