Great River Greening’s Wiley Buck contributed a column to Anoka County newspapers about our work in the Anoka Sand Plain. This column is part of a series of monthly columns published as a collaboration between the League of Women Voters Upper Mississippi River Region and other environmental agencies and groups working in Anoka County. To learn more about the League of Women Voters, visit lwvumrr.org.

Excerpt:

Great River Greening leads dozens of habitat restoration projects in the Anoka sand plain, and we engage volunteers in meaningful restoration activities. This helps stretch funds, address our labor needs in the peak spring season, and get local residents to enjoy this very rewarding process.

One such project is the reintroduction of wild rice into shallow water bodies. Wild rice is an important food source for migrating waterfowl, and remains a cultural and edible staple for Minnesotans.

Wild rice took a dive in Minnesota decades ago when not much was done about erosion or stormwater management.

Now, with vast improvements in those two areas, the only thing missing is the wild rice seed. Wild rice is an annual plant, so it does not take much to diminish it within isolated water bodies.

Read the rest of the story here: Column: Restoring the Anoka sand plain