Native Plant Forays

& Plant Mounting Workshops

For the past four years, Arrowhead Native Plant Explorers has held an annual summer Native Plant Foray in Sax Zim Bog and in Duluth at Lester Park and Hawk Ridge Nature Reserve. This day long field trip gives participants the opportunity to explore a peatland habitat while learning from herbarium staff and plant experts about bog plants and the surrounding plant community. Attendees respectfully collect plants from healthy populations and participate in pressing them to become preserved plant specimens. The forays are intended to provide the Olga Lakela Herbarium, at the University of Minnesota – Duluth, with plant specimens for educational and research purposes. Read great articles about our 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025 native plant forays by clicking on the dates. Join us on our next native plant foray!

Each fall, Arrowhead Native Plant Explorers holds a Plant Mounting Workshop to take each dried specimen and mount it on paper with all of the important information about each plant. This is equal parts art and science! To date nearly 400 plants have been donated to the Olga Lakela Herbarium. Read about the fun details of mounting plants at our previous workshops in February and November of 2023.

In 2025, a larger collection was made at Hawk Ridge Nature Reserve, focusing on the highest quality native plant communities. Learn more about the results of that service project study in the report below!

Service Project – Hawk Ridge Floral Project Report 2025