Star Tribune
Ash borer, drought and storms topple Twin Cities trees
The Twin Cities tree tops have changed since Sydney Hudzinski began climbing into them five years ago.
More twigs are dying. Some leaves change colors early. Many show signs of emerald ash borer damage. Mature, sensitive trees are especially stressed, while others still seem to be thriving.
“It’s been an interesting year,” said Hudzinski, a Plymouth forestry technician who spends her workdays climbing to the tops of city trees to evaluate their condition and prune them.
It’s been an especially busy year for forestry teams throughout the Twin Cities metro area. Severe storms followed years of drought, just as the emerald ash borer damage is approaching a predicted peak. Some trees fell down. Others were removed. Leafy neighborhoods are little more sparse.
“The Twin Cities is gonna suffer, is suffering, will suffer more from a community perspective than the rest of the state, just because there is just such a huge density of community ash trees through that urban area,” said Mark Abrahamson, plant protection division director for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture.
The emerald ash borer is an invasive beetle that burrows into trees, depositing larvae that eventually starve the tree by severing the channels it uses to take in water and nutrients. It’s always fatal.
Borer damage “really exploded” in St. Louis Park between 2022 and 2023, said Michael Bahe, the city’s natural resources manager.
Crews sprayed paint onto dying trees, marking them for removal. Old trees that provided lots of shade have been replaced by newer ones that will take years to grow to full size.
Like other district programs, the Spanish dual-language program draws most of its open-enrollment students from either Bloomington or Minneapolis. Bloomington Public Schools does not have a dual-language program.
In a statement, Bloomington Public Schools said that the district gains more students than it loses from open enrollment. The district cited its popular gifted-and-talented and computer science immersion programs as major draws for students, as well as a K-12 online school that attracts students throughout the state. “Our two high schools are currently closed to open enrollment because they’re at capacity,” the district said.
Minneapolis Public Schools has three elementary schools with a focus on Spanish dual-language immersion, as well as middle school and high school programs. But Minneapolis’ programs often have a waitlist. As of mid-October, nearly 300 students are waitlisted for Minneapolis elementary dual-language programs, and 178 of those students do not currently attend Minneapolis Public Schools, according to data provided to task force members.
Enrollment difficulties in such a popular program have been a source of frustration in Minneapolis, as the district faces a budget crunch driven in part by decreased enrollment. The school board recently appointed a task force to address this issue as part of the district’s “transformation” process. Many candidates for Minneapolis school board this year also told Sahan Journal that expanding the Spanish dual-language program was a priority for them.
The task force will present recommendations in December.
Matthew Arnold, the new principal at Richfield Dual Language School, previously worked for 10 years at Green Central Dual Language School in Minneapolis. He declined to comment on differences between the two districts but said that a sense of safety and community attracts families to Richfield Dual Language School.
Bullets struck three people early Friday in Dinkytown near the University of Minnesota, leading to one man hospitalized with serious injuries.
Officers with the U and Minneapolis police heard gunfire at around 2:15 a.m., according to Minneapolis police Sgt. Garret Parten. They rushed to 4th Street and 13th Avenue SE., where they found a 22-year-old man with “at least one” potentially life-threatening gunshot wound.
Officers helped the man until he was transported to HCMC in downtown Minneapolis. Within an hour two more males, ages 18 and 17, were taken to HCMC with noncritical gunshot wounds.
Investigators believe the gunfire came moments after a fight involving several people at the Dinkytown intersection. No arrests had been announced as of Saturday afternoon.
If Keaveny closes her pharmacy, the next ones are 17 and 25 miles away.
Slindee joined the lobbying effort after his parents sold their pharmacy in Harmony, near the Iowa border, in 2007, then saw it close in 2022. “Now there’s nothing,” he said. His father refuses to use a mail-order service so drives 12 miles to Preston, or if he can’t get it there, over 23 miles to Cresco or Decorah, Iowa.
“I have that personal experience of how crappy it is to be in a rural, small town and to just lose your only pharmacy,” Slindee said.
Stepping outside his company, Wolfpack Promotionals on W. Broadway in north Minneapolis, Brown said he knows the feeling of losing access to nearby pharmacies. Nodding toward two nearby senior apartment complexes and thinking of his volunteer side gig, he said, “They need rides.”
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