Crews were busy right off the bat this year finishing up the important Minnehaha Falls project which was started in late 2010.  Heavy snows made working conditions very challenging but our crews persisted and finished the majority of the work by spring.  If you have had a chance to visit the park this year, you know the tremendous and long over-due improvements that were achieved as a result of this hard work.
 

As winter melted into spring, much of our focus turned to the roughly 350 prescribed burns on our list.  Although the prolonged winter and wet spring wasn't conducive to burning, our crews managed to complete most of these important burns.  Following the spring burn season, our Land Management Team continued on with their care of more than 1,000 native landscapes across the region.  The Installation Team had their hands full as well with over 300 projects on the docket.  An extremely dry fall led to great working conditions for all of our crews, who were fortunate to get the vast majority of their work completed before freeze-up.  From prairies and wetlands to shorelines and raingardens, we were very fortunate to work on so many unique projects for a wide variety of clientele.
 

All of the warm, wet weather we had earlier this summer led to some very robust crops.  Through careful coordination and persistent hard work, our Products Team was able to fill our barns with great seed.  In fact, our blue joint harvest this year was our best ever - take advantage of this great supply and pricing if you can! We are currently offering Blue joint grass (Calamagrostis canadensis) at $150 per pls pound.  Our Sod Flats continue to be a great seller, and our tree and shrub inventory has grown to record levels.
    

This past summer also featured Prairie Day - our biennial celebration of all things prairie.  The weather was perfect as folks were able to enjoy the prairie and all the special events of the day.   

Even though things slow down a bit this time of year, there is still much to do.  We have a long list of buckthorn projects that we are working on, seed is being cleaned, and preparations are being made for 2012 and beyond.
 

It was another exciting and memorable year at PRI - our 34th year in business!  

Prairie Restorations, Inc. will be working with the City of Orono, MN on restoring a beautiful 30 acre park.  The park has been named Susan E. Lurton Park in memory of one of its original owners. The land was donated to the City of Orono for use as a passive recreational area. The work will begin this winter with buckthorn removal being the primary focus. 

The park sits in the northeast corner of the intersection of US Hwy 12 and Hennepin County Road 6. The area was a farm before the expansion of Hwy 12 claimed some of the land for construction. The site has about 10 acres of woods consisting of oak, maple and basswoods. The wooded area still has a significant amount of native groundcover that can be saved and sustained once we remove and control the buckthorn and garlic mustard. It is unique to still find small, healthy woodlands such as this in the west metro.   

This park also has a large open field area that will be converted to a shortgrass prairie in the summer of 2012. Informal walking trails will wind through the prairie with an occasional bench or picnic table allowing for some very nice views of the prairie, woods and nearby Lake Classen. When the prairie becomes mature, the view of this area from the highway will be impressive.