BIRCH ISLAND PARK & LAKE
Including Eden Wood Center, Glen Lake Childrens Camp and Holasek House.
Birch Island Park may only be 28 acres in size but with neighbors such
as Birch Island Lake and Birch Island Conservation Area and a swath of
wetlands, it retains an isolated, wildneress character. The 7 acre, woodsy
grounds of the Eden Wood Center, a retreat with outdoor programs for mentally
disabled children is located within Birch Island Park. The center includes
the historic Glen Lake Childrens Camp and the Holasek House
The 21 acre undeveloped portion of Birch Island Park harbors early geographic
and archealogical records; the park’s unspoiled, glacial features
are unique to Eden Prairie.
A trail along a ridge and a low lying (sometimes soggy) isthmus between
Birch Island Lake and northerly wetlands connects a parking and picnic
area near Eden Prairie Road to the Eden Wood complex in the east. The
park offers a quality wilderness setting for bird watching, hiking, snow
shoeing, ski touring and some canoing.
BIRCH ISLAND LAKE
The levels of this lake have declined by approximately 8 feet with the
construction of Highway 62 to the north. Responding to a request by the
Friends of Birch Island Woods, the 9 Mile Creek Watershed District began
studying underground water flowage in 2003 to determine why the lake’s
levels are low and if they can be restored.
Campers from the Eden Wood Center now travel to other lakes to swim but
continue to use Birch Island Lake for canoing. The low levels have attracted
an interesting variety of wading birds; loons drop in occasionally.
Click here
to visit the 9 Mile Creek Watershed District website for more information
on the lake
BIRCH ISLAND WOODS
32 acres of this 41 acre forest and wetland complex have been designated
as part of the Birch Island Woods Conservation Area. The City of Eden
Prairie would like to expand the size of the conservation area either
through acquisition or by obtaining easements on one or both of the two
parcels that are in private ownership. A management plan for the conservation
area calls for continued passive use of the woods for hiking, bicycling,
bird watching and snow shoeing.
The main trail of the conservation area is the original c. 1880 roadbed
of the precursor to the Milwaukee Railroad. A new wood chip, loop trail
was installed in October 2003. The City intends to add a small parking
lot, improve the trail heads and add a new wood chip trail from Birch
Island Road near Harlan Drive to the approximate midpoint of the main
trail. The Friends of BIW and others also find merit in providing a pedestrian
underpass beneath the Twin Cities & Western Railroad to connect the
woods to Birch Island Park and the Eden Wood Center.
Campers and counselors from the Edenwood Center visit the woods for nature
study and confidence building programs. The main trail of BI Woods has
become a popular route for north central Eden Prairie residents and others
via the Southwest Regional Trail and local trails.
The Friends of Birch Island Woods have begun a modest buckthorn and garlic
mustard removal program in the woods and with the Picha Heritage Farm
and others, hope to open a maple sap collecting area and install an interpretative
sign. The group’s volunteers regularly monitors the woods and its
periperhial streets - Birch Island Road, Edenvale Boulevard and Indian
Chief Road for litter collection. The group also hopes to partner with
the City and others to restore native plants including the introduction
of birch trees to areas where they were once common.
NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRCH ISLAND PARK AND WOODS
Trees
Cottonwood, aspen, willow, box elder, oaks, maple, ash, black cedar and
a few white pine, red pine, scotch pine (in the park), basswood, Ironwood,
elm and maple are common in the area. Disease and other factors have nearly
eliminated the area’s birch trees. Buckthorn has colonized portions
of the park and the woods.
Mammals
Among the mammals that inhabit or pass through the area are
badger, deer, fox, beaver, coyote, mink and woodchuck and grey squirrels.
Spring peeper frogs, tree frogs, leopard frogs, toads and salamanders
are among the area’s amphibian reidents.
Birds
The following are the less commonly seen & heard of 65+ recently identified
species of bird in the Birch Island Park, Lake and Woods area. Bald Eagle,
Blue Bird, Redstart, Barn Owl, Belted Kingfisher, Blue-headed Vireo, Brown
Thrasher, Canvasback Duck, Cedar Waxwing, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Chipping
Sparrow, Common Yellowthroat, Coot, Dark-eyed Junko, Double- created Cormorant,
Downy Woodpecker, Eastern Phoebe, Egret, Gray Catbird, Gray-cheeked Thrush,
Great Blue Heron, Great Crested Flycatcher, Great Egret, Great Horned
Owl, Green Heron, Hairy Woodpecker, Loon, Magnolia Warbler, Marsh Wren,
Nashville Warbler, Northern Flicker, Orange-crowned Warbler, Pileated
Woodpecker, Rail, Raven, Red-Tailed Hawk, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Red-eyed
Vireo, Red-tailed Hawk, Ring-necked Pheasant, Scarlet Tanager, Spotted
Sandpiper, Teal, Tennessee Warbler, White-breasted Nuthatch, Wild Turkey,
Wood Duck, Yellow-headed Blackbird.
EDEN WOOD CENTER
Eden Wood Center is operated by Friendship Ventures, a non-profit agency
which creates unique educational, recreational and social opportunities
for people of all ages with mental retardation and other developmental
disabilities.
Friendship Ventures leases the grounds and buildings from the City of
Eden Prairie. It also offers full service conference and retreat amenities
and professional team-building programs in this “up north”
setting.
The site began operation in 1924 as the Glen Lake Children.s Camp which
was operated by the Glen Lake Sanitarium a nationally celebrated tuberculosis
center located 1/4 mile north in Minnetonka. All that remains of the nationally
celebrated sanitarium is the Glen Lake Childrens Camp. Built in 1925,
its two buildings and environs are the last of its kind in the United
States and are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
For more information on Eden Wood click
here for the Friendship Ventures website.
GLEN LAKE CHILDRENS CAMP
Opened in 1925 as part of the Glen Lake Tuberculosis Sanitarium 1/4
mile to the north in Minnetonka, the site is listed on the National Register
of Historic Places. Friendship Ventures uses the original dining hall
for rainy day activities and the original dorm for overnight, special
needs guests and counselors.
Click here to read more about this celebrated,
historic camp.
HOLASEK HOUSE
This Chaska brick farmhouse has been places. It was erected around 1882
near the site of the Northwest Health Club at Baker Road and the Crosstown
Highway by one of Eden Prairie’s more prominent Czech farm families,
the Holasek family. In the 1970’s the house was refitted to be the
headquarters Arteka , a landscaping company then operated by Jerry and
Ron Bailey
.
About 1986 Arteka moved the house to a new site nearby in Minnetonka.
But Arteka’s bustling business demanded larger headquarters. Holasek
House was donated to the City of Eden Prairie and moved to a site just
off of Indian Chief Road in the Eden Wood section of Birch Island Park.
Holasek House is currently used as a residence for Friendship Ventures’
Eden Wood staff.
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