September 2025 Monthly Meeting Recap
- Sep 15
- 5 min read
Updated: Sep 21
9/16/2025
The September monthly meeting was held in-person and via Zoom from 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, 9/16/2025 with the guest lecture given by Dr. Frelich on the effects of Windstorms on Trees and Forests. Attending (or watching the recording of) this meeting can be counted as 2 hours of Continuing Education. (Find the recording in the Archives of the Monthly Meeting page.) NOTE: The start of meeting experiencing technical issues--I was attending via Zoom, and couldn't hear for several minutes during the first part of the meeting
Board Announcements
Kay Wimer and others shared information from the nonprofit organization.
2026 Plant Sale | Molly O'Rourke
Update missed this announcement b/c of the technical issues.
Project Grants | Kay Wimer
Update missed this announcement b/c of the technical issues.
Glove Sales | Shanna Hoffman
RCMG has gloves on sale to help raise funds for our programs. Pick up a pair or two!
Project Updates
RCMG Project leads and other volunteers talk about upcoming activities and opportunities
Gardens for Good | Beth Fritcher
Gardens for Good is adding volunteer opportunities because of input from volunteers. They're trying a pilot program on Saturday mornings (9a-11a) on 9/20 and 9/27 to accommodate schedules of working folks. See the Sign-Up Genius for more information.
State Advisory Board (SAB) Regional Gathering| Karen R
The Central Regional Gathering at Dakota Lodge in West Saint Paul on Saturday, October 25th. Check-in starts at 8:30 a.m., program goes from 9:00 - 3:00. There will be a lunch buffet by Las Tortillas restaurant. Expect great programming! The morning talk is about harnessing species diversity within managed landscapes in response to climate change. The afternoon is devoted to a clean water activity. Come ready to play! This is a lovely setting, and many enthusiastic volunteers will be there. Help us top last year's registration (to date we have 47 signed up for 2025, last year's attendance was 97)!
Darren says, "Thank you Karen! For all your hours and dedication to this project! Karen has received great feedback for her leadership! Kudos also to Brianna for her participation in the leadership of this initiative!"
Climate Responsive Gardening | Karen Randall
Do you remember the 1st time you thought about climate change? What were your thoughts? What strategies can you employ to be a climate responsive gardener? We have developed a handout listing eight categories of actions you can take to help become a Climate Responsive Gardener. Go to the website, and read the article, "How You Can be a Climate Responsive Gardener" (counts for education hours) or email Karen Randall. Handouts are available in 4 different formats (PDF, bookmark with QR code, etc.) The handout is available online or a the RCMG Extension Office.
Ramsey County has free cover crop seeds for community garden projects. Contact St. Paul Parks and Recreation if you’re interested in free cover crop seeds for your projects.
Patricia Ohmans is developing the Beeline as a demo project for Climate Responsiveness. Consider aligning your RCMG projects with these actions to increase climate responsiveness in our work. To join in these efforts, email Karen Randall to get involved.
Program Updates
Darren Lochner (RCMG Coordinator) delivers news from the central Master Gardener office, Extension, Ramsey County, and other partnering organizations to bring volunteers up-to-date on the program changes and updates.
Staying Up-To-Date
A reminder to all to refer to the RCMG newsletter and website for news and information. The education committee is getting ready to book speakers for 2026. Review both newsletters from the state and regional programs. All the speakers' information can be found there. Interviews are starting 10/11 for potential speakers for 2026. Interns and Master Gardeners are invited to attend these sessions. Please check out the newsletter and let the education committee know who you'd like to hear from in 2026.
RCMG Name Change Initiative
There will be a new name for our program. The name change committee continues to work on the rebranding, and more information will be forthcoming. Watch your inboxes for email from this new email address for details on the Name Change initiative. RCname@umn.edu . Please send your comments or concerns to this email in order to centralize the communication about the name change. Also look for FAQ document regarding the rebranding.
State Advisory Board
Sign-up for Regional State Advisory Board (SAB) gatherings this fall. The SAB will be accepting applications for the 2026 program until October 1st. Ramsey County has 51 applications so far.
Upcoming Traning Opportunties
Upcoming education opportunities include Food Preservation Consultant training, and Plant Pathology Webinars and workshops. The MN Landscape Arboretum offers a discount for MG volunteers for their educational programming. Use code MG2025.
Record your Volunteer Hours
To date, 56% of volunteer hours have reported. Please get your hours in so they can be counted.
Project Reports
To all Project Leaders and Co-Leads, please complete your Project reporting Forms by 11/9/2025.
To all Project Participants: we want to hear your stories! Please share information on your volunteer experiences, success stories, photos, quotes, proud moments, and recognition of fellow volunteers. Share not only what worked well, but also areas that could use improvement. For 2026, consider getting more involved with a project, like a leadership position, or serve on a committee.
Intern Updates
Congratulations to 2025 interns who've completed their requirements! Just a reminder to those interns still working on completing their requirements: make sure to complete the Core Course by December 31, 2025, even if you’re on a 2-year completion schedule for your volunteer hours. Also, volunteer opportunities will sharply decrease starting in October. To those interns who need to get more hours in, do it now. Reach out if you need help finding opportunities.
Mentors Needed for 2026
We're looking for new mentors for the incoming interns for 2026.
Monthly Meetings
RCMG November Monthly Meeting (11/18/2025) will be devoted to sharing our stories. Buds, Blooms, and Thorns is the theme of the meeting. Watch for a Sign-Up Genius if you'd like to sign-up to share your stories at the meeting.
Educational Program
Dr. Lee Frelich, Director of the University of Minnesota Center for Forest Ecology. Dr. Frelich is an accomplished author and researcher, featured in the New York Times, Newsweek, and the Washington Post. Contact Dr. Frelich at: freli001@umn.edu. Dr. Frelich spoke on the effects of Windstorms on Trees and Forests.
Wind Events
There are four types of wind events:
Gales: Relatively little forest damage with gales
Hurricanes: We don't have to worry too much about these here, but they can form in the Great Lakes. We may see more of this as the water temperatures rise
Tornadoes: Form from thunderstorms with wind speed up to 200 mph. While tornadoes have the strongest winds and can cause intense forest damage over relatively small areas, they aren't as destructive on the whole because of their short duration, and limited area.
Downdrafts: They have the potential to be very large, sustained events, and therefore have the potential to cause the most damage to trees and forests of all these wind event types.
Within this group are Derechos (or a straight-line wind) that can create a damage swath of more than 240 miles in length! The Twin Cities is in an isolated zone that experiences on average ~1 Derecho event per year.
Climate Change and Tree Species
The Twin Cities are likely to end up like Northern and Central Iowa by 2070. We will have more severe thunderstorm days in the future, and an increase in Derechos, as well as pests.
To learn more about strategies to help our forests and urban forests deal with the future to come, listen to the recording of Dr. Frelich's talk. He discusses pruning strategies, migrating tree species, native and neo-native tree species, recommendations of what to plant, and what not to plant in our forests and urban forests. The recording can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rhXSJuJjfP79P8JnhtJLwIACxGxL2oSz/view
Recap provided by Gretchen Hatch
RCMG Volunteer
