Sportsmen’s Club funds improvements at St. Olaf Park

The New Richland Area Sportsmen’s Club recently arranged to plant three 20-foot trees at St. Olaf Lake Park in hopes of helping to compensate for the rather sudden loss, over the past couple of years, of about 10 oak trees on the property.

At the club’s request, a team of three foresters from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) visited the park last summer to check on the status of the trees, according to club member Lee Mendenhall. DNR forester Andy Kernan, who works out of an office in Faribault, was one of the three. He notes an unusual number of oak trees across Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan have been dying in recent years due to what he referred to as “death by a thousand cuts.”

One factor is that the trees are aging. Full-grown oak trees are more than 100 years old, and capable of living up to 300 years–the rough equivalent of a human living a century. The tendency over the past 200 years of local history has been the removal of trees, with not many younger ones being planted as land was cleared, so many current trees are past their prime.

Along with their age, Kernan says, trees have been stressed by recent weather patterns. In years of extensive rainfall, he explains, ground water tends to rise, drowning out some of the roots which extend most deeply into the earth. In years of drought, then, the trees no longer have the deep reach needed to find existing water resources.

Once trees are stressed, he continues, they are more susceptible to disease and infestation by insects.

The foresters reached a consensus there was no sign of oak wilt in the park, a fungal infection which can kill a tree within a year or two, and which is frequently either airborne or carried by insects. This is good news, he continues, since the fungus is highly infectious among oak trees and it requires extensive efforts to contain.

“Whatever’s causing it,” observes Mendenhall, “the trees are dying, and the sportsmen’s club wants to do what it can to preserve the habitat at the park.”

Mendenhall describes the pattern of scattered oaks with grass and other plants underneath as an “oak savanna,”  a special habitat which, Kernan says, is known for offering both a certain amount of shelter and the opportunity for a diverse variety of plants which support pollinators. Compared to how it once was in the region, Mendenhall mentions, only a minuscule percentage of the former amount of oak savanna habitat remains.

The beauty and environmental importance of the habitat in the park is worth preserving, he says, which is what prompted the sportsmen’s club to fund the purchase and planting of a maple, elm, and hackberry tree, each between 15 and 20 feet tall. Oak trees were not chosen for at least two reasons–they grow very slowly, and the chosen replacements should not be susceptible to whatever is causing the oak trees to die.

“Our club members tend to be diverse outdoorsmen,” Mendenhall observes, “so we take an interest in the park and the lake.” He mentions the club also having funded the fishing pier and an accessible fishing dock at the park, having done upkeep on the DNR boat launch, and having built a fish rearing pond at the lake.

According to Mendenhall, the New Richland Area Sportsmen’s Club has more than 200 members. Founded in 1930, it maintains a park-like property east of town with practice ranges for pistols, rifles, and archery. In addition to charging membership dues of $20 a year for a family, it maintains itself by holding fundraisers, including an ice fishing contest on St. Olaf Lake and “fish fry” dinners.