Stillwater Wildway Funded!
We were thrilled to learn last week that we have won the Great Idea $10,000 grant from Saint Croix Valley Foundation! This will provide us with the resources we need to create the Stillwater Wildway Project.
Friends of Bird City Gardens requested $10,000 to launch the Stillwater Wildway, a community-led corridor of native gardens connecting Lake McKusick with the St. Croix River. Within a defined pilot area extending from Willard Street to Wilkins Street, bordered by Owens Street, and encompassing Mulberry Creek Bird Station, our showplace native garden, residents and public-property partners will be invited to convert suitable spaces into bird- and pollinator-friendly habitat.
Artistic depiction of the Stillwater Wildway - we are working on a new, more accurate map!
Grant funds will support neighborhood outreach, volunteer recruitment, and training, site assessment, native plants offered free or at reduced cost, planting supplies, and educational signs.
By linking many modest gardens into a visible network, the Stillwater Wildway will make habitat restoration practical for individual households while creating broader ecological benefits for Stillwater.
Both birds and beneficial insects in Minnesota are experiencing significant declines, driven by a combination of habitat loss, land-use change, climate change, pesticides, and other stressors. Stillwater has important natural anchors for birds at Lake McKusick, Lily Lake, Long Lake, and the St. Croix River, but the developed neighborhoods between them contain fragmented habitat. Birds, native bees, butterflies, and other beneficial wildlife will benefit from a connected series of places to feed, shelter, and reproduce.
Many residents want to help, yet may not know which plants to select, how to prepare a site, or how to manage the expense and labor of establishing a native garden.
The Stillwater Wildway is a practical response: a community-created corridor of native gardens on willing private and public properties. Its initial area extends from Lake McKusick east to the St. Croix River and from Willard Street north to Wilkins Street, including Stonebridge School. Mulberry Creek Bird Station, with its publicly accessible demonstration habitat and its purpose-built outdoor classroom with tables, chairs, and a bird-centric mural painted by Stillwater artist Randy Radeaunz, lies within this area and will serve as the project's educational and volunteer hub.
