Houlton Farm Planning Committee Meeting 2016-02-02

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INTRODUCTION This Natural Resource Management Plan presents the site analysis and recommended management and land use activities for the 335 -acre William H. Houlton Conservation Area in Elk River, Minnesota (Figure 1). This document can be changed only by written agreement by both the City of Elk River, MN and Friends of the Mississippi River. The William H. Houlton Conservation Area is owned by the City of Elk River, Minnesota. As indicated by its name, the majority of the property is farmland = once ow by the Houlton family. The farm is located at the confluence of the Elk and Mississipp' els and is bounded by the Elk River to the north/northeast, the Mississippi t south/southeast, and their confluence to the east. The Mississippi river flows free h this area and has many small channels that created islands on the south Sid the ty. Two of these islands occur within the property boundary, while o s e part o to Scientific and Natural Area (SNA). On the north side of the prope Elk River flo f the Orono Dam, which divides the river into two distinct tions[.ake Orono a is outflow to the Mississippi. The property is approximately 3,834 feet long and 5,138'q of Elk River lies just to the north of the prgffigrty, while the 101/US-169 lies to the east. Private and northwest edges. the p at its maxima. The city Pon of US -10 and MN - boundaries on the west The property can be divided into three prim •eas: 47arm field and associated farmstead in the centerthe n forests grounding the field, and the floodplain oc The William H. w.ulton Cdnservation Area is located at the southern edge of the Anoka Sandplain ecological. subsection, just north of its boundary with the Big Woods subsection, as designated by the, Minnesota DNR (Figure 2). This subsection lies within the Minnesota and Northeast Iowa Morainal section in the Eastern Broadleaf Forest province of the state. The property is also situated directly within the Metro Conservation Corridors system (Figure 3), an important habitat network defined by the DNR for both sedentary and migratory plant and animal life in and around the Twin Cities. The property is also surrounded by a variety of land units identified by the Minnesota County Biological Survey (MCBS) as areas of biological significance (Figure 3). island separated by a bac ann the Miss i. The site's topography is relatively flat, with only a slight down owards t east and south (toward the confluence o the Elk and Mississipi Ri character across an east -west gradient. f p . S Soils at the western end of t are deep, floodplain soils formed in loamy to sandy alluvium that floode is in the middle part of the site consist of sandy alluvial sediments san 1 outw At the eastern end of the park, the soils are well - drained shallow on 'race Friends of the Mississippi E W. H. Houlton Conservation Area NRMP a d form a thin mantle of loamy glacial drift underlain by limest k. Friends of the Mississippi E W. H. Houlton Conservation Area NRMP