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rom the regional trail that runs along its northern edge, Seminary Fen looks much like any other wet grassy meadow. Inside the 500-acre wetland complex, a more curious world unfolds. Cold groundwater, poor in oxygen but rich in alkaline minerals, seeps from the base of surrounding hillsides into thick spongy peat, creating an environment hostile to all but a few specially adapted plants, such as beaked spike-rush, that rarely grow anywhere else.
Seminary Fen is the rarest of wetlands, a calcareous fen, one of only 500 in the world. Assumption Creek flows through it, the sole stream cold and clean enough to support brook trout in all of Carver County. Located in the rapidly growing communities of Chaska and Chanhassen, new roads and developments are springing up all around its uniquely fragile ecosystem.
The land is privately owned. In 2003, the Legislature approved $1.5 million of Seminary Fen's approximate $2 million purchase price. The remaining funds were successfully raised by the cities of Chanhassen and Chaska, the Lower Minnesota River Watershed District, and the Friends of the Minnesota River. Disappointingly, the owners have now said that they want at least a million dollars more than the previous estimates, and that they want to retain some of the area for commercial development. Allowing development in these areas could seriously compromise the Fen's unique and rare ecological systems.
Another threat to the Fen is the plan to build a bridge over the Minnesota River for construction of Highway 41. Of three possible routes, the preference is for the eastern corridor, which would directly and irreversibly impact the Fen. If the purchase of Seminary Fen isn't made before the eastern corridor's final selection, one of the rarest wetlands in the world could be lost forever.
About the photographs
In conjunction with this campaign, we invited 10 Minnesotan photographers to photograph each of our Twin Cities Treasures. This page includes low-resolution images of the Seminary Fen area by Doug Beasley, who also received McKnight Artist Fellowships for photography in 1991 and 1996.
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