Missouri Prairie Foundation

?????????????????????????????? ???? ?????? ???????????? ???????? ????????????! ?????????????????? ?????? MPF’s Grow Native! program welcomes a new Certified Pro into the Grow Native! Professional Certification Program (GNPCP), which provides a consistent credential in the use of native plants for landscaping in developed areas of the lower Midwest. Grow Native! offered a testing opportunity for the GNPCP on December 13 at Drury University in Springfield, Missouri. Test results confirmed that Emily Krol of Bentonville Parks and Recreation earned certification after the December test. Emily joins our expanding list of other Grow Native! Certified Pros who have achieved certification since the program launched in 2022. Grow Native!’s list of Certified Pros makes it easy for consumers to find native plant experts, who provide quality native plant services in the lower Midwest. Testing opportunities for 2025 have been posted on the GNPCP webpage here: https://ow.ly/Wo3l50UBq3q

??????????: ???????? ????????????! ???????????????????????? ???????????????? ???????????? ?????????????????????? ???????????????? On February 21, Grow Native! professional members, regional partners, and scores of native-landscape curious community neighbors settled into the Leclaire Room at the N.O. Nelson Campus of Lewis & Clark Community College in Edwardsville, Illinois for a half-day Grow Native! workshop on Stormwater Challenges & Native Plant Solutions. The goal of the event was to educate about specific landscape applications to address stormwater management in the region, and increase knowledge of policies to fund and implement stormwater management. Presentations were preceded by a warm and energetic welcome by emcee Jean Ponzi (Green Resources Specialist at Missouri Botanical Garden’s EarthWays Center). Next, keynote Chris Sanders (Senior Associate of the Lamar Johnson Collaborative) opened with his presentation If This Stream Could Talk – Tower Grove Park East Stream Restoration. Presentations followed from Chris Carl (Grow Native! member Studio Land Arts), Trevor Bennett (Grow Native! member Pure Air Natives, Inc.), Christine Favilla (Grow Native! member Sierra Club, Piasa Palisades Group), and Andrea Godshalk (Senior Environmental Planner with the City of St. Louis). During breaks, participants visited information tables by Grow Native! Gold sponsors Wild Ones, St. Louis Chapter and Greenscape Gardens, Silver sponsor Jost Greenhouses, and Bronze sponsor Missouri Botanical Garden, as well as our event planning partner and Supporting member Sierra Club, Piasa Palisades Group. We thank everyone for their contributions, enthusiasm, and feedback submitted via our follow-up survey. Additionally, we extend a special thanks to the Lewis & Clark staff and Piasa Palisades Sierra Club volunteers who made this event possible. ????????? ?????????? ???? ?????????????? ?????????????? ????????? ?????????????? ???????????????????? "???? ??????? ???????????? ?????????? ???????? – ?????????? ?????????? ???????? ???????? ???????????? ??????????????????????"

?????????? ??: ?????? ??????????????: ???????????????? ???????? ???? ????????????????'?? ?????????????? ?????????????? The fish of Missouri’s Prairie Aquatic Faunal Region may be less diverse than those in the neighboring Ozark Region, but that does mean they are any less spectacular. Join prairie stream expert Darren Thornhill as he discusses this region’s colorful and often-overlooked fish species (including red shiners, orangespotted sunfish, stonerollers, and topeka shiners) and their preferred habitats – as well as how to conserve them in Missouri’s prairie streams. This free webinar, to be held via Zoom, will include a presentation and a live question-and-answer session. Please register at the link below. The webinar will be recorded with a link to the recording sent to all registrants and posted to the MPF YouTube channel. Wednesday, April 9 at 4:00 p.m. Register here: https://ow.ly/RErq50Vp7c9 ????????? ???? ?????? ??????????? (???????????????????? ??????????????????) ???? ?????????? ??????????

?????? ???????????????? ????-???????? ??????-???????????? ?????????????? On March 6, MPF purchased an 80-acre, unplowed, old-growth prairie remnant near Lockwood in Dade County, Missouri. MPF has designated this new acquisition the Snadon Tract of Coyne Prairie. "MPF purchased the northern half of Coyne Prairie in 2006 from Mr. Patrick Snadon, whose mother, Dorothy Coyne, was the granddaughter of Patrick Coyne who purchased the entire 160-acre tract with his Civil War mustering out money,” said Carol Davit, MPF’s Executive Director. “Dorothy bequeathed the southern half of the property to her other son Julian, who passed away in 2023. We are grateful to the family for keeping the prairie intact for generations and pleased that Julian’s brother Patrick approached us about purchasing this special tract.” Coyne Prairie is a dry-mesic sandstone/shale prairie natural community and includes a segment of a prairie headwater stream and a rare prairie swale. This prairie supports 174 native plant species, with 27 restricted to remnant habitat. Grassland birds including the northern bobwhite and Henslow’s sparrows have been recorded here in the breeding season, as well as Lapland longspurs in winter. MPF is grateful to funders who made the Snadon Tract acquisition possible: MDC, for a Land Conservation Partnership Program grant and the late Dr. Clifford Welsch, who made a gift to MPF restricted to the protection of prairie in this geography. All MPF supporters play an important role in its future stewardship. A public dedication of the Snadon Tract will take place on National Prairie Day, Saturday, June 7, with MPF's weekend of Prairie BioBlitz activities to follow. Watch forthcoming issues of this enewsletter for details about the event. MPF now owns and stewards more than 5,000 acres of remnant prairie and prairie plantings. Read more about this new acquisition here: https://lnkd.in/gvXaWUsT ????????? ???? ?????????? ?????????????? ?????????? ???? ?????????? ???????????????

