Adopt a Wetland

In Minnesota, an estimated 11 million acres of wetland area have been lost over the last hundred years, leaving about 7.5 million acres. This represents a 60% loss. In Washington County, over 56% of our pre-settlement wetlands have been lost. Far from being useless, wetlands provide many important benefits that have only recently become apparent, as wetland numbers have dwindled. These benefits include:

• storage area for excess water during times of flooding
• filtering of sediments and nutrients before they enter lakes, rivers, streams and groundwater
• groundwater recharge benefits
• fish and wildlife habitat
• public recreation

Imation Headquarters in Oakdale, Minnesota, participates in an Adopt-a-Wetland program sponsored by the City of Oakdale.  The goal of the program is to increase awareness and engage community businesses and their employees to protect and improve the wetlands on, or near, their property.  The program provides common sense guidelines and activities that require some hands-on labor, as simple as trash removal to shoreline restoration, and removing invasive species such as Buckthorn and Purple Loosestrife.  The wetland improvement activities did not just benefit Imation’s Oakdale, MN wetlands, but multiplied as the experience and education gained by our employees and community spread to the wetlands surrounding participant’s homes and cabins.

"I volunteer to pull Buckthorn because I believe it’s important to remove this non-native, very invasive species of plant.  Pulling Buckthorn is an important part of maintaining our wetlands. Buckthorn is such a problem because it:

• Out-competes native plants for nutrients, light, and moisture
• Degrades wildlife habitat
• Threatens the future of forests, wetlands, prairies, and other natural habitats
• Contributes to erosion by shading out other plants that grow on the forest floor
• Serves as host to other pests, such as crown rust fungus and soybean aphid
• Forms an impenetrable layer of vegetation
• Lacks "natural controls" like insects or disease that would curb its growth

Also, I get to work side-by-side with some Imation employees I haven’t met before, outdoors and take a longer lunch hour." Ann Horrisberger, Human Resources

Periodically Imation has invited a representative of the Washington Conservation District to its Oakdale site to educate the employees on the value of wetland areas. This visit includes an identification of the plants, butterflies, wildlife and water conditions on the site.