Cliff Buchan
News Editor

Vast prairies once sprawled across the rich landscape of Minnesota.

Fields of colorful wildflowers were abundant.

It was a pristine countryside that welcomed settlers to Minnesota.

Minnesota’s vast regions of prairie grass and wildflowers have given way in many areas to the human development that has pushed nature to new boundaries, replaced by buildings and pavement.

But not all areas are totally barren and thanks to concerned groups like the Forest Lake Sportsman Club, new areas of prairie grass and wildflowers are taking.

It became possible thanks to gun club members, sporting groups, area businesses, the state Department of Natural Resources and students and staff within the FFA chapter and Forest Lake High School Agriculture Department.

Walk the grounds of the new archery range on the eastern border of the club in Wyoming Township and a visitor is greeted with numerous species of wildflowers and prairie grass — plants that once ruled the landscape in the state.

“It takes years for some of these plants to be fully established,” said Bob Marzolf, an ag teacher at the high school and a key planner in prairie restoration project at the club.

Club visitors today are seeing the fruits of three years of planning, fund-raising and planting that have targeted 20 acres of land on the former Arvid Gustafson farm that was purchased by the club following his death in 1998.

How it happened

Establishing a land plot such as the gun club project does not happen overnight, said Dean O’Brien who led the effort on behalf of the Sportsman Club. The idea had been on the mind of O’Brien and his two sons for some time, he said this summer.

In 2004, thanks to the pushing of son Matt, a 2005 Forest Lake graduate, the club began taking the prairie grass project seriously.

Fund-raising efforts began, Marzolf and high school students and classes were brought in to the loop and the DNR was consulted for help.

“We had the area sitting idle,” Dean O’Brien said of the project area. One section of wildflowers borders the archery range while a second larger grassy area is directly east of the driveway that once led to the Gustafson home.

By April of 2005, a burn permit was granted and the 20-acre area that once grew corn was cleared. Then came weeks of securing seed and preparing the soil for the planting duties that much resembled old-fashioned farm work.

The DNR and William O’Brien State Park in Scandia helped provide some seed and a $3000 donation from the Lakes Chapter of the Minnesota Deer Hunter’s Association was another big boost needed to buy the remaining seed.

A vast array of grass and flowers were planted, but only after students through ag classes took soil samples and worked through the University of Minnesota for scientific analysis.

Plants and flowers were selected that had historical connections to the Anoka Sand Plain area where the gun club is located.

Today, a visitor will find Indian grass, Canada wild rye, big bluestem, little bluestem and prairie drop seed among the seven or so varieties of grass that were planted. The flower list is also extensive with purple-colored lupine yellow Black eyed Susans two of the dominant eye catchers.

“We did some preliminary sketching in planning the planting area,” Marzolf said. “It really established itself. The seeds mixed and spread. You’ll have colonies of things.”

Good for all

The prairie restoration project was something good for all concerns, students and the gun club, said O’Brien who makes his living as a taxidermist.

The club was able to make good use of a land parcel that was available, he said, adding that it was also a way to demonstrate to the public that sportsmen do far more than hunt.

They are conservationists, he said. Sportsmen are much more than people who like to shoot guns, he adds

He said the reaction from the club has been positive as the restoration takes firm root. “It’s rare to find an area of pristine prairie,” O’Brien said.

Every Tuesday and Thursday from 4 p.m. to dusk, the archery range on 240th St. on the west side of I-35 is open to the public. The land plot can also be viewed from the road.

“It’s come through time,” Marzolf said of the restoration project. “Not too many people know about it.”

In the three years that the high school has been involved, Marzolf says well over 60 students have worked on the project, thanks to Matt O’Brien’s early motivation.

Students will continue to have involvement in the project and just last month some 20 FFA kids toured the gun club site as part of a summer project tour. The school’s tie to the prairie restoration project is one of several community projects where students get involved.

“It promotes our program which is good for the school,” Marzolf said.

But there is more. It’s a way to immerse students in learning, he says, and make students more aware.

“We want our students to value what’s there and why,” he says. “It’s an ecosystem.”

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