Minnesota Seasons - Pigs Eye Island Heron Rookery SNA

About • Location • Activities • Ecology


	About

	Ownership


	Links
	Minnesota DNR

	Overview
	Pigs Eye Island is home both to Minnesota’s largest heron rookery and to Minnesota’s largest sewage treatment plant. The island is a swampy floodplain forest dominated by plains cottonwood silver maple. Access is by boat only. The site is closed to the public from Aprl 1 through July 15 to protect nesting birds. During this time a permit is required to visit the island.

	History


	Management


	Comments


	Location

	Maps
	Detail map (MN DNR)

	Printable Map(s) with GPS coordinates


	Size
	100 acres

	Parking
	Pigs Eye Island Heron Rookery SNA is accessible only by boat. Public Water Access N44 52.866, W93 1.084


	Driving Directions
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					Ramsey County
					Metro Area


	Activities

	Hiking Trails
	No maintained trails

	Hunting
	No hunting


	Ecology

	Ecological Classification
	Ecological Province			Eastern Broadleaf Forest Province
	Ecological Section			Minnesota & NE Iowa Morainal
	Ecological Subsection			St. Paul-Baldwin Plains and Moraines
	Land Type Association			Pig’s Eye Alluvial Plain

	Native Plant Communities*
	Black Ash - Yellow Birch - Red Maple - Basswood Swamp (Eastcentral) Northern Bulrush - Spikerush Marsh Silver Maple - (Virginia Creeper) Floodplain Forest
	* Source: The Minnesota Biological Survey, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Division of Ecological Resources

	Natural Features

Boat Required

Pigs Eye Island Heron Rookery SNA is accessible only by boat.

canoe

What’s in a Name?

In 1838 distillers were banned from Fort Saint Anthony, later known as Fort Snelling. One bootlegger, a retired French Canadian fur trader named Pierre Parrant, moved downstream to the north bank of the Mississippi River. Pierre’s knickname was “Pig’s Eye”, and the area became known by that name. It was later renamed St. Paul.


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