Field trips

Join members of the Friends of Minnesota Scientific & Natural Areas and others on an all-day outing to Lost Valley Prairie SNA and Kellogg Weaver Dunes SNA to explore these prairie communities in the springtime.

The trip will start at the Visitors’ Center at the Crex Meadows Wildlife Area just north of Grantsburg, WI, and will end up on the Namekagon Barrens in far northeast Burnett County.

Barb Delaney will lead MNNPS members on a morning hike into Helen Allison Savanna, one of the more unique plant communities of the Anoka Sandplain.

Following up on our 2018 presentation, visit the conservation open space of this mixed-use development and enjoy learning about the remnant oak woodlands, wetlands, and restored prairies.

Digital dragonflies in an analog world? Join us for a different kind of field trip with a focus on dragonflies. We will spend about a half hour in the classroom reviewing dragonflies and then spend about an hour out in the wetland looking for dragonflies, taking their photos when we can get them to pose and netting those that do not want to pose.

Come join MNDNR regional ecologist Megan Benage for a nature hike and tour of Cambria Wildlife Management Area. This 81 acre site is nestled in the Minnesota River Valley and offers views of remnant and restored prairie as well as lowland forest with several interesting groundwater seeps along the hillside.

We'll visit Hoffman Prairie State Preserve, a tallgrass prairie pothole complex with mesic to wet prairie and pothole marshes of various sizes, near the city of Clear Lake in Cerro Gordo County, north-central Iowa. Owned by The Nature Conservancy, this 36-acre preserve supports over 150 plant species.

Come join Jyneen Thatcher and other MNNPS members for a morning hike through St. Croix Savanna Scientific Natural Area. This SNA with its dramatic topography site protects one of the best remaining examples of hill prairie in the Lower St. Croix National Scenic Riverway.

Moose Mountain SNA in Duluth is a bedrock ridge "held up" by an underlying erosion-resistant diabase sill, formed by intrusion of magma between pre-existing rock layers. At its peak, the mountain rises nearly 550 feet above the elevation of Lake Superior, which is less than a mile away as the crow (or raven) flies.

Come join Steve Eggers and Jennifer Kamm for a day of aquatic plant identification canoeing Weaver Bottoms followed by a xeric vegetation tour of Kellogg-Weaver Dunes SNA. Both of these areas are close to one another and are located just off of Highway 61 in southeastern Minnesota.