Despite its importance to water quality, the infrastructure that filters and treats stormwater before it runs off into lakes is often invisible. These systems are usually moved into underground pipes or tucked alongside neighborhood ponds.

But a new Woodbury park is doing things differently.

At Hasenbank Park, which officially opened June 12, the South Washington Watershed District and city of Woodbury collaborated on public art and a unique design, aimed at bringing stormwater treatment into the open and encouraging neighbors to feel engaged in water-quality efforts, said Kyle Axtell, a project manager with the watershed district. An interactive online tool helps visualize how stormwater moves through the park.

“Flowing Roots,” a sculpture by Aaron Dysart at the new Hasenbank Park in Woodbury, resembles large plant roots made of plumbing fixtures, topped with a purple coneflower. The work highlights the overlap between nature and industrial design and is meant to encourage park-goers to think more deeply about water flow. (Courtesy of the South Washington Watershed District)

In addition to a connected series of water basins that filter runoff, the park also contains several large-scale sculptures: “Gears,” by Christopher Harrison, is a pathway of gear-shaped stepping stones over the water, and “Flowing Roots” and “Branching Out,” by Aaron Dysart, are a massive root structure and tree form, respectively, built larger-than-life with plumbing pipes.

“We’ve got stormwater management that people can see — it’s not just underground or hidden, and we wanted this to be a property and park space that the public would engage with,” Axtell said. “And what better way to help tell that story than through the use of art?”

Around 2018, the watershed district became concerned that water runoff from the Dancing Waters development, which drains into the Fish Lake wetlands off Valley Creek Road, would threaten the very high water quality in nearby Powers Lake.

Aaron Dysart’s sculpture “Branching Out” stands behind flowing water at the new Hasenbank Park in Woodbury on June 12, 2025. The sculpture, along with several other public art installations and design features, is meant to highlight the park’s active role in filtering stormwater to avoid polluted runoff into Powers Lake. (Courtesy of the South Washington Watershed District)

Separately, the watershed district was spearheading the restoration of Hasenbank Woods, a city-owned property that had become overgrown with invasive species and ash trees suffering from emerald ash borer infestations. The woods happen to be between the wetlands and Powers Lake, water officials realized, and the property also contained a small field the city had no plans for — so maybe two goals could be accomplished at once.

“It really came together as a win-win across the board,” Axtell said. “And in order to have healthy water, which is of course our primary mission at the watershed district, you’ve got to have healthy land.”

And the public art installations are more than decorative, he said — they’re a vital part of the park’s mission to pique people’s interest and encourage them to think about and learn about water-quality protection.

“It’s a way to engage the public that’s not just interpretive language on a panel,” he said. “We’re interested in showing people, more than telling people. Getting people to think about what we’re doing out here and why, as opposed to, oh, just read this paragraph and move on.”

South Washington Watershed District project manager Kyle Axtell, left, and artist Aaron Dysart, second left, talk with attendees during the rainy grand opening for the new Hasenbank Park in Woodbury on June 12, 2025. (Courtesy of the South Washington Watershed District)

This is how artist Dysart sees it, too. He’s well-known within the Twin Cities public art scene and was formerly St. Paul’s city artist, and has been working for several years on developing his two sculptures in Hasenbank Park. (He also created the F. Scott Fitzgerald sculpture in Cathedral Hill that was stolen earlier this year.)

“We’ve realized that you can have all the facts and data and pie charts in the world, but if you don’t have culture and connection, you’re not going to reach people,” he said. “To me, artwork and art as a visual language communicates in a different way — maybe not as direct, but more passionate, or bringing interest in learning a little more about what’s underneath your feet.”

Much of Dysart’s work looks at the intersection between natural wilderness and manufactured objects, he said, so the idea of a stormwater treatment park was particularly interesting to him. And his two pieces are meant to work together in highlighting the water cycle: Trees bring water from the ground into the air, he said, and roots move water from the air back into the ground. And using plumbing fixtures and pipes felt both apt and playful.

