Friends of Minnetonka Parks
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  • VISIT A PARK
    • Big Willow
    • Boulder Creek
    • Cullen
    • Hilloway
    • Jidana
    • Lake Rose
    • Lone Lake
    • Meadow
    • Minnehaha Creek
    • Purgatory
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    • Tower Hill
    • Victoria Evergreen
    • Woodgate
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    • Videos
    • FAQs >
      • Restoration Basics
      • Restoration and Change
      • Restoration and Ecology
      • Restoration Risks and Cost
      • Restoration and Successful Outcomes
    • Tree Aging App
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    • Education and Social Events

Mission

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.
Jidana Park Preserve

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.

Friends of Minnetonka Parks Nonprofit Formation

Throughout our organizational meetings, our founding members discussed the pros and cons of organizing as a 501(c)3 nonprofit. Discussions included that the City's current (old) NRMP states that a group such as the "Friends of Minnetonka Parks"could help fundraise and coordinate volunteer activities, and the limitation of nonprofits to endorse candidates. Our ultimate conclusion was that the ability to raise funds for all parks under one entity (rather than each individual park group) and eligibility to apply for grants clearly fit our mission. One of our members had recently founded a nonprofit for the shareholders of their employer and volunteered to coordinate the effort. 

We also saw strength in numbers. With FoMP, our individual parks groups can tap into the volunteer availability of other groups, help each other by offering a consistent approach with city staff, and coordinate our efforts so as not to compete with each other. As a result, we have provided the City with volunteer buckthorn removal "blitzes" in numbers beyond their imaginations. We hope to continue this trend with significant and meaningful projects for each of the friends of parks groups that will launch the City of Minnetonka into a productive restoration mode. Restore Minnetonka!
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  2024 By the Numbers

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We had another eventful year and celebrate our collective efforts to restore high-priority areas within our parks, in collaboration with the City of Minnetonka. FoMP strives to be a catalyst of positive change in the community, playing an integral role in reversing the trends of environmental degradation in our park system. We are creating a verdant and vibrant community in which ecological stewardship, and community connectedness and partnerships thrive. 

Friends of Minnetonka Parks Recipient of Conservation Award


​The Friends of Minnetonka Parks was honored with the Bush Lake Commitment to Conservation Award at the Bush Lake Chapter - Izaak Walton League Of America's annual meeting on September 16th.

​The award is given to an individual or organization inside or outside of the organization that has contributed to restoration, habitat, and conservation in Minnesota.
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Friends of Minnetonka Parks

Annual Reports
2021
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fomp2021finalannualreport.pdf
File Size: 18919 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

2022

2023

2024

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fomp2022annualreportfinal.pdf
File Size: 15031 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

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fomp2023ar.pdf
File Size: 19157 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

fomp2024annualreportfinal.pdf
File Size: 12706 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

© 2021-2025 Friends of Minnetonka Parks.
​Friends of Minnetonka Parks is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization governed by a volunteer board of directors. All donations are tax deductible.
  • Home
  • Friends
    • Mission
    • Who We Are
    • Volunteerism
    • Donate
    • Contact Us
  • VISIT A PARK
    • Big Willow
    • Boulder Creek
    • Cullen
    • Hilloway
    • Jidana
    • Lake Rose
    • Lone Lake
    • Meadow
    • Minnehaha Creek
    • Purgatory
    • Shady Oak
    • Tower Hill
    • Victoria Evergreen
    • Woodgate
  • Resources
    • Native Plants
    • Invasive Plants
    • Videos
    • FAQs >
      • Restoration Basics
      • Restoration and Change
      • Restoration and Ecology
      • Restoration Risks and Cost
      • Restoration and Successful Outcomes
    • Tree Aging App
    • Newsletter
  • Events
    • Education and Social Events