Habitat Restoration Events

Thursdays: May 29, June 5, 12 & 26; 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Drop in and get your hands dirty while restoring habitat! The Coldwater Spring Restoration Crew meets weekly throughout the year to maintain Coldwater Spring, just south of Minnehaha Falls in Minneapolis. Activities include vegetation removal, site exploration, and other outdoor restoration tasks. If you like to be outdoors and create tangible change in the environment, this opportunity is for you!

Saturday, May 31; 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Wednesday, June 11; 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM

Help us take care of the floodplain forest! The Crosby Crew meets regularly at Crosby Farm Regional Park, which hosts the Adaptive Silviculture for Climate Change study—a long-term research project aimed at helping our forests become more resilient. The Crew will primarily focus on maintaining research plots in the project's formative years. This includes patching up holes, uprighting loose/downed fencing, and removing vines entangling the plot fences.

Saturday, June 21; 9:00 AM - 11:30 AM

Grey Cloud Dunes Scientific and Natural Area (SNA) is one of two SNAs in the Mississippi River and National Recreation Area. The site hosts upland dry prairie and lowland floodplain forests and is a valuable habitat for wildlife such as the North American racer and Henslow’s sparrow. MPC and NPS, in partnership with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MN DNR), are hosting habitat restoration events throughout the season to preserve the site.

We will remove introduced species by either hand pulling or lopping woody stems, depending on the time of the year, to protect the site. On May 10th, we plan on removing buckthorn and honeysuckle with loppers from the site.

There are no maintained trails or facilities on-site. For further information about Grey Cloud Dunes SNA, read the MN Department of Natural Resources’ webpage for a map and site description.