Twin Cities development executive Stephen Bona has long since learned how to dodge sensitive wetlands and endangered critters to build new suburban neighborhoods.
But for Bona, the protected bristleberry that stalled a 40-acre development in booming northern Blaine was a shocking first.
"It caught us by surprise. We had never heard of it before," said Bona, vice president of land development at Capstone Homes, one of the most prolific homebuilders in Blaine. "It was a very difficult situation."
Capstone originally proposed designing the subdivision around three colonies of the bristleberry, a low-growing sprawling bush in the blackberry family. The state Department of Natural Resources, uncomfortable with homes so close to the plants, nixed that proposal.
So Capstone wrote a nearly $20,000 check to the DNR in order to destroy the bristleberry bushes.
"Rather than try to put a fence around these three populations, we allowed the destruction of these populations and used the compensatory mitigation to protect these species elsewhere," said Richard Baker, the DNR's endangered species coordinator.
The small plant not only delayed the project for a year, it raised some thorny questions about future growth vs. environmental protection in the north metro area.
In 2013, changes to Minnesota's endangered and threatened species standards added about 21 plants from the Anoka Sand Plain to the list, bringing the total to 57 protected species in the region. Baker said they make up 30 percent of the state's endangered or threatened species in only 2.2 percent of the state's land area.