Support our Work

2025 Volunteer Opportunities

For all volunteer events, park in the Meadow Park parking lot on Oakland Road. Please RSVP: email us at [email protected]. All volunteers must sign a city and Friends volunteer waiver (once per year) on the day of their first volunteer event of the year.

Bird Surveys

DATE	TIME	EVENT
Friday, April 25th	8:00 to 9:30 am	Bird Survey
Saturday, May 3rd	8:00 to 9:30 am	Bird Survey
Saturday, May 10th	8:00 to 9:30 am	Bird Survey
Thursday, May 15th	8:00 to 9:30 am	Bird Survey
Saturday, May 21st	8:00 to 9:30 am	Bird Survey
Saturday, May 31st	8:00 to 9:30 am	Bird Survey
Tuesday, June 3rd	8:00 to 9:30 am	Bird Survey

To participate in the survey, please bring binoculars, sturdy footwear, and install the free Cornell Lab of Ornithology Merlin app on your cell phone.

SUPPORT THE FRIENDS

VOLUNTEER

There are a number of ways an individual can contribute. The Friends organizes numerous volunteer events at the Cullen Nature Preserve that include helping with restoration efforts and citizen scientist plant and bird surveys. If you would like to find out more about ways to volunteer your time and expertise, please see the opportunities listed below then connect with us to tell us where your interests lie.

My mother loved volunteerism—she would be thrilled to know people are caring for the Preserve. Bill Cullen

ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION
Invasive Plant Management, Seed Collection and Broadcasting, Planting

FUTURE PROJECTS
Interpretive Signs, Footbridge,
Information Kiosk, Bird Nest Boxes

NATURE-BASED ACTIVITIES
Bird and Plant Surveys,
Photography of the Flora and Fauna

COMMUNICATION AND OUTREACH
Educational Materials, Developing Content for the Website/Future Projects, Social Media, Video Editing

VOLUNTEER PROFILES

"We need to tell people what is happening. We need to take care of the earth, and we need to do it soon. If we damage the earth, we damage ourselves. It is related to everything."

Helen Sievers

In 2021, Helen Sievers was working at Sugarloaf Cove Nature Center on Minnesota’s North Shore of Lake Superior near Schroeder when she met Jerrold Gershone, current board president of the Cullen Nature Preserve. With its strong educational focus, the mission of Sugarloaf Nature Center is to inspire visitors to take personal and communal responsibility for the health and well-being of natural and ecological systems, and as a master naturalist, Helen worked there as a host, educator, and photographer. Jerrold and others were in the process of envisioning what the Cullen Nature Preserve could be and had stopped by Sugarloaf Cove to learn more about how the organization was run, how they interacted with the public and provided education, and how they maintained the restoration. During their discussions, Jerrold explained about the prospects for an oak savanna restoration in the middle of the suburban, west metro area of the Twin Cities, near Helen’s St. Louis Park residence. Helen was intrigued.

Several weeks later when Helen was back in the Twin Cities, Jerrold took her on a tour of the Cullen property. The memory of her first look at Cullen remains sharp in her mind: buckthorn choked the entire area, it was hard to see anything, and without Jerrold’s navigation, she would have gotten lost. The degraded land captured her imagination, and while she didn’t know anything about oak savannas, the idea that an ecosystem restoration could happen in the middle of the large metropolitan area was fascinating. She decided then that she wanted to volunteer to help.

Helen has contributed to a wide variety of volunteer activities for the Cullen Nature Preserve, including documentary photography, organizing the newsletter and writing its trivia section. In 2023, she devoted approximately 70 hours of volunteer time to several things, including sorting through Ann Cullen’s records, organizing and cataloging them, and then scanning them to preserve their contents for easier access. She also worked with the Minnetonka Historical Society to obtain photographs of the original Cullen farm homestead. As a retired IBM professional, Helen had access to IBM’s volunteer grant program. Helen gave her volunteer time, and IBM then matched her time with a substantial financial donation to Cullen Nature Preserve.

