SATURDAY | JANUARY 25, 2025
Open House | 10:45 to 1:30 pm
Demonstrations | 11:00 am and 12:30 pm
Presentation | 11:30 am to 12:30 pm
Wood Lake Nature Center in Richfield
enhancing life on earth and sense of wonder
Presenter / Vicki Joy Bonk
Wild Ones has been a pioneer in the growing movement encouraging people to “bring nature home*” wherever they are and however they can. We will explore creating habitat on the home front and surrounding community, sharing some of the movement’s history and how-to resources. Vicki Bonk will give a shortened version of her Grow Monarch Habitat presentation as one example of moving people to bring sanctuary, wonder and hope right out their door. The reality is when we look at the habitat requirements of one wildlife species, we serve many and begin a journey of growing appreciation and understanding of what human partnership with nature can be. By planting native habitat, we can meet the role people can play in the future for a healthier, more biodiverse planet in the midst of it all.
Event highlights include:
- Last WOTC program at Woodlake Nature Center before the building closes for restoration.
- A take home winter sowing starter kit with native seeds and instructions.
- Refreshments of popcorn, apple cider and cookies
- A kid’s activity table with Flower Faces photo-op and monarch habitat coloring sheets.
- Drawing for WOTC annual membership
Vicki Joy Bonk has been an active homegrown habitat advocate since the mid 1990’s, when she proposed a butterfly garden at Lake Nokomis in Minneapolis, that became the Nokomis Naturescape, a 4-acre native planting. She has been the volunteer stewardship and outreach coordinator since then, generating more community projects including Grow Monarch Habitat Workshops and Minneapolis Monarch Festival. Vicki believes joining forces with Wild Ones in 2002, a fortuitous connection, that led to an enhanced learning journey with fellow enthusiasts. A Minneapolis College of Art and Design Intermedia Arts major, she considers the documentation and advocacy of native habitat work at home and in community, an ongoing art project.
