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Minnesota is embarking on a program to transform empty spaces atop five unused landfills into pollinator habitat.  The closed landfills are in Pipestone, Mower, Stearns, Hennepin counties and Chisago County, at the Wyoming Pine Lane site.

The Pollution Control Agency (PCA) reports 110 closed landfills are under its oversight and these five pollinator habitat projects will be monitored and assessed for environmental benefits.

Governor Walz issued a directive in 2019 to protect and enhance, or create, habitat on closed landfills.  Locations have been reviewed and a bid was put out for a company to handle the landscaping work. Minnesota Native Landscaping in Foley is doing the Pine Lane project starting with eradicating existing non-native plants.

The site work now underway is slated to end by October 31.  Seeding would commence next spring 2024.

Laura Marti, hydrogeologist with the MN PCA, said there’s 40 acres in total at Pine Lane being transformed under this project.  Plantings include purple clover, smooth blue aster, milkweed, prairie dropseed, and rough blazing star.

The state project funding covers vegetation management for 2024, 2025 and 2026 so the native planting effort takes a good hold on the site and any noxious weeds in early years will be curtailed.

In the application for funding for Pine Lane, the entire habitat introduction effort is slated to end November 2026.  All five landfills are being transformed for $1,508,000.  Funding is appropriated from proceeds of the State Lottery, through the Environmental and Natural Resources Trust Fund as recommended by the Legislative Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources.

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