Watten Ponds - Emergency Action Required!

Watten Ponds is approximately 8 acres of wooded wetland just off Lake Minnetonka.  It features at least 5 natural wetland areas as well as old growth woods and is one of the last natural wooded wetland areas in Shorewood. 

 

After decades of declaring that the Watten Ponds area could not be developed, the City of Shorewood in a highly unusual approval process changed its rules to allow a development on 4 acres of Watten Ponds.  

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Why This Land Is a Unique Natural Asset

This is not typical residential land. A professional urban forester has identified the site as a remnant of Minnesota's historic Big Woods ecosystem—a native deciduous forest reduced to an estimated 2–5% of its historic range statewide. The parcel contains a "unique" assemblage of both major and minor Big Woods species—Bur Oak, Sugar Maple, Basswood, Ash, Bitternut Hickory, American Elm, and Ironwood—with an intact understory and natural buckthorn resistance (Exhibit ). As the expert opined, "it will be impossible to replace these mature and diverse grove of trees once removed." The destruction of a Big Woods remnant is irreversible.

​The Big Woods remnant does not exist in isolation—it functions as part of a larger habitat complex. Development would fragment this area, creating ecological harm that is much greater than the acreage directly disturbed. Scientific literature documents that habitat fragmentation causes cascading ecological effects: increased edge effects, invasion by non-native species, disruption of wildlife movement corridors, and loss of interior forest conditions required by sensitive species

Harm to Our Waters

The Big Woods remnant currently provides critical ecological services that protect downstream water quality:

• Mature tree canopy intercepts rainfall, decreases soil erosion, reducing runoff volume,  velocity and turbidity

• Forest floor leaf litter and intact understory filter sediments and absorb nutrients and likewise decreases soil erosion keeping intact native soils and vital nutrients to feed trees and other native vegetation

• Deep root systems promote infiltration and groundwater recharge

• Wetland vegetation provides additional nutrient uptake and filtration and significantly decreases these nutrients leaching into stormwater runoff and ultimately entering Lake Minnetonka

The proposed development would eliminate these natural water quality protections and replace them with impervious surfaces (roofs, driveways) and managed lawns. Residential development is a known source of nutrient pollution from lawn fertilizers, pet waste, and vehicle residues. Directing this nutrient-laden runoff through a degraded wetland system to an already nutrient-impaired lake creates potential for significant cumulative water quality effects.

Flooding

The project also creates significant flooding risks, and because the developer is piecmealing the project, it avoids required flooding prevention.  We know how this ends - it's Strawberry Lane again, with the taxpayers left with a $6 million bill to fix flooding caused by bad development practices, that's almost $3,000 for every Shorewood household, all so the developer doesn't have to pay it.  Have we not learned that lesson?

Mosquitos

It might not be obvious but healthy wetlands significantly reduce mosquitos by hosting predators that can't survive otherwise.  Research shows up to a 70% reduction in mosquitos in areas with healthy wetlands. Degrading these wetlands means a lot more mosquitos - and a lot more chemicals to try to control them, chemicals that end up in your drinking water and in the lake where you swim.