A staggering 97 percent of land in the Cannon River watershed is private. Every acre protected here is an opportunity for locals to tap their innate conservation ethos.

By Lisa W. Foderaro 
Published December 12, 2025 

From a turtle preserve to native prairieland to a riverfront nature center, the conservation work in Minnesota’s Cannon River Watershed is delivering new access to green space for a region short on recreational opportunities.

“We are lucky in Minnesota in that we have a lot of public lands in the northern part of the state,” says Sophie Vorhoff, TPL’s Minnesota state director. “But in southern Minnesota, there is a real lack of public land. In the Cannon River Watershed, less than 3 percent of the land is in public ownership, and only 1 percent of the native prairie remains. This is an opportunity to expand public access and recreation, while protecting our watersheds.”

An hour south of the Twin Cities, the Cannon River Watershed is a tapestry of lofty forests, prairies, meandering rivers, and farms. The Cannon River itself originates in the glacial lakes of Rice County, then flows to meet up with the celebrated Mississippi River. But the state’s growing population—the number of residents has surged 18 percent since 2000—means pressures from real estate development and monocrop agriculture, with the attending water quality issues and habitat loss.

Conservation projects, like the one TPL undertook in the Cannon River Turtle Preserve Scientific and Natural Area, are all the more urgent. The project involved the permanent protection of 214 acres along the Cannon River in the city of Red Wing, with the bulk of that being added to the existing turtle preserve and 9 acres going to the Cannon Valley Trail, a 20-mile path popular with bicyclists.

The newly protected land, which is crossed by the Cannon River near its confluence with the Mississippi, comprises oak-hickory forest, steep terrain, and even a calcareous fen—a rare peat wetland that relies on a constant supply of calcium-rich groundwater. The addition to the turtle preserve, which is managed by the state’s Department of Natural Resources, increases the scientific and natural area by 25 percent. While the area is important for scientific research and the protection of several turtle species, it also provides much-needed access to open space for hunters, anglers, birders, and hikers.

The addition was financed, in part, by the Outdoor Heritage Fund, which requires that acquired conservation lands be open to the public. The fund was created after voters approved a ballot measure (supported by TPL) that increased the state sales tax to support programs like conservation and clean-water initiatives. “This area—the blufflands of Minnesota—is unlike any other part of the state,” says DJ Forbes, a project manager for TPL in Minnesota. “We are a pretty flat state, but you get down to this area, and there are bluffs and a limestone topography and nice views of the river.”

About 50 miles southwest of Red Wing, TPL added 45 acres to the River Bend Nature Center in 2025. Situated in the city of Faribault, the nature center now has 743 acres—a mix of prairies, woodlands, ponds, a stretch of the Straight River, and miles of trails—for public recreation and nature education. TPL’s addition came about when a couple that had operated a berry farm and apple orchard were figuring out what to do with their property. They were getting older and, with no children, wanted to see the land preserved—especially given the overheated real estate market.

“They were sustaining the community with apples and berries at farmers’ markets,” says Nick Bancks, a project manager in Minnesota for TPL, referring to the former owners, Bill and Maggie Hein. “Now they’ll sustain the community in a different way, by making this recreational space. The berry fields will be restored to tallgrass prairie, while the apple orchards will eventually become an oak woodland.”

The expansion provides students, including those from Jefferson Elementary School (where TPL is leading a community schoolyard project), greater access to the region’s biodiversity. The newly protected land serves as a living classroom, giving the nature center more elbow room for the thousands of children and adults who participate in classes, field trips, and annual events.

Just 20 minutes west of the River Bend Nature Center, near Waterville, Bancks recently completed another key project in the Cannon River Watershed, this one in a rural corner of Le Sueur County. There, a 152-acre property that had been in the Hruska family for one hundred years was ripe for development. But the four sisters who inherited the farm—Becky, Lucinda, Vicky, and Martha—envisioned a different outcome.

“They loved the farm, but they lived in different places and couldn’t manage it anymore,” Bancks says of the sisters. “Still, they wanted to honor their parents’ conservation legacy and found out about TPL through a newspaper article on another acquisition we had done in the area.”

The farm was still in active use through the 1980s. But then the family started returning the cropland to tallgrass prairie, taking advantage of a federal program that paid farmers with marginal agricultural land to undertake such restorations. After acquiring the land last year, TPL conveyed it to the state’s Department of Natural Resources. The property was reborn as the Horseshoe Lake Wildlife Management Area.

