Volunteer Spotlight

Steve Benson - 2022

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Stephen Benson is a longtime Board Member of Friends of the Wild Flower Garden. He developed an interest in flowers as a youngster because of his mother’s influence. He is also an advocate of life long learning, who is worth getting to know better.

Tell us some highlights about your background.
Since I was boy I have been enthralled with nature beginning growing up three blocks from Lake Harriet with fishing, visits to the rose and flower gardens and exploring the Roberts Bird Sanctuary. My family had summer cottages in Northern Minnesota and a long-time cabin on the St Croix. My mother was an avid wildflower enthusiast and carefully recorded all the wild flowers she encountered! I remember visiting the Garden as a very small boy.

I have lived about six years in Europe including four years in Sweden where nature awareness is bred in the bone! I have also visited on numerous occasions the home and gardens of Linnaeus in Uppsala, Sweden. I particularly enjoyed the hunt in Sweden with friends for seasonal mushrooms! A couple of decades ago I became a member of the Minnesota Mycological Society. I have a few secret mushroom sites I visit and of course there are always flowers, trees, and plants in the environs. Years were spent in England, Portugal and travel throughout Europe, Scandinavia, and Maya country in Mexico and Central America offered countless opportunities to visit gardens and natural preserves.

On returning to the States in 1971, I became a producer/host on the then NPR station KUOM for 18 years. Through those years I did interviews and series with numerous naturalists, authors, and researchers. It was during that period that I became an avid biker and one of my favorite rides took me around the lakes and to Eloise Butler! I got to know naturalists, volunteers, enthusiasts and many years ago was asked to join the Board. And what a rewarding experience it has been!

In 1993 The U decided to end its NPR affiliation and terminate the professional staff. Without a job, the U asked me to consider some kind of adult learning program. In 1995 I offered to found a lifelong learning program, the Elderlearning Institute, and several years later we were invited to join the nationwide Osher Lifelong Learning network. I retired (refocused my life) after 18 years and have continued to lead courses and series for OLLI as an avid lifelong learner and volunteer.

As Director of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the U of M. I was instrumental in beginning OLLI courses at the Garden itself and an ongoing series with the Minneapolis Park and Rec Board of Naturalist-led courses visiting local parks such as Minnehaha Falls and the Milling District.

Which season really grabs your attention at the Garden?
Of course, I love spring and the unfolding of the new year ephemerals, but my enduring passion is the time of prairie. In the Garden of course that means the restored prairie, and seeking out the small parcels of undisturbed prairie from the rocky goat prairie in southeastern Minnesota to remnants of tall and short grass prairies in the Dakotas, Illinois, and the western states. There is nothing like the rustle of the wind through majestic grasses and striking wild flowers. Seeking the hint of seemingly endless herds of buffalo coursing through that vast inland sea of grass! I have even delighted in maintaining a semblance of a prairie boulevard for over 40 years in front of my house in South Minneapolis where butterfly milkweed, prairie smoke and penstemon nestle amidst Big Bluestem and Switchgrass to early consternation by neighbors who cherished their neatly clipped Kentucky Bluegrass plots.

What do you see as the value of volunteering at the Garden?
What to tell a person about volunteering in the garden? You will join the community of those who find personal delight in the every day unfolding rhythm of the flowers, trees, plants, birds and elusive scurrying creatures, and you can take pride in knowing that you are doing your part in revealing this extraordinary place to the public.

Imagine which the future holds for the Garden.
The Garden will continue to be a quiet jewel in the heart of the city and will also be a living laboratory for the march of climate change.

This interview was written by Candyce Bartol, Friends Secretary. It was originally published in The Fringed Gentian™ in Summer 2022. Photo of Steve Benson by Fringed Gentian™ Editor Colin Bartol.

Steve Benson was a director of The Friends from 1995 through 2023.