EAST BETHEL – (April 8, 2021) – The Sandhill Crane Natural Area is the fourth largest park that is a part of the county parks system, and one of the least visited.
It doesn’t have much signage, or even have a parking lot. The road just ends and a trail opens up … a trail that leads to more than 500 acres of wetlands, forests, and native prairies. This area started to become what it is now in the mid 1990s, when four different agencies decided to work together. Anoka County owned land here, but so did East Bethel, the DNR and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
“The four agencies came together and said ‘this is a really nice biologically diverse resources, in fact, it is probably one of the most biologically diverse pieces of public property in Anoka County,” said Anoka County Parks Director Jeff Perry.
In 2001, a master plan was finalized, agreeing to preserve and protect the natural resources in the area. Today there are natural hiking trails and boardwalks in the park, and it is home to a diverse set of plants and animals, including some endangered species.
“There are rare blandings turtles, there is a rare plant called the lance leafed violet that only occurs in a few select wetland areas in Minnesota. There’s some nesting pairs of bald eagles out here, a nesting pair of ospreys. You’ll see a ton of wild turkeys, deer, fox, and in the evening you’ll hear choruses of coyotes,” said Perry.
And, of course, there’s the sandhill crane. In the 1990s, the area’s stakeholders began monitoring animals coming into the park through an annual survey, where people like Perry would sit in the park and try to identify how many different pairs of cranes they could hear.
“When we started the survey there were only three breeding pairs. When we ended it about ten years later we were up to about fifteen breeding pairs,” said Perry.
And each spring, the return of the cranes is a welcome sight and sound.
“The sandhills start arriving right around mid-March,” said Perry. “They find suitable habitat here and go through their rituals and raise their young right here on the Sandhill Crane Natural Area.”
The Parks Department encourages anyone interested in visiting the area for the first time to give them a call. They will talk to you about finding the Sandhill Crane Natural Area, and where to park when you get there. Their number is 763-324-3300.
