Details A citizen lead community group to conserve and clean surface/ground waters in the Winona Watershed making Lake Winona fishable, boat-able, swim-able. Mission: To engage the Winona area community in action that improves the health of Lake Winona and preserves it as a valued community resource. Vision: Lake Winona is a healthy natural environment that […]
Mail order Prairie Moon Nursery Prairie Nursery Seed Savers Exchange (non-native and not necessarily regional, but a non-profit dedicated to preserving heirloom, organic vegetable and fruit seeds) A Sampling of Regional Native Plant Nurseries and Landscape Designers (Minnesota) Blazing Star Gardens: Design and landscaping services. Phone orders for pick up (Owatonna) or delivery. Boreal Natives: […]
June 13, 2018leslieCommunity, Gardening, Organic, Vegetables How church members are contributing to the locally grown organic food movement … and how you can too.Read More May 28, 2018leslieLawns, Organic, Soil, Water John Coatta, of Green Core Organic Lawn Care, explains how homeowners can have lush lawns that don’t rely on weed killers and synthetic fertilizers.Read […]
December 24, 2022leslieFood Garden, Gardening, Organic, Vegetables “One evening I watched a documentary on Netflix called “Fed Up” and that was all it took to get the wheels spinning in my head about the foods we feed our children in school.Read More November 29, 2022leslieCommunity, Food Garden Local food production is one of the key […]
The Butterfly Effect is published four times per year by Neighborhood Greening. In it, we spotlight our successes, examine small but impactful changes we can make to become better stewards of our local environment, tell our “green” stories, and show how environmental stewardship directly enriches our community, families, and lives. Sign up to be notified […]
You love your pooch but its poo is an environmental pollutant—so much so that the EPA has put it in the same category as herbicides and insecticides; oil, grease and toxic chemicals. Always bag it up and throw it in the trash (or flush it down the toilet if you have petit pooch poo and […]
April 24, 2020leslieCommunity, Health and Wellness, Native Plants Kelly Cartwright, Ph.D., is a biology professor at the College of Lake County in Grayslake, Illinois where she teaches environmental biology, general biology, botany, and introduction to sustainability.Read More
November 18, 2024leslieFlower-Visiting Flies and Bugs Much of the attention given to insect pollinators focuses on bees and butterflies with a passing interest given to moths and perhaps wasps. Flies and beetles are sometimes depicted when a photo to promote bee conservation is mistakenly a syrphid, bee fly or, on the rare occasion, a flower […]
The Ephemeral Spring Wildflowers After a long winter, spring wildflower ephemerals herald a new growing season. The first blooms magically transform the woodland landscape. These early plants emerge in deciduous forests before the overhead trees fully leaf out. Those same trees provide the leaf litter that creates the nutrient-rich soil in which ephemerals and other […]
April 18, 2024leslieGardening, Insects, Native Plants The Ephemeral Spring Wildflowers After a long winter, spring wildflower ephemerals herald a new growing season. The first blooms magically transform the woodland landscape. These early plants emerge in deciduous forests before the overhead trees fully leaf out.Read More
Does One Yard Make a Difference? —By Kelly Cartwright, Ph.D. This year, I have been journaling once a week on the birds in my yard. I sit for a few minutes, see who is visiting that morning, what unique or interesting behaviors they may be exhibiting, and start to write. As winter changed to spring, […]
Details Thomas Sadler Roberts Bird Sanctuary is a 31-acre undeveloped natural area located in Lyndale Park near the Peace Garden, north of Lake Harriet. Part of the Chain of Lakes Regional Park, the Sanctuary is managed by the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board. The Sanctuary was established in 1936 and renamed in 1947 to honor […]
You may not be aware of the vast role citizen volunteers—people just like you—play in scientific research collaborations. The Monarch Watch program “engages citizen scientists of all ages in large-scale research projects involving the tagging and tracking of migrating monarchs.” Monarch Watch’s citizen led wing-tagging program produces significant data on monarch migration and related conservation […]
November 29, 2022leslieCommunity, Food Garden Local food production is one of the key components of a climate crisis solution. The spread of the urban agriculture phenomenon across the U.S. is encouraging in this regard.Read More