After a mild winter in early 2024, Fort Snelling State Park faced heavy rainfall later in the spring, bringing significant flooding that challenged the park’s natural landscape.
April through June went down in Minnesota’s record books for the highest average rainfall in Minnesota, said Pete Boulay, assistant state climatologist at the State Climatology Office. The state received 17 inches of precipitation during that period.
This record-breaking rain significantly impacted the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers, which converge at Fort Snelling.
“This was the park’s fifth largest flood in history,” said Kao Thao, an outreach naturalist at Fort Snelling State Park.
The water level was 714 feet above sea level, Thao said. The park sits at 699 feet.
The Minnesota State Park Director and Department of Natural Resources Commissioner deemed the water level unsafe and closed the park from June 22 to August 9, Thao said.
During this time, park staff relocated to Fort Snelling Memorial Chapel as worsening floods damaged many park sections before the water finally subsided.
“The main road, there were a few sections that were damaged by the erosion of the flood,” Thao said. “Then the road to Picnic Island is probably the lowest at about 698 feet above sea level, so any time there is even a minor flood, the whole island would basically get cut off.”
The park staff weren’t the only ones who felt the effects of the closure. Isabella Caswell, a senior at the University of Minnesota, said she has visited the park every summer since her childhood.
“I was really devastated when the park closed this summer,” Caswell said. “It was a long summer without it, and summer is my go-time at Fort Snelling.”
Living in the city, Caswell said the flooding made it challenging to stay active outdoors since Fort Snelling is one of the only easily accessible state parks in the metro area.
Thao pointed out that the increasing frequency of these destructive floods threatens the very activities that make outdoor recreation enjoyable.
“It all has to do with humans because of climate change,” Thao said.
After the 2024 floods caused immense damage to the park, Thao said he and other park staff are preparing for this spring’s floods and the potential damage to come.
“Flood anticipation here is always a possibility,” Thao said. “We always prepare for a flood, even if there’s snow or not. Last year, we didn’t even expect a flood, and then, boom, we closed the park for about two months. The difference is the expectation of a huge flood or a smaller flood.”
With the increased snowfall this winter and Fort Snelling sitting in a “flood-prone area,” park workers are turning to the National Weather Service to monitor predictions, Thao said.
“That’s what we mostly pay attention to to see the predictions,” Thao said. “We work closely with the National Weather Service and check their river gauge on a daily basis or at least several times a day, just to make sure, especially in the spring, to make sure we need extra preparation in the park here.”
Thao said park leadership will also work alongside the Hennepin County Emergency Management to make sure they have any necessary equipment if a flood occurs.
Despite the harm floods cause, park staff often do not utilize this county-provided equipment to prevent future flooding, as they recognize that floods are naturally occurring events.
“A flood is Mother Nature’s way of replenishing the soil and also the ecosystem,” Thao said. “So in nature, flooding is not actually a bad thing.”
Instead, Thao is hosting events this spring to educate park visitors on the nature and impact of floods in the area.
“I haven’t put it on the schedule yet, but the programs will be very similar to the ‘After the Flood’ walks we held in the fall,” Thao said. “It would be very similar, talking about the land impact, and talking about the wildlife impact of the flood.”
For those who want to help mitigate park damage but can’t attend the flood talks, Thao recommends following park guidelines and DNR announcements.
“When the park is flooded, we usually close the park and don’t allow people inside the park,” Thao said. “The sad thing is, even when the park is totally closed, we have a lot of people that enter the park — illegally use the park. This is a safety concern when the public endanger themselves in a flood situation that requires rescue or harms themselves, especially in the area of high flood impact.”
Walking on flood-damaged land can also harm native species.
“These little plants will start to sprout later in the summer, and if they sprout later, and humans damaged it, this would stop the growth and also produce ‘last seed’ for the next year for recovery,” Thao said. “So, with the flood, it saturates the ground, and if you step on it, you also rip out the root system and others that will damage the plants too, so we ask people after the floods to not go in and disturb these sensitive, threatened or damaged areas until they are recovered.”
Although the park faced damage last summer and most likely will this subsequent spring, Thao said that he is not worried about the state of the park.
“Minnesota is actually one of the best environmental states in the United States, and we have a very good system on it,” Thao said. “A lot of political figures actually understand climate change better than other states or even federal (officials).”
Thao emphasized that while progress is being made in the governmental realm, change is only possible if people actively participate in the conversation.
“We will continue to find a better way to improve the human relationship with floods and climate change, and the best way to do it, I tell people, is to voice your concerns,” Thao said. “If you don’t say anything, nothing will happen. If you say something, you’ll probably educate somebody to understand the impact of climate change.”
Cecilia Wallace can be reached at wall1238@stthomas.edu.
