This project is part of an ongoing relationship between the Nature Conservancy and MNL to harvest Bluestem Natural and Scientific Area’s native prairie to propagate around the Agassiz beach ridge in Northwestern Minnesota. This SNA is revered booming ground for the disappearing Prairie Chickens that once burgeoned this area. It is because of Bluestem’s unique protection that allows plant species …
White Oaks Savanna™, is a unique, design-driven housing community with 30 home sites nestled into a prairie landscape that is being restored by MNL. The homes are being constructed on 5 to 7 acre lots that will primarily be maintained as prairie and oak savanna natural areas. The developers came to MNL to help them with their restoration after previous …
A dam built in 1970 on Pine River in Crow Wing county was no longer functioning properly for both wildlife and humans. Nearby home owners experienced flooding and in turn keeping Big Pine lake at a lower water level. MNL executed a highly intricate plan including series of rock weirs to control the stream both up and downstream while allowing …
Located in Albert Lea, across the lake from Myre-Big Island State Park, the head of the Shell Rock river was in need of a change in the flow of the water. The project taking place in the winter of ’21 and ’22 our team worked some long, cold days in wet conditions to complete the restoration using multiple techniques such …
MNL’s work with Engstrom’s Wildflower at Lake Elmo began in 2015 with site preparation. Natural areas were cleared of buckthorn and other weedy vegetation. Starting in the fall of 2015 through the spring of 2017, areas of the site were seeded with multiple native seed mixes to create a mosaic of different habitats (wetland, emergent, mesic prairie, dry prairie, savanna …
North Star Solar is a 100MW project near North Branch, MN. Upon completion in 2016 it was the largest solar site in the Midwest, producing enough energy to power 20,000 homes. MNL has been involved with this project from the early stages, working with the developer and Minnesota DNR to create suitable seed mixes for the site comprised entirely of …
In the spring of 2016, MNL began work on repair of 5 old and underperforming rain gardens. This project consisted of removing existing soils and plant debris, adding rain garden soil mixture, installing edging, mulching, planting, and assembling splash blocks on 4 of the 5 garden spaces. We really enjoyed seeing the improvements in a short period of time! Project …
This project consists of 5 large parking lot islands that MNL has converted to wildflower dominated prairie areas. Each prairie island is bordered by low-mow fescue to maintain sightlines around roadways and parking lot edges. This project began in 2012, and was burned in 2015. Project Partners:
In 2014, MNL began work on the creation of two rain gardens at Prince of Peace Church in Roseville. These rain gardens collect runoff from parking lot and roadway areas much more effectively than the previous turf lawn could. A variety of native herbaceous plants and shrubs were added in the spring of 2015 to filter runoff collected in the …
The project goal was to re-establish a uniform and stable soft-armored lakeshore. Installation included 100 linear feet of coir log, import and placement of 12 cubic yards of clean fill, coir blanket to create one soil lift, along with hardwood mulch, native shoreline seed and approximately 1,200 native plants and shrubs. Project Partners:
