January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 26

ENVIRONMENTAL RESILIENCE
A native prairie is a grass-dominated
habitat with accompanying forbs and
other wildflowers providing a thriving
ecosystem for pollinators, birds and
other wildlife.
The Maintenance and Benefits of Prairies
By Annie Porath
F
our years ago, a neglected lot of overgrown shrubs and cattails in
Grand Forks, North Dakota - a town near the Minnesota border
with nearly 60,000 community members - was transformed into
a thriving prairie. An explosion of color beaming with butterflies
and bees filled the quarter-acre space along the park's coulee. This was just
the beginning of one of many urban prairie installations in Grand Forks.
What's in a Prairie?
A native prairie is a grass-dominated
habitat with accompanying forbs
and other wildflowers providing a
thriving ecosystem for pollinators,
birds and other wildlife. Currently,
we have four prairies located in our
parks. The first two are in their fourth
full growing season: a lower prairie
near a coulee and an upper mesic
site elsewhere in the park. Starting in
May 2021, the sites underwent land
preparation by removing the understory
and remaining trees. Then, they
were sprayed with herbicide paired
with a periodic shallow cultivation
26 Parks & Recreation |
to bring the seedbank up. Minnesota
Native Landscapes (MNL) broadcast
the seeds over the newly bare ground.
The other two prairies installed, adjacent
to the upper mesic site, just completed
their first full year.
Katy Cavanaugh, head horticulturist,
states, " It's important to come
up with a long-term maintenance
plan before you install the prairie....
You can't just let the prairie go. " She
also provides advice to any park and
recreation officials looking to start
their own prairie operation: " Let
the neighborhood know what you
will be doing before you start prepJ
ANUAR Y 2 0 2 5 | PARK S ANDRECRE AT ION . OR G
ping the space. They are more willing
to go along with the project if
they know what's happening. "
At another park, we did the planting
ourselves. As Cavanaugh notes,
" We found that it was easier for us to
maintain the space on a regular basis,
as we can check on it almost daily
and can keep up with the weeds a
little better. " She adds that prairies
will establish themselves fine even
if there are weeds, but " we receive
pushback from neighbors if they see
weeds within the prairie. Because of
our need to keep things presentable,
we do all the maintenance. "
Prairie Maintenance
The site was prepped during
summer 2024 and seed drilled in
mid-September with a local prairie
seed mixture. At the end of the
month, we hosted a community
PHOTO COURTESY OF KATY CAVANAUGH

January 2025 – Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of January 2025 – Parks & Recreation

January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - Intro
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - Cover1
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - Cover2
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 1
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 2
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 3
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 4
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 5
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 6
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 7
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 8
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 9
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 10
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 11
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 12
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 13
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 14
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 15
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 16
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 17
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 18
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 19
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 20
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 21
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 22
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 23
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 24
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 25
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 26
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 27
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 28
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 29
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 30
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 31
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 32
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 33
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 34
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 35
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 36
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 37
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 38
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 39
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 40
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 41
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 42
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 43
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 44
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 45
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 46
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 47
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 48
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 49
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 50
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 51
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 52
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 53
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 54
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 55
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - 56
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - Cover3
January 2025 – Parks & Recreation - Cover4
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/january-2025
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/december-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/november-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/october-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/september-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/august-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/july-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/june-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/may-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/april-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/march-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/february-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/january-2024
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/december-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/november-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/october-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/september-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/august-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/july-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/june-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/may-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/april-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/march-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/february-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/january-2023
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/december-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/november-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/october-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/september-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/august-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/july-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/june-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/may-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/april-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/march-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/february-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/january-2022
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/december-2021
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/november-2021
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/october-2021
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/september-2021
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/august-2021
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/july-2021
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/june-2021
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/may-2021
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/april-2021
https://ezine.nrpa.org/nrpa/ParksRecreationMagazine/march-2021
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com