Volunteer Events

Help restore Pine Bend Bluffs Natural Area, brush haul + celebration [FULL]

August 10, 2016

Join Friends of the Mississippi River, Flint Hills Resources and Great River Greening as we return to the Flint Hills property within the Pine Bend Bluffs Natural Area along the Mississippi River — one of the largest and most diverse native ecosystems left in the metro area. The site is only accessible to the public for special occasions such as this annual restoration and celebration event on Saturday, October 15, 9 a.m.-noon.

To complete your registration for this event you must include your name, address and phone number for yourself and anyone in your party. Please note, participants must be 15 years of age or older. Registration will close on October 6th, 2016.

**contact LM

Collect native prairie seed at the Sand Coulee SNA [FULL]

August 10, 2016

After a brief training, volunteers will help hand collect much-needed native prairie seed while enjoying this rare example of a sand-gravel prairie in full fall bloom. No experience is needed, all training and materials will be provided.

**contact Linda to sign up!

Volunteers collecting native seed at the Sand Coulee SNA

Volunteers plant pollinator patches aplenty

by Adam Flett

August 8, 2016

What can a small planting of milkweed and other natives really do for pollinators? More than you might think.

Hastings Environmental Protectors and FMR teamed up to create three new pollinator patches, helping to provide much-needed habitat for a variety of insect and pollinating species in the Vermillion and Mississippi river watersheds.

An FMR Vermillion Stewards volunteer plants a pollinator patch.

Collect native seed + cut cottonwood seedlings at Heritage Village Park [FULL]

August 8, 2016

Located just 15 minutes south of St. Paul in Inver Grove Heights, Heritage Village Park is a 50-acre site on the banks of the Mississippi River. Volunteers will collect native prairie grass seed and cut cottonwood seedlings. This native grass seed will be replanted at Heritage Village Park and neighboring Rock Island Swing Bridge Park. Volunteers may also be asked to participate in other restoration tasks that are needed to help improve this site.

Volunteers collecting native seed at Heritage Village Park

Haul brush from the oak woodlands

July 27, 2016

Thanks to the support of local volunteers and a long-term partnership with 3M, FMR has had the privilege of helping to preserve and restore the oak woodlands at 3M's Cottage Grove facility near the Mississippi River. Volunteers are needed to haul pre-cut brush from this natural area to make way for native species to thrive. A light breakfast and catered lunch will be provided.

Brush haul volunteers at 3M Cottage Grove

Tend the demonstration prairie at Ole Olson Park [FULL]

July 27, 2016

Join us as we return to one of FMR's newest restoration sites! Volunteers are needed to help tend a demonstration native prairie at Ole Olson Park in Minneapolis' Above the Falls Regional Park. Working with the city and relying on local volunteer power over time, we look forward to transforming the park into an oasis of habitat and respite — returning willows to the shoreline, wildflowers to the slopes and majestic oaks to the terraces.