As a photographer, she has helped to document what is happening at Cullen, including the way the ecosystem is changing and the volunteers that are helping to move the work forward. One of her favorite series of photographs is oak leaves in the snow that she shot shortly after she was introduced to the property. She noted that her approach to photography is to focus attention on smaller details, as sometimes she can get overwhelmed by looking at the big picture, with lots of complications. The oak leaves in the snow were a small signal of what she hoped would be the future of Cullen, a robust and healthy oak savanna ecosystem, with a surrounding community of land stewards and volunteers actively working to educate visitors with what she feels is her driving message: “We need to tell people what is happening. We need to take care of the earth, and we need to do it soon. If we damage the earth, we damage ourselves. It is related to everything.“

Young Men's Service League

This spring, on the sunny Saturday morning before Mother's Day, four teenage boys came to Cullen Nature Preserve with their mothers to participate in a bird survey. Most of them were new to both identifying birds and to Cullen. They joined a team of more experienced—and older—birders who were also helping with the bird survey. Heather Holm was leading the group that day and explained that the purpose of collecting bird data was to monitor the health and progress of the oak savanna restoration. Then the group walked up to the Preserve and dispersed across the property to start looking for birds, with the more knowledgeable birders pairing up with the less experienced.

The young men and their moms are part of Eden Prairie chapter of the Young Men's Service League (YMSL), with their members volunteering at the Cullen Nature Preserve since 2022. YMSL is a national organization for high school boys and their moms. When a mother and son together join a local chapter, they make a commitment to serve in their communities by completing a significant amount of volunteer work for a variety of organizations throughout the four years of high school. In the two years since they began working with Cullen, volunteers from YMSL have participated in garlic mustard pulls and bird surveys. In total, they have contributed almost 130 hours of volunteer time to Cullen Nature Preserve.

After about half an hour, Heather spotted a red-headed woodpecker, a bird which is a flagship species of the oak savanna and which has been in steep decline in Minnesota as their habitat has degraded and disappeared. She quickly texted and called others there to tell them to come see it—this was only the second time a red-headed woodpecker had been identified at Cullen, and there was a lot of excitement to see it there. Fortunately, the red-headed woodpecker stayed in the area during the period of the bird survey. At one point, towards the end of the survey, the woodpecker was seen again. While as many as possible were being gathered to see it, one young man kept eyes on the bird, jogging to follow it, so that he could show the location to everyone who was eager to see it. Gathering at the end of the survey to share out all the birds that were recorded, spirits were high and everyone was grateful to share the morning together at Cullen.

Volunteers at YMSL have enjoyed the chance to work with other community volunteers at Cullen Nature Preserve and to learn and grow from them. They are looking forward to a continued collaboration and expanding the kinds of ways that they can contribute.

“Cullen is just sitting there, removing carbon from our air, cleaning our drinking water, and providing a place for life and biodiversity. If we care about our children and grandchildren, we need to protect it and help it to improve.”

Tom DiTosto

Approximately ten years ago, Tom DiTosto was attending an event with the Minnetonka bird club when he met Ann Cullen Smith. At the time, she was more than 100 years old but was still coming to the bird club in her wheelchair. Tom was impressed with her passion and dedication to observing the natural world for as long as she was able. Later, he read that Ann had donated her family’s land to the city. As an avid parks volunteer in the city of Minnetonka, he was excited that this patch of land could be protected from suburban development and was hopeful that it could become a source of greater biodiversity. He later introduced Heather Holm, current vice president of Friends of the Cullen Nature Preserve, to the property and to its acquisition by the city –a fact which he is particularly proud of.

Tom has spent many years volunteering with Minnetonka parks, and at a certain point, he decided to concentrate on the Cullen Nature Preserve. He is drawn to a vision of a future healthy oak savanna acting as a “postage stamp parcel” of rich biodiversity, complete with young oak succession and flourishing birds and insects, in the midst of suburban Minnetonka. Tom explains “Cullen is not just another Minnetonka park—it’s a preserve for biodiversity.” He now spends time volunteering at Cullen to remove invasive species and to help with plant and animal inventories. He even helped to collect some of the oak acorns with board president Jerrold Gershone to preserve them in a kind of seed bank.

