Come explore the north unit of Hastings Sand Coulee SNA just outside the city of Hastings in Dakota County. The SNA protects high quality native dry sand-gravel prairie, mesic prairie, oak woodland and oak forest in an area otherwise dominated by agricultural land use and expanding housing developments.

Enjoy a morning hike into Interstate State Park, Wisconsin's oldest state park. See bedrock prairie, oak woodlands, white pine-hardwood forest, spring-fed creek, shady, basalt talus slopes lush with mosses and ferns. Please consider bringing a lunch and hiking the stunning bluff trails overlooking the St. Croix River in the afternoon.

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 other MNNPS members for a return trip to Quarry Park SNA to explore the granite bedrock outcrops found throughout the SNA as well as high quality wet meadow, wet prairie, oak woodland, and oak forest plant communities. This mix of natural communities supports rare birds and orchids and forms the most significant remaining example of the granite bedrock outcrop community in central Minnesota.

Come join Steve Eggers and other MNNPS members for a day of wetland plant identification canoeing through the unique plant communities of Weaver Bottoms. Weaver Bottoms is located on the Upper Mississippi River within the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge. This 5,500 acre habitat complex includes areas of open water, flowing channels, backwater lakes, isolated wetlands and forested wetlands.

Come join Mike Lee and other MNNPS members for part of a day hiking and identifying wetland plants at St. Wendel Tamarack Bog SNA. This SNA is one of the top sites for significant biological diversity in Stearns County as evaluated by the Minnesota County Biological Survey in 1999. The site is a large wetland complex encompassing one of the largest remaining blocks of native vegetation in the county, including the best and largest example of tamarack swamp in central Minnesota.