District 10 Como Community Council

Lawns to Legumes: Moving forward with Jameson/Front Prairie

Lawns to Legumes: Moving forward with Jameson/Front Prairie

In December, the Saint Pollinators invited community input on a proposed pocket prairie on the empty lot at 765 Front (off of Front and Jameson).  They distributed over 300 flyers and offered two community input sessions – first at the Environtment Committee meeting and an in-person event at the Front Hi-Rise.

After presenting on the history of this cleaned up Superfund site, they got feedback on what folks were interested in seeing at this locations and what questions or concerns they had.  The community feedback was overwhelmingly positive and they are now moving forward with this site.

The next steps will be to complete a contract with Ramsey County to use (this is in the works and we’ve already been approved to use it) and to work with Metro Blooms, a local organization that works with urban native landscaping, to design and plan the installation.  A community input session will be planned this spring to invite neighborhood feedback and input on the design!  

Finally, they’re excited to announce that a U of M Research Cohort, led by Dr. Emilie Snell-Rood, has taken interest in this project as a part of their Urban Pollutants study.  They would like to take soil samples and study the effects of soil additives (such as biochar, worms or even watermelon rinds) on chemicals in the soil.  They’re willing to report their findings to communities at the research goes on and let community members know what they find!

The Saint Pollinators will be planning their spring/summer calendar in the next month – stay tuned for details on their upcoming events!