The mosaic of forest, wetland, and grassland habitats offers hunting, fishing, and birding, all within a short distance of a larger conservation area around Horseshoe Lake. Great River Greening, a statewide nonprofit group, will continue to restore the prairie grasses. “Because there’s not a lot of public land in southern Minnesota, these new conservation areas are vitally important for people to be able to recreate and just enjoy having nature nearby,” Bancks notes.

At yet another wildlife management area TPL helped create, the flora is as much a focus as the fauna. After all, one begets the other. In the 1940s, Walter and Florence Koester purchased farmland just outside Northfield. While some of the property supported the cattle grazing business, much of the tallgrass prairie and oak savanna remained untouched thanks to the family’s thoughtful stewardship.

In 2013, the Koester family solidified its conservation ethos by partnering with TPL and the state’s Department of Natural Resources to permanently protect 460 acres as Prairie Creek Wildlife Management Area. More recently—and again with TPL’s help—the family sold another 134 acres to be added to the wildlife area, a swath that includes habitat for species such as the Swainson’s hawk and red-headed woodpecker, which is a species of concern in Minnesota due to its declining population.

The property is managed with prescribed burning—and even prescribed grazing (deploying goats)—to restore prairie grasses and maintain the oak savanna habitats. An active friends’ group, cofounded by Craig Koester, a fifth generation member of the family, supports those efforts.

Koester, who lives in St. Paul, grew up on the farm and remembers being surrounded by the remarkable landscape. “If I went out the back door, it was hardwood forest that stretched for several miles,” he says. “If I walked out the front door, there was oak savanna that we used for grazing. And if I walked straight across the road, I was on one of the biggest grasslands in southeastern Minnesota. I had this ongoing sense of gratitude and wonder to be shaped by these natural areas. It was just a wonderful place.”

The family kept a piece of land for its own use but felt compelled to see most of the property protected. “When my parents died 27 years ago, we were faced with a decision,” Koester says. “I didn’t want to chop it up and create housing units or something.” Bob McGillivray, TPL’s land protection director for Minnesota, “was absolutely essential” during the two transactions, which totaled 594 acres, Koester says. “TPL has the expertise and resources,” he adds. “They knew how to handle all of the real estate and legal aspects and how to work with state officials who had agreed to manage it.”

Now, Friends of Prairie Creek Wildlife Management Area helps coordinate the restoration of the tallgrass prairie. Eighty-five acres still need to be addressed, and completed areas require upkeep. “The Department of Natural Resources is stretched thin, so having volunteers willing to write grants and monitor the sites and hand-pull invasives—that’s all very important,” Koester says.

Among the invasive species targeted for removal are wild parsnip, Queen Anne’s lace, and garlic mustard. Their removal will encourage native grasses like big bluestem, Indiangrass, and sideoats grama, as well as wildflowers such as bergamot, rough blazing star, and prairie phlox. One of Koester’s favorites is prairie smoke. “It’s a lovely little thing,” he says, “and when it produces seed, the top of the flower creates something that looks like a plume of pink smoke.”

Dave Kuhnau, 72, is a stalwart of the Friends group, visiting the property at least once a week even though it’s more than 30 miles from his home. He and Koester were childhood friends and stayed in close touch over the years. “I have always been interested in the outdoors, and one of my retirement objectives was to be involved in habitat restoration and to get to know a wildlife refuge or state park very well,” he recalls.

Prairie Creek was a natural fit. Much of his time is spent pulling weeds and collecting native seeds to be sown on the property. The experience has given him a keener appreciation for the time involved in making sure a natural area flourishes.

“We will never get rid of the invasives entirely, and that’s one of the key takeaways of our work,” Kuhnau says. “Protecting land is just the beginning. People have the belief that if you just set aside land, it’s green space and therefore you have preserved it. Boy, I wish it was that simple.

“It’ll be a green patch, but it won’t be a healthy native habitat,” he continues. “The native prairies had hundreds of species in them. Bringing back the less well-known grasses and forbs [native flowers]—that’s when you get a prairie habitat. We have areas that are well on the way toward that, and others that are getting started. The goal would be to have several hundred species on the site.”