Schuneman Wildlife Preserve:

In 1967 the Carl T. Schuneman Jr. family became interested in finding a conservation organization to take possession of and preserve as a wildlife refuge, a marsh tract of about 100 acres two miles north of White Bear Lake. They deeded a substantial part of this area in 1970 to the Agassiz Chapter of the Izaak Walton League of America, excluding only 3.7 acres of the northeast corner.

The Schuneman Marsh includes about ten acres of upland sloping into a black, peaty zone which borders the extensive wet meadow and marshland. The results of four years of tree planting, mostly of evergreens, have become a wildlife shelter belt, windbreak, and noise screen. The lowland is predominantly grassy peat supporting grasses with scattered stands of willow and aspen on the ditch banks with cattail, bullrushes, and other water tolerant plants around the ponds.

Though to some eyes it may appear only a useless, weedy wasteland, the Schuneman Marsh is a mecca for wildlife in spring and summer. The summer bird population is large and remarkably varied. Signs of animal life are everywhere. Deer, fox, raccoon, muskrat, mink, and smaller animals are often seen.