Conservation

FMR works with public and private landowners, local government agencies and concerned community members — including thousands of volunteers — to protect and restore bluffs, prairies, forests and other lands important to our communities and the health of our metro Mississippi.

Here's what our conservation staff are currently working on and encountering in the field. 

Learn more about all our protection and restoration sites at our conservation map, as well as more information about our approach and program.

Conservation updates are also shared on social media (Facebook and Twitter) and in our Mississippi Messages newsletter.

POSTS

How (and when) to use the critical period cutting method to remove invasive buckthorn
Step-by-step instructions for removing large buckthorn using this new, herbicide-free method. Read more
Person lops branches off of buckthorn stump
Where we work: Seidl's Lake Park
A former orchard, sheep and dairy farm, and swimming hole tucked into a corner of both South Saint Paul and Inver Grove Heights, this city park's wooded hillsides are now transforming into a pocket of much-needed habitat within the urban landscape. Read more
Seidl's Lake, blue surrounded by green forest
Spring intern creates strategic land protection database
Our land conservation spring intern Sam Vanspriell spent four months conducting complex analysis to help us identify land near the river that, if protected, could be key for habitat and water quality. Read more
Sam and Alex at poster session
Spring ephemerals: 9 Minnesota wildflowers you can find between snow-melt and leaf-out
A whole guild of native woodland plants bloom and fruit before trees turn green and fully shade the ground. Read more
Closed bloodroot flowers in brown woods
How our ecologists piece together a site’s past and plan for its future
What can the outstretched limbs of a bur oak reveal about the land? Here's how our ecologists find signs underfoot and overhead to understand a place before beginning to restore its habitat. Read more
Bur oak in savanna
Where we work: Sheridan Memorial Park
Located along the east bank of the Mississippi River just north of the Broadway Avenue bridge, this site is home to a veterans memorial, an FMR-installed raingarden, and a multi-year community partnership with the Sheridan Neighborhood Organization. Read more
Sheridan Memorial raingarden with Veterans memorial in background
Supporting Minnesota's public lands
FMR recently signed on to a letter to legislators urging investment in Minnesota's public lands. Many of the special places our ecologists and volunteers work in depend on state support. Read more
How our warm winter affected habitat restoration progress
What will the warmest winter on record mean for wildlife? We won't know for awhile. We do know that it got in the way of our usual winter tasks for wildlife habitat restoration. Luckily, our ecologists like challenges. Read more
Open river with snow along the banks
Now hiring: summer field ecology intern
Join our Land Conservation team as an intern this summer! Read more
Field ecology intern
Can pockets of habitat tip the scales in degraded wetlands?
Invasive reed canary grass forms dense monocultures in many wetlands across the Upper Midwest, but we're experimenting with ways to give native wetland plants a better foothold. Read more
Vermillion River flows through reed canary grass

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Upcoming Events

Tuesday, July 30, 2024 - 5:30pm to 8:00pm
Rotary Pavilion at Levee Park, Hastings
Saturday, August 3, 2024 - 9:00am to 2:00pm
Mississippi River Gorge, Minneapolis
New date: Saturday, August 10, 2024 at 5 p.m.
Hidden Falls Regional Park, St. Paul