Nine Mile Creek runs through dense forest in the heart of Bloomington, and the city wants to thin that forest out. Crews are clearing invasive vegetation and removing trees that compete with the area's native oaks, part of a broader $20 million effort to fight erosion, knock back invasive species, and restore more than 100 acres of prairie, woodland, wetland and creek habitat along the corridor.
The goal is restoring an oak savanna — the ecosystem that once dominated this landscape, where fire-tolerant oaks stand over open grasses and wildflowers rather than a closed canopy. Getting there means removing the younger, faster-growing trees that have crowded in and shaded out that mix, per the Star Tribune.
Not everyone's on board. Michele Lloyd, a Bloomington resident, co-founded a group called Save Our Woods to oppose the plan. She told the Star Tribune she supports clearing buckthorn but not the broader cutting: "How does it make sense to cut down all of these trees?" She framed the tradeoff bluntly: "Do we want to walk through a shady woodland, or do we want to walk through a really hot savanna?" Other residents have raised concerns about whether the city will keep up the maintenance a savanna requires, and about how transparent the process has been.
The project is funded in part by the half-cent local sales tax Bloomington voters approved on Nov. 7, 2023, as part of the Bloomington Forward plan; the Nine Mile Creek Corridor is set to receive $20 million from that pot. The tax took effect April 1, 2024, and collections will go toward bond payments financing the work over as long as 20 years.
City officials frame it as a long game: fewer competing trees now means a healthier, more resilient creek corridor later, with erosion controlled and invasive species pushed back. For residents who've spent years enjoying the shade of the current woods, that's a harder sell — and the debate over how much of the forest should come down, and how fast, is still playing out along the creek.