FEPP Leadership
Co-Presidents: Glenn Olson & Bridget Beyer
Treasurer: Joe Zweber
Secretary: Marilynn Torkelson
Communications Chair: Elizabeth McCabe
Native Plant Chair: Lynsey Owen
Membership Chair: Ulrike Axen
Board Member(s) At-Large: Blake Cadwaller
Eden Prairie’s Conservation Areas
In 1994, the city of Eden Prairie was rapidly expanding its property development. Some Eden Prairie citizens saw the destruction of fields, woods, and prairies and called for a pause in this development. Instead, they proposed preserving some moments in time by purchasing four parcels of land to be used strictly for conservation. No recreational fields, no swings, no picnic tables. They were just to preserve environments and memories of the past—to reflect and appreciate those moments. The City of Eden Prairie approved the $1.95 million purchase of these parcels in an overwhelming approval vote of 2,071 to 366.
The first four parcels—now known as Edenbrook, Riley Creek Woods, Prairie Bluff, and Richard T. Anderson—capture the distinctive environments of central and south Minnesota. Today, Eden Prairie boasts seven conservation areas dedicated to preserving the natural spaces of historical Eden Prairie.
Land Acknowledgement
It is important to acknowledge that we are gathered upon the ancestral, traditional and contemporary homelands of the Dakóta. Through treaties the U.S. government seized Ojibwe and Dakóta land in Minnesota. Specifically, signing of the treaties of Traverse des Sioux and Mendota in 1851 opened land located to the west of Ȟaȟáwakpa/Wakpá Tháŋka (Mississippi River), allowing pioneers to settle in what is now Eden Prairie.
We acknowledge this land has a complex and layered history, and pay respect to the elders who have stewarded the land throughout the generations and continue to do so. We offer this statement as a step toward healing and make a commitment to learn the history of the land Eden Prairie is built on, to recognize, support, collaborate with and advocate for Indigenous People, and to consider the convergence of legacies that bring us to where we are today.