• Wilderness in the City

    Dedicated to preserving and enhancing urban natural areas for ourselves and future generations.

  • Lebanon Hills Regional Park

    “We call it Boundary Waters South,” Katie Pata, operations coordinator for the Dakota County parks.

  • Volunteer

    Natural resource volunteers are vital to the health of our urban regional parklands and watersheds.

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  • Donate & Join Us

    Support our work to enhance and preserve natural resources in Lebanon Hills and other Regional Parks across the Twin Cities.

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2022 Annual Meeting

Wednesday, May 18

Camp Sacajawea, Lebanon Hills Regional Park

Our Turf to Pollinator Garden Project Begins!

  • Wilderness in the City Update including our LCCMR funded Regional Parks Turf to Pollinator Garden Project
  • Natural Resources Update for Lebanon Hills Regional Park and Buffalo Arrive in Spring Lake Park Reserve
  • Pollinator & Rain Gardens by Metro Blooms  our Pollinator Garden Project Partner

Hearty appetizers | Beverages available for purchase
Cost:  $10 members, $15 non-members
6:30pm Doors Open | 7pm Program | 8:30 – 9pm Social
Limited seating! Early arrival recommended.

Become a member or renew your membership at the door!

  • $20 Prairie Level Membership includes one drink ticket
  • $50 Oak Savannah Level or above also receives a Wilderness in the City Kleen Canteen thermos cup – perfect for sipping drinks around a campfire.

Pollinator Garden Grant

Increasing Native Habitat for Pollinators – A LCCMR Grant in Partnership with Metro Blooms

Field of envrionmentally degrading turf in regional parkThroughout the regional parks system, expansive swaths of environmentally-degrading turf provide timely opportunities to create high-quality native pollinator gardens. Our project is designed to replace up to 1/4 acres of turf in ten regional parks with native, resilient gardens to support important pollinators. These gardens will also serve to inspire and educate regional park visitors on how they can create their own pollinator gardens in their own backyards. Many pollinator insects don’t travel far so a patchwork of gardens in every neighborhood is vital. A network of them across the metro is also necessary for larger pollinator species.

In 2019 Wilderness in the City applied for a grant through the LCCMR to create ten pollinator gardens within the regional parks system with willing park agencies as partners.  The gardens were planned as community projects to help inspire and educate people on how to replicate the process in their own yards, eventually resulting in a mosaic of high quality pollinator gardens across the metro.   

Metro Blooms

We are excited to partner on this project with Metro Blooms. This Minneapolis based non-profit is highly respected and has a reputation for working with communities to create resilient, environmentally-supportive native gardens. We believe our collaboration will bring some beautiful and inspirational gardens along with a lot of pollinators to the metro’s regional parks.

The Legacy of Nature Alliance (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.

We are excited to announce we’ll be hosting the Wild & Scenic Film Festival again SOON. We’re working on the time and place – venues are still difficult to come by due to the pandemic. We’ll publish the details as soon as venues begin to open up again so we can have both a live and virtual event.

  

Lebanon Hills Natural Resource Volunteer

Volunteer and Represent Wilderness in the City doing natural resource stewardship in Lebanon Hills Regional Park. Register through Dakota County Parks.

May 3 – June 9  Garlic Mustard Pulls and Garlic Mustard Challenge

June 1 – July 31  Visual Turtle Survey

Ongoing natural resource work

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.

Newsletters

Fall 2022

Fall 2019

Spring 2019

Winter 2019

Fall 2018

Spring 2018

Winter 2018

Fall 2017

Summer 2017

Spring 2017

Winter 2017

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

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.