Friends of Minnetonka Parks

Our Goal is to raise $3,750 during Give to the Max 2024.  We have been working to accumulate $15,000 of cash to qualify for restoration grants.  Meeting our 2024 fundraising goal would get us halfway there!

About Friends of Minnetonka Parks

Our mission is to work with the City of Minnetonka to ensure that all park visitors can experience high quality, biodiverse places that provide a multitude of positive nature-based interactions, thereby improving the quality of life and the sustainability and ecological resiliency of our parks, park system and community. We will accomplished this by: 

* investing in the restoration of our parks and preserving the park system’s ecologically-significant areas because natural landscapes in a suburban context require ongoing management to maintain their ecological quality, 
* transforming degraded landscapes to high-quality, biodiverse ecological plant communities, 
* conducting nature-based research to inform our positions and recommendations, 
* educating park visitors that the investment in and restoration of our natural resources provides the community with a distinctive amenity, 
* growing the size and involvement of friends groups to assist with research, education, restoration and preservation activities, 
* helping to streamline communication with the city to coordinate and manage volunteer restoration activities, and 
* celebrating the outcomes. 

Values 

We value a park system that: 

* is inclusive for all residents,
* is sustainable both financially and environmentally, 
* anticipates, funds, and plans for climate change effects, 
* provides both active and passive recreational opportunities, facilitates a long-term investment in the restoration, management and preservation of our natural resources as a defining and distinctive characteristic of our city, and 
* communicates, monitors and enforces clear expectations and rules for use so that everyone is respectful and feels safe and welcome. 

We consider our natural landscapes to be an amenity that can be enjoyed and appreciated by everyone, and also needs to be protected from negligence, misuse, overuse, and overt or benign degradation. Each park and/or preserve in the city may have its own unique, natural, biodiverse features and should have its own unique restoration management plan and guidelines for use guided by a comprehensive, city-wide vision and plan for our park system.