“I try my best to situate my work in the realm of throwing people off a little bit,” he said. “Not in a malicious way but in a joyful way, so that they can peel back the onion layers and start to dive in a little deeper.”

Related Articles

White Bear Lake native Joel Reichow is first to ever win half and full Grandma’s Marathon in career

What to know about this weekend’s Twin Cities Jazz Festival in Mears Park

BWCA entry permit fees could more than double under proposal

Skywatch: A telescope revolution is here

After surviving collapse, fire and Dillinger escape, Dakota County swing bridge begins new chapter

An involving story about movies and queer life in San Francisco decades ago, another about an immigrant who conflates gender-bending sex with colonialism, and a lighthearted romcom are today’s very different reading experiences.

“Midnight at the Cinema Palace”: by Christopher Tradowsky (Simon & Schuster, $28.99)

(Courtesy of Simon & Schuster)

But that was the thing in SF, one night you might be the life of the block party, the queen of the night dancing high on a stoplight, and by the next morning, you’d have vanished without a trace… he wondered, again, if he would ever know how it felt to have sex without the angel of death hanging over him. — from “Midnight at the Cinema Palace”

What a journey we take into San Francisco in 1993 in this quirky, thoughtful debut novel by a St. Paul resident who teaches art history and mentors in the Augsburg University MFA program.

At the height of the AIDS epidemic, Walter moves from the Midwest to San Francisco where he knows nobody. Newly out of the closet, he’s soon captivated by a queer couple; Cary, a woman, and her stylish partner Sasha, a male who could be taken for a woman. The couple, who Walter thinks are straight out of film noir, bond with him over mutual love of cinema and classics from Hollywood’s golden age. They take Walter under their wings and the trio join other young queer people moving from hot clubs to drag parades to making friends like Lawrence, a former child actor and filmmaker living with HIV. Cary and Walter try to write a film script, but mostly quibble over details like a name for their non-existent production.

Although AIDS hangs over this story, there is also a sort of frenetic joy in it, as though the characters know instinctively their scene is coming to an end. So, too, might Walter’s friendship with Cary and Sasha, as he realizes what the couple’s gender bending means to their relationships. And there’s humor, as when sometimes-clueless Walter is knocked over by a drag queen dressed as Queen Elizabeth who falls from a lamp post.

Christopher Tradowsky (Courtesy of Simon & Schuster)

Tradowsky, who drew inspiration for his novel from living in San Francisco in the ’90s, told his publisher he wrote this book at a “dark time” when we were in pandemic lockdown and his teaching job was precarious — “In reaching for joy, I realized that an entire novel could be a love letter to my obsessions, to the things I love best: to San Francisco, to queerness, to the cinematic experience, and above all, to friendship… how to live beyond social conventions, openly, playfully, messily, (sometimes haphazardly), beautifully, deeply, queerly.”

Involving, tender, madcap, filled with references to sometimes-obscure films, this is a big novel you can lose yourself in for a long summer read.

Tradowsky will introduce his book at 7 p.m. on Thursday, June 26, at Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls.

“The Perfect Match”: by M. E. Bakos (Independently published, $14.95)

She looked devastated when I shoved the paper at her, and I felt guilty. There was a spark, too. Animal attraction. She wore that danged cute jeans jacket again, and her tousled hair fell around her face. —  from “The Perfect Match”

(Courtesy of the author)

Merry is having trouble with her landlord in this debut romance from the author of the Home Renovator mystery series. She has returned to her little Minnesota hometown of Reindeer Falls after a divorce along with Fido, the faithful dog she adopted after her breakup. As soon as she moves into her new apartment she’s scolded by Joel, the manager, who thinks dogs bark and poop too much. This testy relationship continues although Joel is becoming increasingly charmed by Merry, who does notice his wavy brown hair and dimple. Merry has her own problems. Her aunt is a matchmaker, sending her to blind dates that do not end well. And her ex-husband makes an appearance asking for forgiveness. Told in the voices of Joel and Merry, this romance, set around the Christmas holidays, is just right for fans who know from the beginning these two are made for each other.

