By Ginny Gaynor, Maplewood Natural Resources Coordinator
14,000 years ago Maplewood was covered by a mile-high glacier. As the climate warmed, the glacier retreated leaving the landforms we see today. Ancient pollen grains in lake sediment help scientists piece together a timeline of the plant communities that followed the glaciers. 12,000 years before present (BP), this area was a spruce parkland. This transitioned to spruce forest by 11,000 BP, where you might have encountered mastodon, giant beavers, or saber toothed cat. 2000 years later boreal forests, like those in northern Minnesota today, dominated the Twin Cities landscape with spruce, fir, pine and birch .