Minnesota Native Landscapes (MNL) is an ecological restoration company working to promote and restore native habitat in Minnesota and beyond. As a new Monarch Joint Venture partner, MNL’s work inherently supports pollinator conservation, including the iconic monarch butterfly, through planting and maintaining habitat, but also in supplying seeds and plant materials required for these habitat projects to take shape. In addition to on the ground habitat creation and support, MNL also works to educate the public on the importance of pollinators and the native plant communities they depend on.
“Organizations like Minnesota Native Landscapes are crucial to our success in restoring the monarch population and the habitat that sustains them. Restoring high-quality habitat is not as simple as throwing some milkweed seeds out on the landscape – we need high quality native plant materials and expertise across the nation to help landowners and land managers restore the habitats that monarchs require. We are thrilled to be working with MNL to support monarch habitat restoration efforts in the Midwest,” says Wendy Caldwell, Coordinator of the MJV.
MNL brings expertise stemming from years of plant production and management on a wide variety of native plants, including host plants and nectar resources essential for monarch butterflies. They strive to help landowners and land managers fulfill the need to restore high quality, native plant habitat across the landscape in a variety of settings.
MNL has almost 20 years of ecological restoration activities under their belt, including:
- Production of high quality native plants and seed for MNL native habitat projects
- 2 years of milkweed seed collection
- Community outreach and education on the importance of pollinators
- Native plant sale participation and hosting
- Integrated Pest Management and Best Management Practices educational activities
“Communicating about the importance of native plant habitat to monarchs, other pollinators, wildlife, and for a wide array of ecological benefits is crucial to driving demand for native plant materials and restoration services,” says Bre Bauerly, MNL Outreach Coordinator. MNL conducts a variety of programs to educate youth and community members about the importance of this work and will continue and expand their educational programming in partnership with the MJV. Their current outreach work includes:
- Working with the Xerces Society to produce previously unavailable, high quality nectar plants
- Trialing organic site preparation for native restorations in partnership with the Pollinator Friendly Alliance
- Presenting to local school groups on the importance of pollinators and planting native plants
- Presenting to certified herbicide applicators on IPM and pollinator friendly site management
- Hosting an annual milkweed seed pod collection, with over 2 million seeds collected to date!
We are excited to work together with Minnesota Native Landscapes to help conserve the monarch migration.
Read more about Minnesota Native Landscapes here.
The Monarch Joint Venture is a national partnership of federal and state agencies, non-governmental organizations, and academic programs working together to conserve the monarch butterfly migration. The content in this article does not necessarily reflect the positions of all Monarch Joint Venture partners. Header photo provided by Minnesota Native Landscapes.