???????????????? ?????? ???????????? ?????????????????????? ???????????????? & ?????????? ???????? ???FREE event! Register here: bit.ly/WorkshopPNL2025 ??April 5th, 2025 8am-1pm ???Powder Valley Conservation Nature Center, 11715 Cragwold Rd, Kirkwood, MO 63122 Keynote by Heather Holm, a pollinator conservationist and award-winning author of four books: ?????????????????????? ???? ???????????? ???????????? (2014), ???????? (2017), ?????????? (2021), and ???????????? ???????????? ???????? ???? ????? ?????????????? ???????????? ???????????? (2022). ????????? ????????????: ???????????????? ?????? ???????????? ??????????????????????

???????? ????????????! ??????????????: ???????????? ????????-???????????? ?????????????? & ???????????? ?????? ??????????????????????, ????????????, ?????? ???????????????? ???????????????? Native cool-season grass and grass-like species rank among the most overlooked group of plants in native plantings. But no more! Join Elizabeth Hamilton-Steele, Marketing Vice President with Hamilton Native Outpost, for a webinar exploring what makes these species different from the more well-known warm-season grasses and wildflowers. The unique value of cool-season plants for forage, wildlife, and landscaping will also be discussed. This free webinar, to be held via Zoom, will include a presentation and a live question-and-answer session. Please register at the link below. The webinar will be recorded with a link to the recording sent to all registrants and posted to the MPF YouTube channel. Wednesday, March 26 at 4:00 p.m. Register here: https://ow.ly/E1zT50VfMYs ????????? ???? ???????????????? ???????? ?????? (???????????? ????????????????????) ???? ???????????? ??????????????

???????? ???????? ?????????????????? -- ?????????? & ???????????? ?????????? ???? ????. ?????????? ?????????? ???? The Grow Native! program of the Missouri Prairie Foundation will host its second Brews and Blooms native plant education event in partnership with Civil Life Brewing Co. at their South City brewery on Saturday, April 19 from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. Visitors are invited to speak with native plant, songbird, and pollinator experts over a pint of local beer, while enjoying a free native plant giveaway (one per household, while supplies last) and a display of inspirational container gardens with native plants. Grow Native! merchandise will also be for sale, including native plant garden signs manufactured near St. Louis, Missouri. Brews and Blooms is free and open to the public. No registration or ticket is required to attend. Where: Civil Life Brewing Co., 3714 Holt Ave, Saint Louis, MO 63116

"The Great Plains region is losing 1 to 2 million acres of grasslands each year—threatening species like the Mountain Plover and Baird’s Sparrow. “We’ve had loss and degradation of all habitats, but grasslands have been hit the hardest,” says Nicole Michel, director of quantitative science at the National Audubon Society. So where do we go from here? Supporting MPF's prairie habitat protection practices can foster a lasting ecological impact. Time volunteered and donations put forth help tip the scales toward positive change. Even in our towns, opting for a diversity of native species in landscaping can provide other neighborhood native species we love with precious habitat and forage.

Grow Native! is honored to be celebrating 25 years of native plant promotion and conservation in 2025. Read more about the rich history of our program, and meet some of our community partners and professional members in this article by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch!

???????? ?????????????? ???????????? ?????????? ???????????????? Annually, MPF offers several grants to help fund the establishment or improvement of prairie gardens or plantings accessible to the public, using plants native to the lower Midwest. This year’s five MPF Prairie Garden Grant (PGG) recipients will use awarded grants to educate, inspire, and enliven their communities. The River Market Garden Club, in Kansas City, Missouri, will collaborate with the Kansas City Community Improvement District to restore tree wells and other small urban plantings in the River Market area. Olivette Parks and Recreation in Olivette, Missouri, will invest in a savanna reconstruction project to convert a section of turfgrass lawn adjacent to a woodland trail into a diverse habitat. The Indigenous Stewardship Club at the University of Kansas, in Lawrence, will restore campus garden beds with native plantings and reclaim indigenous presence and healing on their campus. The Randolph County Farm Bureau in Sparta, Illinois, will, in collaboration with the local FFA chapter, establish a demonstration garden highlighting the functionality of native plants and their benefits. The HeartLands Conservancy in Belleville, Illinois, will establish a planting of species native to the adjacent remnant Poag Sand Prairie to aid field identification of sand prairie species. These projects were selected from more than 50 applications. We thank all applicants for their submissions. The 2026 PGG funding cycle will open in fall 2025, with applications due in January. Read more here: https://ow.ly/LVpK50Vkher ????????? ???????? 2019 ?????? ?????????????? ???? ???????? ??????????? ???? ?????????? ????????, ???? ???????????? ???????????????????????