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Jim Proctor

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The Buckthorn Menace, Mississippi River, Minneapolis, Fall 2005-Fall 2006

public art installation
public art installation

photo by Bruce Silcox

The Buckthorn Menace, Mississippi River, Minneapolis, Fall 2005-Fall 2006 | Media List


Statement

The Buckthorn Menace

A public art project
by Jim Proctor

Located on the Winchell Trail,
West River Parkway & 24th Street,
Minneapolis

Fall 2005 through Fall 2006

Funded by FORECAST Public Artworks

The natural plant and animal communities around us are being dramatically altered by non-native invasive plants, animals, insects and diseases. Many of these invasives came through global trade in the last few centuries and many more will come in the next. Can these invasions be stopped, or even slowed? Do many of us even see what is happening? Can we visualize how dramatic the problem is and what is being lost?

Buckthorn is an invasive alien shrub or small tree that is choking out native plant communities in the deciduous Midwest. It is originally from Europe and has been widely planted in yards as a hedge. From people’s yards it has escaped into the wild. With no natural enemies and aggressive dispersal, it outcompetes native wildflowers, shrubs and trees. Many of our natural areas are rapidly becoming buckthorn monocultures. The problem is very severe in the Twin Cities area.

The Buckthorn Menace is a temporary public art project that involves more than a dozen sculptures resembling giant alien dandelions in seed. This ‘infestation’ is made entirely from buckthorn that has been removed from parkland overrun with the plant. The black ‘dandelion heads’ are made of buckthorn seedlings that have been pulled from the ground and inserted into wooden cores, with the roots extending outwards. These cores are made of wood from mature neighborhood buckthorn trees, turned on a lathe to form spheres. The completed ‘dandelion heads’ are mounted on existing buckthorn tree trunks that have been left rooted in place, but with their branches removed.

The sculptures will be left in place for one year. During this time, they will lose many of the seedlings from their heads, much like dandelions shedding their seeds. They will be taken down next fall during another buckthorn removal event. The trunks on which the orbs are mounted will be cut down and treated—none of the buckthorn materials used in these sculptures will be able to propagate.

With the neighborhood’s continued commitment to eliminating buckthorn and other invasives, this area will once again be able to sustain a healthy and diverse native plant community.

The artist would like to thank FORECAST Public Artworks, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, Friends of the Mississippi River, and the Seward Neighborhood Group for their support and cooperation in the execution of this project.