Fall restoration events

This fall, 550 volunteers worked at many local lakes and waters during Greening's seasonal restoration events and made a difference for water quality and habitat throughout the metro and beyond:

• 150 volunteers helped protect the last undeveloped shoreline on New Prague's Cedar Lake by planting over 9,000 forbs and grasses in the regional park.

• 130 volunteers pulled buckthorn and honeysuckle to make way for native species to flourish along the picturesque shoreline and popular walking trails at Colby Lake in Edgewater Park, Woodbury.

• 113 volunteers contributed to the restoration and development of Heritage Village Park in Inver Grove Heights. Formerly the site of a rail yard and swing bridge pier on the Mississippi River, Heritage Village is being transformed into an 80-acre public park connected to the Mississippi Regional Trail, a 26-mile paved trail between Saint Paul and Hastings.

• 77 volunteers took part in the grand opening celebration of Prior Lake's Spring Lake Regional Park by clearing invasive species and planting oak trees that benefit wildlife dependent on healthy Oak Savanna landscapes.

• 80 Volunteers planted trees alongside the Rum River, on easement properties near Cambridge, to restore the last major gap in this otherwise intact floodplain along one of Minnesota's designated Wild & Scenic Rivers.