Did you know much of the cattail you see growing around ponds, wetlands, and lakes throughout Minnesota is actually non-native and invasive?  In Minnesota, we have both a native broadleaf cattail (Typha latifolia) and an invasive narrowleaf cattail (Typha angustifolia).  Unfortunately, these tend to readily hybridize with one another, producing an aggressive hybrid (Typha x…

During the summer of 2021, our work crews commented on the noticeably low number of Monarchs in both larvaes and adults. For instance, we usually have hoards of monarchs in our greenhouses, munching on the young and succulent milkweed leaves. But last year, most of the milkweed leaving our greenhouses went to project sites without…

Site preparation for prairie and shoreline restoration projects is the most important and sometimes the most challenging component in achieving successful ecological restorations.  Site conditions and restoration goals factor into the preparation methods that we employ. Our overall goals are to substantially reduce weed competition, repair areas impacted by erosion, and stabilize sites during vegetation…

As the summer season quickly cascades into fall, our environmental restoration maintenance crews reflect on another season and what made it unique from past seasons. Every year is different and though these observations are anecdotal, collectively they help us understand the systems we create and manage at Natural Shore. Below are a few highlights that…

Ah, what an interesting summer it has been for ecological restoration. With the pretty much constant heat and humidity, and relentless stream of smoke from our friends in Canada, it’s been a real challenge to leave the cool AC and venture into the outdoors. Well, our staff at Natural Shore have been amazingly dedicated, efficiently…

This has been a hot, dry, essentially rainless June and much of Minnesota is really feeling the drought conditions. What will July and August bring? What if this drought continues? With the unusually dry June, you might have noticed that lawns and roadside turf areas quickly dried and turned brown. The short roots of grasses…

Each spring we look forward to the arrival of migrating songbirds in Minnesota as they return to find nesting sites for their young. White-throated sparrows, Eastern bluebirds, and a variety of warblers signal that spring has sprung! Let’s take a deep dive into using native plants for songbird habitat, impacting the ecology of the avian…

As our calendar year turns over into a new beginning, we all ponder the thought of a “New Year’s resolution.” January presents an exciting opportunity to begin fresh, inviting a clear pallet of thoughts as luminous as a fresh Minnesota snowfall. A great resolution usually involves the opportunity to expand our thoughts and learn new…

 As the snow begins to fall and winter finally sets in, our staff pivots from field work and focuses on indoor activities, such as putting the greenhouse to bed, servicing tools, revamping the trucks and organizing the shop.  However, one of the most important tasks isn’t about vacuuming the dirt from between the truck seats…

 Well, it was inevitable, but we just received a few inches of that white stuff that is such a part of our hearty Minnesota social fabric. Yes, winter will be soon upon us. In the cities, it was a pretty wet and heavy snow, enough so that our taller prairie plants started to tilt and…

Each day at every site we visit, our crews observe an amazing variety of insects in our ecological restorations. For instance, we see butterflies, dragonflies, moths, ants, bumble bees, mason bees, carpenter bees, grasshoppers, aphids, ambush bugs, and many others, all of which play key roles in the ecosystem, and clearly show the importance of…

If you are anything like us here at Natural Shore, we are totally obsessed with native plant restoration. Driving around the Twin Cities, we often comment to one another about how an area infested with invasive plants or a turf grass shoreline could be restored with an amazing native plant community. We are sort of…