Bakos will sign books from 10 a.m. to noon Friday, June 27 at Lake Country Booksellers, 4766 Washington Ave., White Bear Lake.

“The Seers”: by Sulaiman Addonia (Coffee House Press, $18)

(Coffee House Press)

This edgy, frank and complex account of an Eritrean young woman’s conflating of her sexual desires and her emotions after fleeing to London is not for everyone, but those with an open mind to literature will see asylum seekers in a new way as they follow Hannah, who has escaped war in her home country and ended up in England. Told in 120 pages as one long chapter, with no paragraphs or quotation marks, we see Hannah in limbo in a foster home, unable to work or go to school until the Home Office accepts her. The narrative moves from that foster home, where she experiences racial taunts from the man across the street, to later living under a tree in a park. She often tells her thoughts to her boyfriend, BB, even when he’s not there. With her sex partners, male or female, she finds a home in their bodies:

“BB, we are not in Europe on a quest to find alternatives to our countries lying in ruins but to construct our own in the island of our lust, I said. I don’t understand, Hannah, he said. Are you equating sex to a country? I didn’t know whether his question was genuine or had a hint of mockery about it. But who are we, I thought, if we don’t savour our ridiculousness, our madness, in the way we embrace sanity?”

Racism, colonialism, memories of war-torn countries from which these characters came, are all woven into this imaginative look into an immigrant woman’s experiences.

Addonia is an Eritrean-Ethiopian-British author living in Belgium. His previous acclaimed novels are “The Consequences of Love” and “Silence Is My Mother Tongue.”

“The Seers” is one of seven titles by authors from around the world being produced and published by Minneapolis-based Coffee House through a $35,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Related Articles

How Tupac Shakur became an icon of political resistance and rebellion

Book Review: A new biography goes long and deep on the rise and fall of rock band Talking Heads

Summer books 2025: Get lost in spiritual or just plain weird books

Literary pick for week of June 15: Craig Thomson’s ‘Gingseng Roots’

Literary calendar for week of June 15

Today is Sunday, June 22, the 173rd day of 2025. There are 192 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On June 22, 1938, in a rematch that bore the weight of both geopolitical symbolism and African American representation, American Joe Louis knocked out German Max Schmeling in just two minutes and four seconds to retain his heavyweight boxing title in front of 70,000 spectators at New York’s Yankee Stadium.

Also on this date:

In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte abdicated for a second time as Emperor of the French.

Related Articles

What to know about bunker-buster bombs unleashed on Iran’s Fordo nuclear facility

Transcript of Trump’s speech on US strikes on Iran

What to know about the Iranian nuclear sites that were hit by US strikes

Watch live: Trump addresses nation after U.S. military strikes on Iran nuclear facilities

Mahmoud Khalil vows to continue protesting Israel and the war in Gaza after release from detention

1941, Nazi Germany launched Operation Barbarossa, a massive and ultimately ill-fated invasion of the Soviet Union that would prove pivotal to the Allied victory over the Axis Powers.

In 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, more popularly known as the “GI Bill of Rights,” which provided tuition coverage, unemployment support and low-interest home and business loans to returning veterans.

In 1945, the World War II Battle of Okinawa ended with an Allied victory.

In 1970, President Richard Nixon signed an extension of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that lowered the minimum voting age to 18.

In 1977, John N. Mitchell became the first former U.S. Attorney General to go to prison as he began serving a sentence for his role in the Watergate cover-up.

In 1981, Mark David Chapman pleaded guilty to killing rock star and former Beatle John Lennon.

In 1986, Argentine soccer player Diego Maradona scored the infamous “Hand of God” goal in the quarterfinals of the FIFA World Cup against England, giving Argentina a 1-0 lead. (Maradona would follow minutes later with a remarkable individual effort that become known as the “Goal of the Century,” and Argentina won 2-1.)