Tom is inspired by the indigenous philosophy that asks us to consider the impact of our decisions seven generations into the future and this motivates him in his work with the Cullen Nature Preserve.

"I really enjoy volunteering with the wonderful people involved in the Cullen project. I look forward to watching the preserve welcome back bird species that have disappeared."

Rita Sandstrom
Rita Sandstrom was born and raised in South Minneapolis but has lived in Minnetonka since 1984. She is married to Russ, a talented nature photographer, and has two adult children and three young granddaughters. After attending the University of Minnesota, Rita worked in the local independent insurance agency field specializing in the sales and marketing of business insurance.

She has been a nature lover since she could walk, playing in swamps, lakes, and fields, and has been a volunteer at Carver Park Reserve in Victoria for 37 years, mainly assisting with bird banding, along with other tasks. She recently formed a birding group, along with another member, at her local synagogue.

Rita was the original Secretary on the board of Cullen Nature Preserve but had to bow out of that position late last year due to health issues. She enjoys volunteering with the wonderful people involved in the Cullen project and is happy to see, during bird surveys, that birds have not been disturbed by the recent restoration efforts. She hopes to see new and formerly extirpated flora and fauna at Cullen Nature Preserve as it is restored to its original oak savannah biome.

Ann Kloth
Ann grew up in Minneapolis’ Bryn Mawr neighborhood, just a few blocks from the renowned Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden. There she explored every square inch of the property from wetland bog to prairie upland. As a child, Ann maintained the family vegetable and perennial gardens starting in 5 th grade! By 7 th grade Ann chose Eloise Butler herself for a deep dive biographic report and was convinced she would be a botany major. Instead, Ann became a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist but her green thumb passion for gardening continues to this day as she proudly surprises neighbors with fresh herbs and produce, and she has long focused on converting her suburban yard into a more pollinator friendly habitat while convincing her neighbors to do the same. Ann practices simple holistic health and wellbeing combining balance, moderation, movement, and training in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and nature-based therapies such as Shinrin Yoku.

"It’s so fulfilling to be outside in nature, getting exercise, meeting like-minded people, and being on the ground floor of building something new."

Ann lives in Chanhassen where she has been an amateur birder and a Minnesota Landscape Arboretum member for nearly 20 years. But she gets her full “Nature Rx” by volunteering at Cullen! It’s so fulfilling to be outside in nature, getting exercise, meeting like-minded people, and being on the ground floor of building something new. Ann likens the Ann Cullen family legacy to Eloise Butler herself, both having the foresight to invest in and preserve great natural spaces in our urban landscape for generations to enjoy.

Bob Frey

Bob hails from the town of Neola, Iowa (population 918) home of the famous HooDoo Days. Bob’s career was working in accounting and for manufacturing companies. He’s lived in Minnetonka since the 1970s. Bob and his wife Meg have been stalwart volunteers for Cullen Nature Preserve. They’ve pulled more than their share of garlic mustard and buckthorn. Bob and Meg enjoy walking and running on the wonderful trails and parks in Minnetonka.

"I like giving back to the community; I've been impressed by the passion that other Friends have shown for restoring the Preserve, and enjoy working outside."

Bob has many reasons for volunteering at the Preserve. He likes giving back to the community, he’s been impressed by the passion that other Friends have shown for restoring the Preserve, and he enjoys working outside. Bob also appreciates the camaraderie that’s developed among the invasive species team members and likes to see the results of all the hard work.

Bob has learned about restoration through volunteering and has been inspired to apply that knowledge to his own woodland not far from the preserve.

DONATE
If you don't have the time to volunteer, please consider a donation instead.
Donations help fund restoration efforts including the purchase of native seed and plants, and future projects such as interpretive signs, footbridges, and bird nest boxes.

Help us leverage the Phase One restoration project by donating to augment the restoration efforts including the purchase of native seed mixes and plants. If you prefer to donate through a Donor Advised Fund, search for Friends of Cullen Nature Preserve and Bird Sanctuary on your donor advised fund website.