Did a famed parks leader import gray squirrels to Minneapolis — and have the red ones killed? January 20, 2023 Star Trib
Gray squirrels were once a rare breed mostly found in forests. Now they are abundant in the city's parks.
Minneapolis parks are swarming with gray squirrels — those fat-cheeked, bushy-tailed tree rats that stalk picnics and snatch Doritos out of people's hands.
They're smart. They're audacious. And they might be overpopulated.
Reader Dennis Becker wanted to know if it was true that one of the founders of the Minneapolis park system, longtime superintendent Theodore Wirth, had imported gray squirrels to Minneapolis from afar. He sought answers from Curious Minnesota, the Star Tribune's reporting project fueled by reader questions.
"I heard they went around shooting all the red squirrels so they could have the gray squirrels," said Becker, who suggested it might be time to shoot the grays now. "They're such a nuisance, you know. They chew on everything and there's so many of them."
The answer is, amazingly, yes. Wirth did go out of his way to supplant one squirrel with another.
That's according to old newspaper articles, Minneapolis Park Board records and local park historian David C. Smith. Wirth, who did many heavy-handed things to reshape nature in pursuit of the perfect park, was actually quite proud of himself for the accomplishment.
It's hard to imagine parks today without the common gray squirrel — though it is not clear how much of the Twin Cities' urban squirrel population can be attributed to Wirth's effort. They were once a rare breed mostly found in forests, a sought-after lawn ornament for budding urban parks around the country......
