History, Mission, & Values

Our History

Friends of Eden Prairie Parks was formed and founded in 2023 by community volunteers to support and extend the City of Eden Prairie’s long-standing commitment to land management. We are a volunteer-based organization and a non-profit registered with the State of Minnesota. Our 501(c)3 fiduciary is the Eden Prairie Community Foundation. The City retains ownership, regulatory authority, and professional responsibility for park systems. FEPP exists to complement this work by mobilizing volunteers, strengthening community engagement, and accelerating restoration outcomes.

By organizing hands-on stewardship, building ecological understanding, and fostering shared responsibility of natural spaces in partnership with the City of Eden Prairie, FEPP helps deepen public investment in Eden Prairie’s ecological future.

Friends of Eden Prairie Parks is a community of volunteers dedicated to protecting, restoring, and enhancing Eden Prairie’s parks, conservation areas, and natural spaces. Founded by Glenn Olson in 2023, FEPP grew from a grassroots effort to address the spread of buckthorn and other invasive plants into a broader community organization focused on long-term stewardship of Eden Prairie’s natural resources.

Our Mission

Assist the City of Eden Prairie to improve and maintain the biodiversity and enhance the ecosystems within our natural spaces, including parks and preserves.

Our Values

1. Ecological Stewardship

2. Building Community

3. Positive Partnerships

4. Sustainable Leadership

To read more about our mission, values, & objectives- check out our current Strategic Plan!

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 fourteen conservation areas dedicated to preserving the natural spaces of historical Eden Prairie.

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.

To learn more about the Dakota people of the past and present, please visit the Shakopee Mdewakanton cultural center, Hoċokata Ṫi (pronounced ho-cho-ka-ta tee) in person at 2300 Tiwahe Circle, Shakopee, MN 55372 or visit online at Discover Dakota History – Mdewakanton: Dwellers of the Spirit Lake