Is it possible for stormwater treatment in a built environment to be both functional and beautiful? This summer, construction is underway at Hasenbank Park in Woodbury, where the South Washington Watershed District and City of Woodbury are combining nature, art, and human engineering to build a one-of-a-kind “Stormwater Park.” The goal is to protect Powers Lake from runoff pollution, while also creating a community gathering space with walking trails, public art, and beautifully restored native habitat. Hasenbank Park is located just west of the Dancing Waters neighborhood, along St. Johns Drive.
The first thing you might notice when visiting Hasenbank Park is the rolling topography and stepping stones shaped like gears. Designed by Minneapolis-based artist Christopher Harrison, “Gears” is one of three installations planned for the space. The rolling hills and valleys are actually a connected series of infiltration basins, designed to filter and absorb nutrient and chloride-rich water flowing out of Fish Lake before it reaches Powers Lake. Later in the fall, the watershed district will also be adding two sculptures by Aaron Dysart – one a tree and the other a purple coneflower, as well as benches and interpretive signs.
The second thing you might notice at Hasenbank Park are the goats. For the past two years, South Washington Watershed District has been working to restore native oak woodlands on site and a herd of goats have been spending their summers in the park, happily munching on invasive species like buckthorn and garlic mustard. In addition, work crews and volunteers have also thinned the woodland canopy, removed invasive species, and re-seeded the ground beneath the trees with native grasses, flowers, and shrubs to create a healthier, more resilient landscape.
For their art installations, both Harrison and Dysart drew inspiration from the juxtaposition of human-designed technology and natural biological processes put to work in Hasenbank Park. “It’s this weird, but also lovely, combination of mechanical and natural,” says Dysart. “I like how the project uses both human-made and organic strategies to heal the lake and surrounding wetlands. It shows that there are multiple ways we can protect water – not just one right answer.” Dysart’s sculptures, still under construction, will include a bur oak made of metal pipes designed to resemble plumbing fixtures, as well as a giant purple coneflower with roots made of pipes.
Harrison, designer of the giant gear-shaped stepping stones, says he wanted to create an interactive piece of art that will also help visitors to understand how the mechanical part of the stormwater system at Hasenbank works. “Making the gears into a pathway allows people to walk through the system and see it up close,” he explains. “It also makes them aware that there is so much more going on in the park than they might initially notice. I hope that people walk away with a new sense of interest and curiosity in the watershed district and the work that they do.”
Along with gears, goats, and giant coneflowers, watershed district staff are also utilizing a somewhat innovative strategy to improve soil health in the Hasenbank woods. Instead of burning downed buckthorn in open pits, work crews have used large kilns to burn the wood and turn it into biochar, which is a type of charcoal produced by heating organic material in a high-temperature, low-oxygen environment. The kilns reduce smoke and greenhouse gases and protect the forest floor from scorching. When applied to the soil, the resulting biochar also functions as a soil amendment and helps to retain soil moisture.
Construction at Hasenbank Park is scheduled to be completed in fall of 2024, with ongoing habitat restoration in the woods, savanna, and surrounding wetlands continuing into future years. To learn more about this and other projects led by the South Washington Watershed District, visit www.swwdmn.org.
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