The following three individuals and organizations have been awarded one of Nature Manitoba’s Native Habitat Grants for 2025:
Stuartburn Prescribed Burn Association
The Stuartburn Prescribed Burn Association (SPBA) is a new community-led organization that will provide education, training, tools and resources to landowners in the RM of Stuartburn so they can conduct prescribed burns in a safe and effective manner.
Prescribed burn of native prairie photo by Habitat Conservation Committee
The RM of Stuartburn is home to Manitoba’s Tall Grass Prairie Preserve as well as areas of private land with remnants of tall grass prairie. The SPBA will enable landowners in the area to work together to conserve, restore and better manage their native grasslands through controlled burning.
The funds from the Native Habitat Grant will be used to purchase personal protective equipment and tools that will be used for SPBA burns and also available for loan to trained members. The SPBA will provide training opportunities through the Canadian Prairies Prescribed Fire Exchange program so landowners can learn to conduct prescribed burns safely and reduce the risk of damaging wildfires.
Beverly Rapinda
Beverly and her husband own land adjacent to the Tall Grass Prairie Preserve near Vita, Manitoba. They are working to restore native prairie areas on their property by removing encroaching trees and doing prescribed burning.
One of the best ways to deal with encroachment by aspen trees is to use a flail mower as it will cut down young trees at the ground level and mulch them. The Native Habitat Grant will provide Beverly with some funds towards the purchase of a flail mower, which will also be used to create fire breaks for prescribed burns. She hopes to lend the mower to neighbouring landowners working on similar prairie restoration projects.
Friends of the Living Prairie Museum
In 2023, their project to establish the Native Tall Grass Prairie Seed Plots at the Living Prairie Museum was awarded one of our first Native Habitat Grants. In 2025, they will receive additional grant funding to maintain the native plants within the seed plots and ensure a high level of seed production for future years.
Living Prairie Museum Seed Plots photo by Marilyn Latta
Specifically, funding will be used to hire a “native plant technician” to carry out new planting and early summer maintenance work (weeding, mulching, etc.) during the critical period from mid-May through the end of June, when volunteers and summer students are the least available to do this work.