The Friends of Upper Landing Park are a 2024 Upstream Unsung Caretaker
Written by Mary Hilfiker 2024 Upstream Unsung Caretaker

I have been to all the State Parks in Minnesota, but I still love my backyard Upper Landing Park on the Mississippi River.  It has the soaring eagles, the bluffs, the history, the river, the neighbors who care for the river, the pollinators, the Monarch’s, the moonlit nights, the ice chunks grinding and moving along, the explosion of spring, and the beauty of the fall in a kayak.

All of the natural areas of Minnesota are our backyards, and we all need to share in the love and respect our backyard neighborhoods are owed. We owe our care to the seventh generation and beyond. A little bit about the work of Friends of Upper Landing Park:

• We remove invasives and plant pollinators. 
• We do 12 weeks of Monarch Monitoring every summer.
• We clean up homeless encampments.
• We restore the tree canopy to reduce the heat dome in the city. 
• We pick up trash on a daily basis.  In the winter we continue picking up litter.
• We work with all seven blocks at Upper Landing and welcome everyone to join us. 
• We encourage the homeless and panhandlers to help us keep the park clean. We call for welfare checks when it is needed.
• We act as ambassadors for the city and park to the guests who visit.

Friends of Upper Landing

The Friends of Upper Landing Park and Trail, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, is a group of volunteers in the Upper Landing neighborhood. Each year they raise funds to install seventy-two hanging baskets to create a walking corridor of blooming flowers from the High Bridge to the Wabasha Bridge. Funds from the Friends of Upper Landing Park and Trail group were used in a five-year effort to refurbish the gardens that were destroyed by spring floods. Again in 2024 the floods destroyed four gardens, and three workdays helped to clean up the destruction. Volunteers plant and maintain primarily native grasses and flowers and shrubs within the park and neighborhood. Ongoing cleanup efforts keep the park and trail clean and safe. During COVID-19 the number of park users tripled with volunteer effort increased to continue maintenance.

We have received awards for our work to include:

• Great Places Award for the Chestnut Plaza
• Blooming Saint Paul Golden Steward Award
• National Wildlife Federation Certified Wildlife Habitat site.
• Good Neighbor Award from ABC/KSTP with picnic and filming
• Mississippi National River and Recreation Area Monarch Observation site
• Adopt a River Program
• Mississippi National Park and Recreation Area and Connections- Outstanding Group Service
• City of Saint Paul City Council Resolution for Outstanding Work and Achievement
• St. Paul Parks Conservancy Stewardship Group of the Year Award

We have twenty-five hardworking volunteers who have donated thousands of hours of group and individual work since 2013. We also had forty donors who contributed over $8,000 for the flower baskets and upkeep of the gardens. We work cooperatively with the City of St. Paul, the National Park Service and Mississippi River Connections, and the St. Paul Parks Conservancy.

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