Help protect Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden from invasive plant infestation! We run volunteer events all year long, usually 2 per month. Events are 2-1/2 hours long, mostly on weekends – come for as much or as little time as you have. No experience needed.  We provide tools and how-to. Co-ordination is by The Greater Eloise Stewards.

The Greater Eloise Stewards was organized in 2007 by Friends supporter and director Jim Proctor under the original name of the Friends Invasive Plant Action Group. This long-standing volunteer project is achieving real results in protecting the Garden from invasive plants.  Working in the area immediately surrounding the Wildflower Garden that is known as the Greater Eloise Volunteer Stewardship Area, volunteers participate in weekend group events and occasional midweek events, removing garlic mustard in the spring, buckthorn in all seasons and some planting and maintenace in between.

Volunteers are notified by email of the event schedule, usually an email every other week. Contact the Greater Eloise Stewards Volunteer Coordinator with questions or to add your name to the email list - use the e-mail link below.

Details of our recent activity

E-mail the volunteer coordinator
OR
Add your name to our email list
and receive notification of each upcoming event. You can also add emails for our newsletter and monthly mini-newsletters.
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Invasives

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Recent work of the Greater Eloise Stewards

Jim Proctor writes about the groups new work:
In our recent efforts just outside the Garden fence we’ve uncovered something really exciting—a small un-forested slope which sits above a small pond. This spot was obscured by a wall of non-native trees and shrubs including buckthorn, honeysuckle and Amur maple. Now that the invasive shrubs and trees are partly removed, we can see that it has great potential as a lovely meadow with a view of the pond below.

Below: A view of the new area with pool where the volunteers began work. Photo - Jim Proctor.

This is a nice counterpoint to the more densely wooded maple bowl: an ephemeral pond, but quite open to the sky, surrounded by grassy meadow and open oak woods and savanna. On Saturday 11-11-23 we finished weeding buckthorn sprouts in a swath along the top of this hillside and seeded it. We also weeded and seeded into the adjacent wooded area just to the north.

MPRB Natural Resources staff provided us a generous supply of buckthorn replacement seed mix from Minnesota Native Landscapes. It contains a mix of grasses, sedges and forbs to compete with any future invasives. Recent research shows this is very important. We’ve done modest seeding in the past, but we plan to make this a more significant part of our efforts going forward. The Friends have also been providing seeds of specific species for planting in these areas.

FIPAG volunteers clearing buckthorn in winter 2025. (Larger Image)

This area will be the focus of 2025 activities.

New Fence and Plantings

Below: A section of the new eight foot high east fence of the upland garden is shown in the photo below. This was installed by the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board (MPRB) during the winter of 2022/23 with funds from the MPRB. In front of the fence are the new shrurb cages installed this season by the Greater Eloise Stewards. Twenty shrubs were purchased by the Friends and 20 more were provided by MPRB. Photo G D Bebeau.

The Maple Glen

In the south section of Theodore Wirth Park there are several bowl shaped depressions with slopes wooded primarily by maples. These depressions were created at the time of the retreat of the last glacial ice sheets long ago. One such depression is just south of the Garden's front gate and has been opened to view by work of The Greater Eloise Stewars which was busy between 2014 and 2021 removing Buckthorn and Garlic Mustard from this Maple Glen. It has now been seed with native plants. [Photo below - G D Bebeau]

Read the entire story about the Maple Glen.

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Legacy Steward Volunteer Information

Legacy Stewards assist the Wildflower Garden staff in the eradication of invasive plants. After receiving training from the Garden Curator each volunteer takes responsibility for a small, but significant, designated section of the Wildflower Garden or the Preservation Zone around the Garden and commits to removing all of the invasive species in their assigned section for the season. Assistance throughout the season is provided by Wildflower Garden staff. Direct inquiries about this program to the Wildflower Garden Curator at ebwg@minneapolisparks.org

If you visit the Martha Crone Shelter, there is a volunteer sign up sheet available there also.

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