Audubon Chapter of Minneapolis

Visitors shelter at Roberts

Go to the ACM home page to take a brief survey on the Roberts Revitalization Project

Press release for the project: Roberts Bird Sanctuary Revitalization Project

Located in Lyndale Park in southwest Minneapolis, the Thomas Sadler Roberts Bird Sanctuary includes about 13 acres of woodland and wetland north of Lake Harriet and south of Lakewood Cemetery. As part of the Minneapolis Chain of Lakes Important Bird Area, this sanctuary is recognized as a globally important habitat for the conservation of bird populations. The Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board (MPRB), Audubon Chapter of Minneapolis (ACM), East Harriet-Farmstead Neighborhood Association (EHFNA) and Linden Hills Neighborhood Council (LHiNC) have formed a partnership to create a long-term management plan that will revitalize this area and preserve this legacy.

The first step in the process of creating a long-term management plan for Roberts Bird Sanctuary will be to involve the community in identifying opportunities and priorities for revitalizing the area.

Three community meetings will be held to gather public input:

Monday, August 9, 2010 from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m.

Lyndale-Farmstead Community Center

3900 Bryant Ave S Minneapolis

Thursday, August 19, 2010 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Linden Hills Community Center

3100 43rd Street W Minneapolis

Tuesday, September 7, 2010, 7:00 to 8:00 p.m.

Mayflower Congregational Church

106 E Diamond Lake Road Minneapolis

(Note: this meeting is the regularly scheduled ACM program meeting; public input will be from 7 – 8 pm followed by a program on Roberts from 8 – 9 pm; everyone is welcome to attend the whole meeting.)

Read the earlier posts for some background on our involvement with Roberts.

Posted on July 1, 2010

Sometime in late September or early October, we’ll begin working with the MPRB volunteer coordinator to set up the Legacy Stewards program at Roberts. This program will allow registered, trained volunteers to work independently at Roberts on their own adopted section. Check out the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden website to learn about its Legacy Stewards program; our program will be modeled after this one.

http://eloisebutlergarden.com/

Posted on June 10, 2010

As you may know, this past spring the Audubon Chapter of Minneapolis (ACM) adopted Roberts through the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board’s (MPRB) Adopt-a-Park program. We adopted Roberts because we want to work with the MPRB to enhance the environment at the sanctuary. While the adoption program is limited in scope, we hoped that by completing our adoption tasks successfully, we could show the MPRB we are commited to Roberts. With this commitment established, we wanted to start working with the MPRB on a project that will have a huge beneficial impact on Roberts: the development and implementation of a management plan. We’re pleased to report the management plan process has begun.

We recently met with MPRB staff to review the adoption agreement and to discuss the next steps. We agreed on two major steps. First, we are going to work with the MPRB’s volunteer coordinator to set up a program to allow registered, trained volunteers to work independently on their own adopted section of Roberts. The program will be modeled after the Legacy Stewards program at the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden in Theodore Wirth Park. We need to meet with the coordinator to work out the details but we hope to provide an update soon.

The second major step is we are going to set up a series of meetings to gather input from the birding community and the public at large about their vision and goals for Roberts. Gathering this input is the first step in a long series of steps towards a management plan.  Some of the other steps involve technical and funding considerations.

Keeping in mind Roberts is a bird sanctuary and, first and foremost, we want to do right by the birds and other wildlife in the sanctuary, please start thinking about what you would like to see at Roberts. Check back for more information about when and where the meetings will be held. Then attend a meeting and let us know what you think.

THE GOOD…

Early meadow-rue and Jack-in-the-pulpit are two of the desirable native plants found in Roberts.