Minnesota’s St. Croix River Valley and Anoka Sandplain

"We tend to take the landscape around us for granted, believing that the land has looked, smelled, and sounded as it does now for as far back in time as we can imagine."-from the book

Just 150 years after the first Euro-American settlers moved into the region now known as the St. Croix River Valley and Anoka Sandplain, only small fragments of the native landscape remain. For example, only about 6 percent of the forests present 150 years ago are left, and a mere 1 percent of the prairies remain. Minnesota's St. Croix River Valley and Anoka Sandplain offers a fascinating landscape history of this six-county region in east-central Minnesota, including detailed descriptions of thirty-nine varieties of native habitats that still exist there. The region includes the counties of Anoka, Chisago, Isanti, Ramsey, Sherburne, and Washington.

Much of the data presented in Minnesota's St. Croix River Valley and Anoka Sandplain was recently gathered by the Minnesota County Biological Survey, and is appearing in print for the first time. All of the data is summarized and interpreted to provide a convenient guide for anyone interested in the natural history of the region, including landowners seeking more information on a forest or prairie on their land, persons interested in visiting native habitats in the region, government planners and resource managers, and high school biology classes.

For each native habitat, the authors include descriptive text, photographs, line drawings, distribution maps, and lists of associated plants and animals. The book also contains a guide providing directions to and interpretation of 35 sites accessible to the public where these native habitats can be explored. No other single book gives such a thorough and integrated treatment of the native habitats and landscape of the area. A set of companion color wall maps is also available (Minnesota's St. Croix River Valley and Anoka Sandplain: Maps of Native Habitats). These document the location of the remaining native habitats, along with rare plants and animals.