Join Us On World Environment Day

Monday June 5

6:30 pm Doors Open | 7 pm Program | 8:30-9 pm Social

Camp Sacajawea, Lebanon Hills Regional Park

Light Appetizers & Refreshing Mocktails

Free

  • Celebrate another year of Wilderness in the City!
  • Cheer for our first Turf to Pollinator Garden being installed in Battle Creek Regional Park.
  • Meet our Board of Directors.
  • Enjoy our guest speakers Alexandra Zerzan of Metro Blooms, Niki Geisler, Parks Director of Dakota County, and Joe Walton, Senior Ecologist at Dakota County.

Alexandra will talk about the Battle Creek garden and more planned for Theodore Wirth, Minnehaha Falls, Bunker Hills, Keller Lake, and Lebanon Hills Regional Parks. Niki will discuss balancing natural resources and recreation in a regional park, and Joe will give an update on natural resource work in Lebanon Hills.

Volunteer!

Lebanon Hills Natural Resource Volunteer Events

Get Outside and have a positive impact on our world. Help out Mother Nature at one of these spring volunteer opportunities at Lebanon Hills Regional Park – find one that works for you. Think of it as cleaning your room.

Wild & Scenic Film Festival

Thank You!

We hope you enjoyed your evening at Surly Brewery to benefit Wilderness in the City! We selected the festival program of wildly popular award-winning short films to inspire, inform, and entertain you. We love building a stronger Twin Cities environmental community.

THANK YOU for your support of Wilderness in the City. Our natural resource work for parks, pollinator gardens, and urban green spaces wouldn’t be as successful without you.

Learn more about SYRCL’s Wild & Scenic Film Festival on Tour.

Wilderness in the City’s Pollinator Garden Project will replace environmentally degrading turf with native pollinator gardens in six Twin Cities regional parks. These community projects will help inspire and educate people to plant their own native pollinator garden. Our goal – a mosaic of high quality pollinator gardens across the metro!

We are excited to partner with the following park agencies:

  • Anoka County Parks – Bunker Hills Regional Park
  • Dakota County Parks – Lebanon Hills Regional Park, Holland Lake Trailhead
  • Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board – Wirth Park, Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden Entrance and Minnehaha Park
  • Ramsey County Parks and Recreation – Battle Creek Regional Park and Keller Lake Regional Park

The Battle Creek site is scheduled for installation in Spring 2023. The others will have site preparation take place over Summer 2023 for planting in Fall 2023 or Spring 2024.

Minnesota Environmental & Natural Resources Trust Fund, Wilderness in the City, & Metro Blooms

Our project manager is Metro Blooms, the Minneapolis based non-profit with a reputation for working with communities to create resilient, environmentally-supportive native gardens. Funding is provided by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund (ENRTF) as recommended by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR).

Minnesota Environmental and Natural Resources Trust Fund

 

Student Internship

Build Leadership | Gain Work Experience | Earn Service Hours

We’re looking for students to serve as Youth Representatives on our Board of Directors. Click Learn More, fill out the application and email it to Maryann.

Lebanon Hills Trail Plans

Sustainability Study Done

Dakota County’s consultants have spent the last year evaluating all the trails in Lebanon Hills Regional Park for uses, alignment, and construction. The study has been completed and presented to the Dakota County Physical Development Committee. It is now to be considered along with the park’s Master Plan and Natural Resource Management Plan in park management decisions.

We met with staff and the consultants twice during the process to offer our input regarding the plan’s recommendations for improved, moved, and new trails. We appreciate that finally the many eroded and degraded trails are getting attention. Our response, as always, was to strongly encourage the county to view this study first and foremost through an environmental lens. The park’s recently approved Natural Resource Management Plan is a strong assessment of the value and needs of the park’s environmental communities, as we like to call them. Any and all recreational trail recommendations should be considered around this plan’s recommendations for the park’s natural habitats.

We continue to encourage Dakota County to manage Lebanon Hills Regional Park’s lakes and land in ways that prioritizes its natural habitat, which is its greatest asset.

SES Students & Trail Study

 

Legacy of Nature Alliance (LONA)

LONA was established in 2021 to bring together individuals and organizations from throughout the metro region with a uniting mission:

“To ensure ecosystems are restored and preserved within the metropolitan regional parks system and throughout the entire region by providing high-quality habitat for wildlife and year-round Nature-based opportunities to inspire the next generation of environmental stewards.”

Organizations and individuals who support this mission are encouraged to join LONA.  We will be stronger together preserving and protecting lakes, prairies, wetlands and woodlands.

 

 

Newsletters

We monitor issues in Dakota County, Met Council, and the Legislature that affect Lebanon Hills Regional Park and other Nature-based regional parks in the metro area.  To receive a hard copy or for additional copies to distribute, simply send a request with your name and address to info@wildernessinthecity.org.

We monitor issues in Dakota County, Met Council, and the Legislature that affect Lebanon Hills Regional Park and other Nature-based regional parks in the metro area.  To receive a hard copy or for additional copies to distribute, simply send a request with your name and address to info@wildernessinthecity.org.

Support Wilderness in the City

Photo courtesy of Benjamin Olson

Becoming a Wilderness in the City Member is vitally important to support our work to preserve urban green spaces for ourselves and future generations. Your donation to Wilderness in the City , a 501c3 non-profit is completely tax-deductible. Annual Membership is valid through November, 2023.

THANK YOU for your Support!

Wilderness in the City is a completely volunteer 501c3 non-profit and all proceeds support our natural resource stewardship, outreach, and advocacy for our urban green spaces, especially our nature-based Regional Parks System.

 

We are Wilderness in the City – dedicated to preserving and enhancing urban natural areas for future generations.

Newsletters

Wilderness in the City’s informative newsletters are published quarterly and include timely information on issues relative to Lebanon Hills and the regional parks system.

Volunteer

There are many ways to volunteer Wilderness in the City.  Depending on your interest, you can participate in a natural resources work night, volunteer to work at a community event, or attend hearings and meet with Legislators to discuss A Legacy of Nature.

Lebanon Hills

Learn more about Lebanon Hills Regional Park and the controversial 2015 Master Plan, and what we are doing to help preserve the wilderness character of this beloved park, which is its greatest character.

Met Council

The Metropolitan Council’s 2040 Regional Parks Policy Plan establishes criteria that regional park implementing agencies must follow in order to be eligible for funding.  Learn more about how the process works. [This section is under construction and will be available soon!]

Dakota County

Find information relating to Dakota County Parks Department, the implementing agent for Lebanon Hills, including links and information related to natural resources, parks, and trails.

Contact

Contact us to learn more about any issues we are working on, or if you’d like to get involved.

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