4 September 2024
Volunteers are needed this weekend to help collect seeds from native plants so they can be used to restore or reconstruct native prairie in the St. Croix River Valley.
The seed-collection event will be held from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday at the prairie at People’s Park, 1005 Fifth Ave., Bayport, which is adjacent to Barker’s Alps Park and the future site of the new elementary school in Bayport. People’s Congregational Church established the prairie in 2018 after receiving a grant from the Washington Conservation District, said Paul Spilseth, who is helping organize the event.
The prairie at People’s Park in Bayport in early August 2024. Volunteers are needed Saturday, Sept. 7. 2024 to help collect seeds from native plants so they can be used to restore or reconstruct native prairie in the St. Croix River Valley. (Courtesy of Paul Spilseth)
“The prairie plants will be destroyed when a new school is built on this land in Bayport, but the seeds could enable these plants to live on elsewhere,” Spilseth said.
People’s Congregational Church merged with St. Peter’s United Church of Christ in Stillwater last year and became St. Croix United Church in Bayport. Church members in June approved the sale of the 10-acre property on the western edge of Bayport to the Stillwater Area Public School District, a move that paved the way for the new elementary school to be built on the site. The sale price was $850,000, which was $150,000 lower than the appraised value of the land, church officials said.
Church officials said they agreed to the lower price because they wanted school district officials to commit to a number of items, including the creation of a 100-seat outdoor classroom that could be used as a gathering space for the church and the community. The sale of the land was contingent on the passage last fall of the school district’s $175 million bond referendum and the church’s approval. The new school, which has not yet been named, is expected to open for the 2027-2028 school year.
The current school in Bayport is called Andersen Elementary, but school district officials have not yet determined if that name will carry over to the new building, so they are referring to it as “Bayport Elementary,” said Carissa Keister, the district’s chief of staff and executive director of communications.
Volunteers on Saturday will be collecting Bouteloua curtipendula seeds (sideoats gramma) and can keep what they need and donate what they don’t, Spilseth said. All ages are welcome. Volunteers are asked to wear closed-toe shoes, long pants, long sleeves and a hat; they also are asked bring a paper bag with handles, he said.
The event is supported by St. Croix United Church, Andersen Elementary School, Stillwater Lion’s Club and the Washington County Master Gardeners.
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