In 1992, the U.S. Supreme Court, in R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul, unanimously ruled that “hate crime” laws that banned cross burning and similar expressions of racial bias violated free-speech rights.

In 2011, after evading arrest for 16 years, mob boss James “Whitey” Bulger was captured in Santa Monica, California.

In 2012, former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was convicted by a jury in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, on 45 counts of sexually assaulting 10 boys over 15 years. (Sandusky would later be sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison.)

Today’s Birthdays:

Actor Prunella Scales is 93.
Actor Klaus Maria Brandauer is 82.
Fox News analyst Brit Hume is 82.
Musician-producer Peter Asher (Peter and Gordon) is 81.
Musician-producer Todd Rundgren is 77.
Actor Meryl Streep is 76.
Actor Lindsay Wagner is 76.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is 76.
Actor Graham Greene is 73.
Singer-songwriter Cyndi Lauper is 72.
Actor Bruce Campbell is 67.
Environmental activist Erin Brockovich is 65.
Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., is 65.
Basketball Hall of Famer Clyde Drexler is 63.
Actor Amy Brenneman is 61.
Author Dan Brown is 61.
Actor Mary Lynn Rajskub is 54.
Football Hall of Famer Kurt Warner is 54.
TV personality Carson Daly is 52.
Actor Donald Faison is 51.
Football Hall of Famer Champ Bailey is 47.
Golfer Dustin Johnson is 41.

By SEUNG MIN KIM, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — One image shows President Donald Trump staring straight ahead stone-faced, monitoring the mission that took out three Iranian nuclear enrichment sites on Saturday.

In another image, Trump stands as his chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dan Caine, appears to speak. And whenever Trump is pictured, he is donning a bright red hat blaring his signature campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.”

The series of photos that the White House published on its X account Saturday gives the public a rare glimpse inside the Situation Room — again stirring the intrigue that occurs any time pictures from the highly secret complex are released.

In this image provided by the White House, President Donald Trump, right, and Vice President JD Vance sit in the Situation Room, Saturday, June 21, 2025, at the White House in Washington. (The White House via AP)

(Recall the photo of then-president Barack Obama watching the raid that killed Osama bin Laden?)

The photos from Saturday portrayed Trump with senior members of his team, including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio — doubling as Trump’s national security adviser — White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. They are gathered around a large wooden table in the main conference room of the Situation Room, known as the “JFK Room” — named for the president who was in office when the Situation Room was established.

Trump is always in sharp focus whenever he is pictured, even as other officials in the foreground — like Hegseth or Vance — are softly blurred.

In this image provided by the White House, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in foreground, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio sit in the Situation Room, Saturday, June 21, 2025, at the White House in Washington. (The White House via AP)

The two officials closest to Trump when he’s seated are Vance and Rubio, perhaps underscoring the depth of their influence as Trump deliberated for days whether to strike Iran.

But the president isn’t always sitting still. At points, Trump was roaming around the room, standing behind his top aide Wiles as Caine appeared to speak. Some photos show Cabinet members sitting still, intently watching something, while others show a relative flurry of activities — the joint chiefs chairman pointing animatedly, Hegseth conferring with another official.

There are half-empty water bottles on the wooden conference table, along with disposable cups featuring the White House seal. Colorful highlighters. A thick binder in front of Caine.

This image provided by the White House shows CIA Director John Ratcliffe, in foreground seated, as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, left, speaks with national security adviser Andy Baker with White House counsel David Warrington seated in background in the Situation Room, Saturday, June 21, 2025, at the White House in Washington. (The White House via AP)

CIA Director John Ratcliffe had a binder and papers in front of him as well, although his documents appeared to be blurred — certainly for security reasons.

Senior administration officials not considered principals were also there. In the back in one photo is Dan Scavino, the president’s omnipresent deputy chief of staff. In another, White House counsel David Warrington is pictured.

The Situation Room that Trump and his national security team sat in is a vastly different one than from his previous term. The sprawling complex located on the ground floor of the West Wing underwent a $50 million renovation that was completed in 2023.