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The North Branch Alumni Association honored a graduate of 1969 and a Class of 1984 alum at the annual Lifetime Achievement Awards this month.  North Branch graduates Tom Anderson and Karin Schaffner Vukich received their awards at an event at the Chisago County Senior Center.  

Karin was selected by the committee for her work in various volunteer programs over the years. She has participated in 13 Habitat for Humanity builds, works with youth volunteers and she is involved in Meals on Wheels.  

Tom is a writer, former columnist with this newspaper and retired following a public career as a naturalist and leader of Lee & Rose Warner Nature Center throughout its formative early decades.

He has just released a book, Foraging in North America, published by Adventure Publications. You can find it at bookstores and Amazon. The book shares practical expertise on 12 edible plants common to Minnesota.  For example, did you realize dandelions provide several times the antioxidant power of spinach?

Anderson has also been active in the monarch movement embraced by the City of North Branch. The idea is to get as many residents as possible to plant a 10 by 10 foot monarch habitat garden. It needs to include milkweed and other natives.  The group has a large monarch butterfly habitat on the property at the North Branch Library.

The 100-square-foot plots will qualify for a free sign and mounting post, which are donated by Lamperts and Ace Hardware, in North Branch.

Anderson said there’s already over 1,000 acres of monarch habitat in North Branch (including the pollinator friendly plantings at the commercial solar array sites) on the way to meeting a goal to make North Branch the monarch capitol of the world.

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