Fairy Lake Lions earn 2024 Land Stewards Award
by Deja Anton
Todd Soil and Water
Conservation District
Turning off of County Road 11 into the Lions Fairy Lake Park, the prairie grasses were flushed by a myriad of native wild flowers. Moths, crickets, grasshoppers, beetles, butterflies, blue darning needles, bumble bees, honey bees, and dragonflies zipped from blossom to blossom, filling the air with the mesmerizing buzz of late summer.
The oak savanna in the background was rippling as the aging leaves rustled with whispers of autumn just around the corner.
Small waves lapped the sand-beach shore, the lawn areas were well maintained, and it was here that I met up with Ken Meier, a local representative for the Fairy Lake Lions.
The Fairy Lake Lions, a subset club of the Sauk Centre Lions Club, is dedicated strictly to the betterment of Fairy Lake Park.
Many decades ago, the land on which the park now sits was generously donated by two ladies with one stipulation: the land was not to be developed for housing. A board was formed called the Fairy Lake Lions, and the park was opened as a small swimming beach. Over the years, public amenities were added to include a parking lot, picnic tables, shelters, renovated restrooms, playground equipment, benches, volleyball courts and a disc golf course.
As time passed, with all the good changes, some other changes as recalled by Meier and the board members were not so good.
The vegetation surrounding the park was changing. The first noticeable change was that an invasive buckthorn undergrowth was multiplying at a rapid rate through the tangled thicket forest....
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