Three women walk together and are laughing and gesturing in conversation with each other. They are outside and surrounded by trees. — Katie Nyberg, Mary Hammes, and Anna Waugh celebrate after a National Public Lands Day event at Coldwater Spring in 2019.

Over the course of her six-year career with Mississippi Park Connection, which ended with a recent promotion to Director of Stewardship, Mary Hammes was the driving force behind several major environmental initiatives.

The first was Plant For The Future, an effort to restore habitat in the wake of incredible canopy loss due to the emerald ash borer beetle. Through that campaign community partners and hundreds of volunteers joined Mississippi Park Connection in planting more than 15,000 trees and shrubs to establish the next generation of forests throughout the national park.

The second initiative was the Twin Cities chapter of the Adaptive Silviculture for Climate Change (ASCC) project. ASCC is a longterm, nationwide initiative to identify the tree species best suited to thrive in our rapidly changing climate.

In addition to these herculean efforts, Mary built countless relationships with land managers and community groups throughout the Mississippi River corridor and beyond. Through those partnerships, together we drastically improved the natural spaces of the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area for our current communities and for generations to come. And she will continue to do so in her new role with The Nature Conservancy. Go Mary!

Mary and a group of MPC and NPS staff are all smiling while near the shoreline of the Mississippi River — Mary Hammes, left, was (and still is) the queen of the onsite selfie - always diligent to capture the action at an event or whatever and whoever she was working with that day.

Mary, tell us about a day that was really fun at your job?

I remember during the ASCC planting, at one point I was sitting in the back of Neil’s (Land Manager and Crew Leader, Mississippi National River and Recreation Area) truck flying down the trail. Of course, he wasn’t actually going that fast but given how much I had been walking back and forth, it felt like flying. It was the lush, ultra bright early green of late spring and everything was soooo alive. We were nearing the end of a really incredible accomplishment that we achieved despite all the odds being against us. Notes from community members sharing how healing it was to be planting trees during the unrest following the murder of George Floyd were a reminder that it was never just about trees. The note I wrote to volunteers afterwards still rings so true:

“Greetings, You Wonderful Volunteers!

Last Wednesday, we put the final of 1,200 trees into the ground at Crosby Farm Regional Park.

This was quite a feat—that we pulled off during a pandemic and then finished during the horrible tragedy of George Floyd's murder and it's aftermath. I often say, “we couldn't do this without you!” to our volunteers with a big grin on my face. I mean it every time. This time, it feels bigger and more important. We couldn't do this without you. As a community, we are so much more than a sum of our parts. We are so much more when we show up for each other.

I've been looking at some overhead photos of the park from the past few years. The ghostly cloud of dead ash canopy hovers bigger and bigger even over just a few years between 2017 to 2019. Know that you helped to build a forest of the future in this park. A single tree can create shade, but a forest builds oxygen, mitigates the urban heat island impact, cleans water, and provides habitat to critters and people alike.

With boundless gratitude,
Mary”

What is a silly moment that you will never forget?

Weird office times leaving sculptures made out of cereal on each other’s desks. Pranks. Candy from Neil. Someone drawing a mustache on my government access card. Sterning a boat during a public volunteer event when there were three foot standing waves on the river. We really should have canceled that one...

What is one thing that you feel proud of?

Tamara Few became a full time permanent Program Coordinator at Mississippi Park Connection after her year of service as the park’s 2020 Community Volunteer Ambassador. I’m not sure how much I had to do with this, but I’m proud that Mississippi Park Connection offers affinity programming.

What is an emerging trend in environmental stewardship that Mississippi Park Connection should be aware of after you leave?

Intersectional climate adaptation work.

“When I look back on the last 7 years, I really can't believe…”

That one time we pulled eight tons of knapweed in a single event.

A group of people stand in the middle of a forest. Many of the ash trees are dead from the emerald ash borer and the trees are completely overgrown with cucumber vines. — Mary Hammes, center, stands with partners from the Adaptive Silviculture for Climate Change project at Crosby Farm Regional Park. Many of the trees in this photo are dead from the emerald ash borer, and sections of the forest were overtaken by wild cucumber vines. The project is part of Plant For The Future, an innitiative to reforest the floodplain forest with diverse trees that can withstand climate change.

“I’ll never forget (wildlife encounters)…”

I was walking out to the stand of dead ash trees at Crosby Farm Regional park, long before the ASCC project, with Katie Nyberg (Executive Director, Mississippi Park Connection), Dan Dressler (Supervisory Park Ranger and Public Programs Manager, Mississippi National River and Recreation Area), and a reporter from the Star Tribune (pretty sure his name was ‘Tad’). We saw TWO RIVER OTTERS. I had never seen them before on the Mississippi River and was so delighted. I remember Tad saying, ‘Oh. Only two otters, eh?’ like he was disappointed. Katie, Dan, and I giggled about that because he had no idea how rare and special they are.

My other favorite wildlife sighting has been seeing softshell turtles like underwater pancakes near islands and Meeker Island Dam. It gives the river a jungle feel that I love. I love the magic of realizing the incredible biodiversity of freshwater mussels, and mucking for shells at Durham Island beach.

Three people stand outside at a park. They have their arms around each other and are smiling at the camera. — Mary Hammes worked closely with Paula Swingley and Andrew Marotz as part of the joint Volunteer Team of Mississippi Park Connection and the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area.

Who would you like to thank?

Everyone who said ‘yes, and’. All of our partners who were willing to bet on our big crazy ideas and come along for the ride. Volunteers who have unmatched heart and dedication to each other and the river. Colleagues who have pushed me, believed in me, and also picked up a shovel and helped when there was nothing left to do but dig.

A farewell note from Mary Hammes