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Kale Hall
Why Do We Care About Pollinators?
Pollinators play an essential role in Minnesota’s ecosystems. They help plants reproduce; healthy plant populations provide food and habitat to other wildlife and help to clean air and water. Pollinators sustain a healthy, diverse, functioning ecosystem. Without biodiversity, our ecosystem would fail. This is happening today. Increased human activity, pollutants, homogenization of landscapes, and other…
James St. George Schreder
Alex Kim
Rebecca Rice Steps Back as Executive Director of Metro Blooms
Rebecca Rice, the Metro Blooms President and Executive Director, has decided to step back to direct the organization’s Blue Thumb program effective May 9, 2022. Laura Scholl, formerly Associate Director and Director of Fund Development, assumes the role of President and Executive Director. “It is an exciting time at Metro Blooms as our organization…
Impact Climate Change in Your Yard With a Rain Garden
Climate change, the long-term change in the Earth’s temperature, is bringing massive and detrimental consequences. What are these consequences and how do they affect us? Have you noticed the increasingly extreme weather? Like heat waves or flooding rains? The vast majority of scientists agree that human activity is the primary cause of climate change, so…
Awards Recognizing Metro Blooms
2022 Environmental Initiative Award, Local Sustainability Impacts, for Brook Gardens: Clean Water + Livability, a multi-partner project engaging a rental community on co-creation of more resilient landscapes 2022 Environmental Excellence Award, Minnesota Erosion Control Association 2021 Summer Blossom Award, Grand Neighborhood Garden, City of Brooklyn Park, for our work engaging rental communities on co-creation of…
Catherine Menick
John Kinara
Healing Roots
The Power of Storytelling
2023 Sponsorship
We invite you to sponsor our work. You would be supporting more resilient landscapes that protect our natural bodies of water and our pollinators, and the people and communities working with us towards creating them. Depending on the sponsorship you choose, you would benefit from your brand presence on our Metro Blooms and Blue Thumb…
“Raingarden Refresh” for Neighborhood of Raingardens 2021
Last summer was the first time we did a Neighborhood of Raingardens program in one community with a major focus on maintenance. The Sheridan Neighborhood Association in Minneapolis wanted to provide previous participants with guidance on caring for their raingardens. So we offered a “raingarden refresh” program. During a one-and-a-half-hour visit, we checked a participant’s…
Sponsor Spotlight: West Monroe and Developing Future Leaders
Developing the next generation of leaders is part of West Monroe’s mission, and it’s one reason the digital and business consulting firm supports Metro Blooms’ Sustainable Landcare Training program to develop a skilled green infrastructure workforce for the future. West Monroe works to deliver digital solutions in diverse fields, from helping a healthcare system establish…
Alayna Merchlewitz
Jumping Worms: Be on the Lookout
(Photo: Jumping Worm, Flickr, Alfredo Eloisa | CC BY-NC-SA) Jumping worms are relatively new to Minnesota, but they can quickly damage lawns, plants and soil. They look very much like common earthworms, but they have a characteristic way of moving — they may appear to be jumping — when disturbed. They have been described…
Steph Jacobs
Chris Ototo
Tips for Making Your Yard Friendlier to Pollinators: James Wolfin Interview
Karen Wright of KMSU Radio’s “Minnesota Morning” discusses pollinators with James Wolfin, Metro Blooms’ sustainable landcare manager. An entomologist with a background in bee lawn research, James talks bees, how they are crucial not only for food but also for sustaining our landscapes, and how we can take steps to help them and other pollinators…
Our Roots, Our Work
Metro Blooms grew out of a volunteer-powered garden recognition program, the Minneapolis Garden Awards program, which was first established by the City of Minneapolis’ Committee on the Urban Environment (CUE). Between 1979 and 2016, hundreds of trained volunteer evaluators visited thousands of gardens, every year recognizing and celebrating excellence, and inspiring a proud culture of…
Summer Internship: Learning About Raingardens
One thing interns are sure to learn about at Metro Blooms is raingardens. This summer we hosted Althea Kuzniewski, an environmental studies major at the University of Minnesota. Althea came to us through the U’s Institute on the Environment, in an internship supported by Ecolab. She had the job of visiting and assessing raingardens we…
Nikolai Fjelstad De Santiago
Employment
Who We Are Metro Blooms is a nonprofit that partners with communities to create resilient landscapes and foster clean watersheds, embracing the values of equity and inclusion to solve environmental challenges. We believe that collaboration with community is the most impactful way to heal our earth and we strive to center relationships in all that…
Neighborhood Projects
For over ten years, we have worked with neighborhoods, cities, and so many other partners to install accessible and functional projects with their residents.
Boulevard Bioswales: Improving Water Quality, Conserving Pollinators, Strengthening Communities
When you walk through your neighborhood, it is not uncommon to see a tree, in a boulevard, marked with a big “X” in bright, neon-green paint. This green “X” indicates that the tree is an ash tree, a target of one of the nation’s most infamous insect pests, the emerald ash borer (EAB). This beetle,…
St. Louis Park Neighborhood of Raingardens
Metro Blooms has worked with the City of St. Louis Park and its Rainwater Rewards program since 2018, when Metro Blooms installed 20 rain gardens in participating residents’ yards. Through… Read More →
Standish Ericsson Permeable Alley
Working in conjunction with numerous partners, this project led to the first permeable alleyway, privately owned, in Minneapolis. We monitored runoff in the alley for a year. Then, in the… Read More →
Kenwood School
Built in 2015, the Kenwood Poetry Stepping Stone Raingarden is a one-of-a-kind collaboration between Metro Blooms, Kenwood Elementary School, Minnehaha Creek Watershed District, artist Zoran Mojsilov and writer Louis Erdrich.… Read More →
Lynnhurst Yards and Gardens for Clean Water
In 2017, the Lynnhurst Neighborhood Association (LYNAS) started partnering with Metro Blooms to promote and install clean water and pollinator-friendly practices in neighborhood yards. LYNAS’ environmental committee created the Lynnhurst… Read More →
Nokomis Neighbors for Clean Water
Lake Nokomis Blooming Alleys was a citizen-based, neighborhood-focused project to engage local property owners in efforts to improve water quality. The focus of the work was to use rain gardens… Read More →