Since its humble beginnings in 1975 processing prairie seed in an old dairy barn, Applied Ecological Services (AES) has blossomed into a diversifıed company, carrying on its commitment to science-based ecological restoration and land stewardship. Founder and owner Steve Apfelbaum began this endeavor as a way of putting into practice Aldo Leopold’s “land ethic.” Today, […]
Forest Concepts, LLC
Washington · Jim Dooley acknowledges that his product line, despite its careful engineering and serious purpose, has a rather playful association for most newcomers. “Everybody that comes in here calls it Tinker Toys for adults,” he laughs. But Forest Concepts’ toys are larger scale than Tinker Toys, made from the long skinny trees that now […]
Dave Jacobson
Preserving and Educating Love of the land, wildlife and a vision of what was there before his grandparents homesteaded his 160-acre family farm motivated David Jacobson of Sauk Centre, Minnesota to return the land to its natural state of wetlands, woodlands, and prairie. When asked why he would take active farmland out of production, Jacobson […]
Apple Crisp Cooperative
A “Core” Effort Southeast Minnesota is a countryside dotted with picturesque apple orchards, a development led nearly a century ago by the University of Minnesota. Partly due to the Mississippi River and partly due to landscape conditions created in the last glacial age, climate and soil conditions are unique to the area and ideal for […]