“The Land Teaches You:” The Colfax Red Cedar Preserve and Recreation Area (CRCPRA) As A Community Classroom

Abstract

Up until 2020, people in the Colfax area have kept the “Ferry Pit,” now named the Colfax Red Cedar Preserve and Recreation Area (CRCPRA), as their “hidden gem.” Locals have been gathering there for decades to fish, hike, and just enjoy the scenery. Even when it was technically closed off to the public and being used as gravel pit by the Dunn County Highway Department, this site continued to draw many in. So now that the site is owned by the Town of Colfax and officially open for public use, how can it best be utilized to benefit the community which has been loving it for so long?

This question was proposed by one of the members of the preserve committee, who reached out to LAKES for help with finding some answers. They explained how conservation projects have historically been seen through an ecological lens while neglecting the social elements of how people interact with the green space around them. One infamous example of this is now referred to in conservation circles and “The Chicago Controversy.” This controversy broke out in the late 90s when local groups started to much back against management techniques that converted forests back to native prairie. While these practices were in line with restoration ecology recommendations at the time, they did not consider the utility and aesthetic preferences that neighboring people have for forests. Consequentially, there was significant pushback against restoration work in the Chicago area and this moment became a “dawning moment” for many conservationists.

With this history in mind, I set out to determine what the role of the CRCPRA is in the community and how local opinions about the preserve could be incorporated into management plans. To do this, I conducted 17 interviews with various stakeholders including members of the preserve committee, volunteers, Colfax residents, political representatives, conservationists, and Ojibwe leaders. Many of these interviews were conducted at the preserve, where I was able to observe how people engage with the space and take notes on significant elements of the property. I also sent out questions in a watershed-wide survey, which received 65 responses. Once all this data was collected, I put everything into a qualitative data analysis software called NVivo, which allowed me to tag the responses for different themes to determine what topics came up the most.

Across the board, one topic that kept coming up was how the CRCPRA could be used as a space for education. While that doesn’t just apply to education about water quality issues, as I'm biased towards since being a part of the LAKES program, it became evident that the two miles of river frontage on the preserve opened up unique opportunities to get people thinking about their connection to local bodies of water in new ways.

From prior research conducted by LAKES students, we knew that a lot of people in the area tended to blame farmers for the phosphorus pollution and subsequent greening in Lakes Menomin and Tainter, leading to a sense of resentment in farmer’s and hopelessness in the rest of the community. While my interviews did not center around those ideas, the same emphasis on agricultural means of reducing phosphorus pollution came up. For those not directly involved with conservation efforts, there was little recognition of non-agricultural sources of phosphorus or methods of curbing runoff that didn’t involve changing farming practices. Since the CRCPRA has many sites with significant soil erosion, the preserve is acting in some ways as a phosphorus source, albeit a ‘natural’ one. Additionally, the preserve’s roles as a riparian forest with significant buffers along the river can help decrease phosphorus runoff into the river. Overall, the preserve is intricately connected to phosphorus pollution in the area through several avenues, and many participants suggested that highlighting those roles could broaden phosphorus pollution conversation in the area beyond agriculture.

Another recurring theme from this research was the desire to increase the communal sense of ownership and love for public lands with the hopes that it would create more motivation to engage with local efforts to protect the lands and waterways. One interviewee explained, “If can get people out along the river and loving it, they’re going to want to protect it, and hopefully do what they need to do to protect It.” Another explained how this preserve is “an investment in the people of the area and it’s an equalizer, because not everybody can afford a nice lakefront property.” While it seems there are already many people in the community that feel compelled to help keep the preserve running, there is still room for increased engagement. One interviewee said, “When we [the preserve committee] run into people there, they're generally excited about it being open and the possibilities of it, but it would be nice to get more community involvement in the work work stuff.” Since the greening in Lakes Menomin and Tainter is such a visible and prominent issue for people in the area, explicitly tying that into the state of the preserve could mobilize a new sect of volunteers.

Other ideas that came up to increase engagement and educational efficacy as the preserve included increasing signage, increasing outreach, creating an event schedule, creating more native pollinator habitat, continuing to remove invasive species, planting forgeable plants, co-hosting events with libraries and outdoor-accessibility groups, and consulting with nearby Ojibwe environmental leaders for management advice.

While there are significant limitations to how much impact educational work in spaces like the CRCPRA could have, I think it is an important step towards integrating water protection into everyday forms of recreation and widening the scope of who feels like they can make a difference in phosphorus pollution problems. As burnout has been identified as a major issue for water quality activism in the area, the more people that can be engaged, the better.