If you have a pair of work gloves and 2 free hours this Saturday, Ike's Creek could use them. Bloomington's Sustainability Commission and parks maintenance staff are leading a volunteer push to clear invasive buckthorn from the creek in Forest Glen Park.
The city is calling it the 2026 Buckthorn Bust, and it runs 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Nov. 7. The work is what the name suggests: identifying, cutting, pulling and hauling buckthorn. No experience is needed. Bring your own gloves and a water bottle, and wear shoes you don't mind getting muddy. The city provides the rest of the gear. Sign up on the city's event page.
Don't head to the park itself. Check-in is at the Home2 Suites parking lot, 2415 E. Old Shakopee Road, where the registration table will be set up in the lot behind the hotel and WhirlyBall Twin Cities. If you're biking, there are 2 racks in front of WhirlyBall. If bad weather cancels the event, the city will email registered volunteers.
Why this particular patch of woods? Forest Glen Park, tucked near the Mall of America, is where Ike's Creek begins as a natural spring. The local nonprofit Bloomington Neighbors Nurturing Nature says it's the only trout stream in Hennepin County that does. Clearing buckthorn is the first step toward the goal the group lists for the site: turning the park back into a healthy, naturally functioning ecosystem.
Volunteers have been pulling buckthorn there since 2022, according to the nonprofit. It describes the restoration as a joint effort with the city's parks and natural resources staff and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The group says the city has followed volunteers by treating cut stumps with herbicide, since buckthorn grows right back from a bare stump. The project was also recently added to the city's Adopt-A-Park program.
November is a good time for this work. Questions go to Jen Fuller, the city's sustainability coordinator, at 612-468-4175 or [email protected].
