Stay current
Get river news, FMR updates and event calendars twice a month.
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
January 27, 2022
At the William H. Houlton Conservation Area — one of the largest undeveloped riverfront properties in the metro — we're restoring 160 acres of soybean field and grazed grasslands into prairie and oak savanna. Read more
January 14, 2022
The industrial uses that once dominated half of Nicollet Island have given way to a mix of homes, trails and a beloved park where we're restoring pockets of prairie and a forest of maples and climate-adapted tree species. Read more
January 14, 2022
FMR is very pleased to welcome a familiar face to a different role in the organization. Beginning this month, our former ecologist Alex Roth assumes the duties of conservation director, leading FMR's Land Conservation department.
FMR is very pleased to welcome a familiar face to a different role in the organization. Beginning this month, our former ecologist Alex Roth assumes the duties of conservation director, leading FMR's Land Conservation department. >>
Read more
January 7, 2022
FMR has permanently protected 45 sites in the greater metro area since 1993. Our fall 2021 Land Conservation intern, Nick Jacobson, created a tool to help us answer the question of where to focus next. Which lands can we most effectively protect, restore and enhance along the Mississippi River for its wildlife and human communities? >>
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December 17, 2021
December 1, 2021
November 18, 2021
When we learned that Ramsey County was considering developing open space that we believe provides essential habitat, FMR requested a natural resources inventory. The report confirms: Endangered and rare birds depend on this grassland. Read more
November 12, 2021
Whether it's the return of grassland birds to a once-homogenous cropland we've restored to prairie, or the adaptive behaviors of urban foxes and coyotes, the well-being of Minnesota's wildlife can serve as a window into our ecosystems as we strive to be better stewards of the land. Get to know a few of the critters who find habitat in FMR restoration sites. >>
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October 14, 2021
FMR strives to create and sustain habitat corridors. The more we connected our protection and sites are, the greater their benefits, especially as our climate changes. Read more
October 13, 2021
Critical for wildlife, this 1,300-acre corridor of protected lands along the dramatic western bluffs of the Mississippi River south of the metro includes Pine Bend Bluffs SNA — our first major conservation project in the 1990s — an award-winning restoration, and one of our favorite places to bird and see the sweep of the river south of the cities. >>
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