Altlawns of Richfield and Bloomington

Altlawns of Richfield and Bloomington

Altlawns is a community-based organization. Our mission is to create biodiverse native habitat in place of lawns by providing community education and support to local residents. Ava J T McKnight started Altlawns as a Facebook group in response to online resident questions and concerns around native habitat, stormwater issues, and climate change. Altlawns now has over 470 members with robust online discussion and in-real-life events and leadership team.

The Rusty Patched Bumble Bee and Monarch Butterfly are both on the endangered species list. These two are the billboard species, but each year brings fewer species and smaller bird and insect populations. Conservationists agree that the solution lies in creating a patchwork of native habitat creating homes and food year-round for a wide range of wildlife. These habitats also become critical landing sites during migration. By reducing the size of our lawns and replacing them with native plants and a multi-storied tree canopy, we also reduce stormwater runoff, eliminate chemical use, and decrease ground surface temperatures. Richfield and Bloomington have some of the hottest ground surface temperature zones in the metro area. Two of the watershed districts are not active with residents.

Upcoming 2022-2023 Altlawns Events

• Soft Landing Workshop

• Growing Plants from Seeds/Winter Sowing Workshop

• Up-potting and distributing plants

• Spring shrub sale

• Site Visits to member yards

• Gatherings at local restaurants for discussion

• Rain Barrel Workshop

We are raising funds to support becoming a non-profit, cover administrative costs like insurance, website hosting, volunteer gratitude, and to support our programming. Some  programming are sponsored by a Hennepin County Green Partner Grant we received to go into effect September 2022.  In the near future our administrative costs will be a larger percentage of fundraising dollars as there are start-up costs as we emerge from an organically created group into a 501c3. Our longer term goals are to move from home owner programming to multi-unit housing.

Thank you for the community support and encouragement we have received. Thank you for your donation.