• 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.

    Donate Now

  • Donate & Join Us

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

    Donate & Join Us
1234

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.

Pollinator Garden Project

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 – Holland Lake Trailhead
  • Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board – Wirth Park, Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden Entrance
  • Ramsey County Parks and Recreation – Battle Creek Regional Park

Site selections will be completed in Fall 2022. Site preparation and installations will take place over the summer and fall of 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

 

Lebanon Hills Trail Plans

Sustainability Study Results Due

Dakota County’s consultants have spent the last year evaluating the trails in Lebanon Hills Regional park. Their recommendations to the Dakota County Physical Development Committee is scheduled for the end of November.

We have met with staff and the consultants twice to offer our input regarding the recommendations being put forward. The purpose of the study was to review all the existing trails for uses, alignment, and construction. We appreciate that finally the many eroded and degraded trails are getting attention. Our response, as always is to encourage the county to view this study first through an environmental lens. The park’s natural resource management plan was just completed and approved a year ago. Trail sustainability recommendations should be compliant with that plan.

We will continue to monitor the study process and provide updates.

 

SES Students & Trail Study

Wilderness in the City Newsletter Fall 2021

Fall 2021 Newsletter

 

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.

Newsletters

Fall 2021  | Fall 2019  | Spring 2019 | Winter 2019 | Fall 2018 | Spring 2018 | Winter 2018 | Fall 2017 | Summer 2017 | Spring 2017 | Winter 2017

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.

Click me

Click here to add your own text