Private conservation crucial for Minnesota’s prairie remnants

To protect the prairie, property owners have to shield it from herbicide drift and invasive weeds, among other external threats, and they have to mimic natural periodic disturbances through controlled burns and grazing.

Now, Kaster is familiar with the routine that maintaining a prairie requires: He picks out native plants suitable for soil conditions, burns the land once every few years, mows down invasive species, and thins out his trees. With resources available from the DNR and other organizations like the Land Trust, Kaster can easily obtain information on prairie management, including seed sources and services for prairie installation.

Most conservation easement programs in Minnesota — including those run by the Land Trust and the Northern Tallgrass Prairie National Wildlife Refuge — are funded by the state’s Outdoor Heritage Fund, which can cover both the cost of acquiring the easement and the restoration work that follows.

Renay Leone, a landowner based in Elk River, is restoring native prairie on her family farm, backed by grant funding from the Land Trust. Her efforts began four years ago with a modest planting of native grasses. Last winter, she started to scale up the restoration by hiring a company to remove invasive vegetation — the first step in a five-year habitat management plan.

Before she retired, Leone spent a few years working at the Land Trust, where she deepened her passion for learning about prairies, native plantings, and pollinators.

Her best advice for restoring and maintaining a prairie? Patience. “Planting native plants, they might not look like much for a year or two,” she said.