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Mower SWCD, Parks & Rec team up at Todd, North Driesner parks

Prairie plants should start popping next summer at Austin’s Todd Park and along Oakland Avenue East thanks to recent work by local parks and conservation staff.

Crews with Austin Parks & Recreation and Mower Soil & Water Conservation District teamed up in the past week to till previously treated areas and then seed them as part of an effort to create pollinator habitat. Once established with prairie plants, the areas along Wolf Creek at Austin’s Todd Park also will support the water quality of the creek that has been stocked with at least 600 rainbow trout every spring since 2020 by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

After Parks & Rec staff tilled, Mower SWCD rolled, seeded and dragged the soil, which included about 4 acres at Todd Park and nearly 1 acre at the city’s North Driesner Park in front of Queen of Angels church.

These sites were seeded for native prairie along with a nurse crop of oats that will help hold prairie seeds in the ground if there is high water from snowmelt in spring, said James Fett, watershed technician for Mower SWCD and Cedar River Watershed District. Oats should be visible this fall, he said, and native plants, including a few flowers, should emerge next summer.

Most of the prairie’s colorful flowers will show in 2026, Fett said, and, from that point, the flowers will get better and continue to grow for many years.

In 2023, parks’ staff sprayed to kill vegetation at these sites and planned on doing a second spraying but last year was too dry, Fett said. Mower SWCD seeded the areas with winter wheat last year to create temporary, vegetative cover during winter and spring, he said, but it also helped protect the sites during the June 2024 major flooding.

For this work, Mower SWCD and CRWD has partnered closely with Parks & Rec along with funding or technical support from Austin Area Foundation, Mower County’s chapter of Pheasants Forever and the DNR.

At Todd Park, prairie seeding earlier this week involved about 4 acres of land along Wolf, about a half-acre less than planned due to overly wet ground along 11th Street Northeast, Fett said. Fett led the proposal to the DNR for stocking trout in Wolf Creek and has led efforts to restore native prairie and wetlands on nearly 260 acres of cropland immediately upstream from Todd Park. 

Prairie planting to create buffer zones on both sides of Wolf Creek was recommended by Craig Soupir, DNR’s area fisheries supervisor in Waterville who leads the stocking of trout in the creek, which has nearly 9,000 feet of public shoreline in Todd Park.

Once established, the prairie will act as a filter to capture sediment and nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, before they reach the creek, helping to protect its water quality while creating wildlife habitat and enhancing the beauty of these public areas.