06/17/2026
Pigs Eye Regional Park Hike Tuesday 06/16/26, Kathy Sidles
A BEAR GREETS US – Someone gifted the park with a three-foot-high wooden bear, keeping track of things on top of the sludge dump. I went to Ely with relatives earlier this month and we learned about black bears at the Black Bear Interpretive Center. They are moving south! Just take in your bird feeders and lock down your trash and be prepared to yell and scare them away. They mostly eat veggies and tender shoots.
WILD TURKEY HEN AND FIVE CHICKS GREET US – A Wild Turkey female was in the truck trail as we walked to the concrete bridge. She wasn’t moving so we stopped also. Yup, she had chicks with her, hidden in the tall grass. She got them rounded up and slowly headed down through the grass as we walked by. That gave Kiki an idea for her sketch of the day. She had them drawn by the time Tom and I got back and was coloring them in.
TOM AND I HEAD FOR THE HILLS/EAGLE NESTS THROUGH INVASIVE LEAFY SPURGE – I was dressed to be safer from ticks – pants tucked into socks, shirt tucked in, hair pulled back, DEET spray. I heard the Midwest is having a Top 10 tick presence this year and have seen that this hasn’t been enough. But today was cold and rainy, so I suggested we check on the Eagle nest to the south. From what I read the young eagles could be “branching” – leaving the nest but staying in the tree until they figured out how to fly.
Unfortunately, I hadn’t checked my March pictures to see which tree to the SE the Eagle had been sitting in. All the trees were covered with thick leaves and I saw no nest or Eagles in trees along the track, though later I figured out I was looking at the wrong trees.
PAST THE (MAYBE) INVASIVE SEDGE AND TBD TO N WOODLAND NEST…THE EAGLES CAUGHT A BIG FISH! – So Tom headed for the other nest, the one in the woods. A hiker earlier in the week told me someone showed up in the park who looks at aerial photos saw that there is invasive must-be-controlled-by-mowing Leafy Spurge in this park. There sure is! Its light green so easy to see it growing and starting to flower in acres of the park.
Tom and I passed by what could be a patch of invasive Sedge. Three years ago, someone stopped by a couple of times to remove a similar patch and told us it was the invasive kind. It takes an expert to tell the native variety from the invasive one. I had Tom take a picture of me in front of it to show how tall it is. There is another patch to the SE.
Next week I plan to brush up on the Leafy Spurge and invasive Sedge information and upload pictures of it on an invasive plant report form on my phone. I think there is a “Weed Czar” in each county you can report invasive plants to. And I could put them in a Saint Paul Complaint form.
It seems to me it would work to mow some low-cut tick-proof grass paths at the same time as mowing the Leafy Spurge so it doesn’t go to seed.
As we got closer to the woods I saw an Eagle in a woodland clearing! And a second one nearby! I took pictures of them. As I hurried to catch up with Tom through the (head high!) Stinging Nettle (not stinging yet thank goodness) one Eagle flew across the field maybe to young in the NE nest. When I looked at my Eagle pictures later I could see it was carrying a HUGE FISH!
BACK ALONG THE ROAD /RR CARS AND BUMBLE BEES ON THISTLE FLOWERS – Tom finally located the SW nest. No Eagles in it, young or old that we could see. Sometimes Eagles adopt two nests to confuse us, but just use one to lay eggs. We went back to the parking lot along the road and got a good view of the railroad cars. Lots of amazing graffiti, and two loads of telephone poles I bet for all the work I see being done on the east side of Saint Paul this summer to replace unsafe poles that have problems under the ground. There were newly blooming (non-native) Bull Thistles along the road, some with a bumble bee carefully collecting nectar and pollen from the spiky flower.
NO TICKS TODAY! THEY MUST NOT LIKE RAIN AND COLD – Oops after I wrote this headline my husband said “Guess what I found on the kitchen counter today?” A tick of course…I saw none after a thorough check and shower but could have shaken it off my frizzy hair. Last week Carissa and I picked them off as we walked next to tall grass and the week before I found twelve on my clothes.
NEW MPCA LAWSUIT AGAINST 3M FOR EAST METRO PFAS POLLUTION – It looks to me like March 2026 Project 1007 data related to the new lawsuit includes Pig’s Eye. The second lawsuit says 3M needs to do more, such as clean up additional areas, add warning signs in contaminated areas, and filters along the creek flowing through their main dump site. See Map 129 and later plus the great aquifer layer cut-aways here: https://3msettlement.state.mn.us/sites/3msettlement/files/2026-05/c-pfc1-27a.pdf See
Short Minnesota Public Radio write-up: https://www.mprnews.org/story/2026/05/17/minnesota-sues-3m-says-forever-chemicals-from-cottage-grove-continue-to-pollute-water
Minnesota’s Amaras Law prohibits sale of any product with PFAS by 2032.
PIGS EYE DUMP COMMITTEE – The 622 page (!) final report for cleaning up this park/former regional dump is here: https://www.pca.state.mn.us/local-sites-and-projects/saint-paul-pigs-eye-dump-task-force Oh, the Report itself is only 38 pages – the rest are materials used in outreach and slides and Report wording from each Pig’s Eye Dump Committee meeting over three years.
The recommendation in this report by the committee – with more data now being gathered - is for further studies to pick one of these options: 1. Haul it away to an approved landfill (most metro ones are getting full) leaving a wetland behind or 2. Make an approved landfill in the park – a high-as-the-hills plastic-lined mound + rain water and gas capture + flood wall. Cost estimates - $600 - $800 over 10 years of construction and 30 years of operation. The web site above says next steps are to get more data – three new wells were just built and sampled – and go back to these two recommendations and others in the report.
