Stronger Together - Partners make Parks Better

Dakota County parks and greenways are full of natural resource successes and outdoor recreation opportunities. We can’t do all of the work ourselves, so we partner with many organizations passionate about getting people to enjoy the outdoors and preserving natural spaces.

Our reintroduction of bison at Spring Lake Park Reserve is helping to restore prairie land, and the bison are a popular sight for park visitors. We teamed up with the Minnesota Bison Conservation Herd partnership, which is working to establish a herd of 500 bison around the state with highly diverse genes, similar to historic wild bison herds. Without this partnership, we would not have been able to bring back bison to Dakota County.

Many local residents and groups volunteer in our parks.

Minnesota Off-Road Cyclists is a nonprofit group of mountain bikers who log hundreds of hours of work at Lebanon Hills Regional Park. They maintain and groom the park’s mountain bike trails. They recruit other park users to volunteer. They also monitor day-to-day trail conditions to ensure the public has a safe, enjoyable experience. The group tallied 419 hours of work in 2021, 535 hours in 2022 and more than 800 hours last year.

We have other partners that focus on natural resource restoration and management. Nonprofit organizations such as Friends of the Mississippi River, Great River Greening, Mississippi Park Connection and Wilderness in the City help with a variety of work, including invasive plant and tree removal, native seed collection, pollinator-friendly plantings and more. Other groups — businesses, schools, scout troops and more — also volunteer to help preserve natural spaces in county parks.

Partnerships like these enhance our services, improve the environment and save taxpayer dollars.

www.dakotacounty.us/parks, search volunteer