Outdoors

Watershed district offers free calendars featuring local nature photos

EPLN Staff Reports • December 14, 2025

The Riley Purgatory Bluff Creek Watershed District's 2026 wall calendars feature winning photos from its 2025 contest.

The quiet genius of the winter junco

Stan Tekiela • December 8, 2025

A familiar winter visitor, the dark-eyed junco uses remarkable senses and navigation skills that make this modest backyard bird anything but ordinary.

First snow sets Staring Lake Park sledding hill in motion

EPLN Staff Reports • December 3, 2025

Families flocked to the Staring Lake Park sledding hill Sunday, enjoying the season’s first usable snow as winter operations begin, weather permitting.

Slide into winter: Staring Lake sledding hill opens after first snowfall

Stuart Sudak • November 30, 2025

Following several inches of fresh snow, Eden Prairie opens the Staring Lake sledding hill Sunday with warming house hours available for families.

When fall flirts with spring, wildlife responds

Stan Tekiela • November 23, 2025

Stan Tekiela explains unusual fall wildlife behavior, with turkeys and hooded mergansers displaying as daylight mimics early spring.

Mitchell Lake’s autumn refuses to fall

EPLN Staff Reports • November 14, 2025

A quiet November scene at Mitchell Lake shows late-season leaves still holding on, captured from Eden Prairie’s Miller Park playground.

Oh, deer — it’s rut season again

Stan Tekiela • November 10, 2025

As autumn settles in, white-tailed deer enter rut season — a wild, fascinating display of instinct, behavior, and nature’s rhythm.

Are albino squirrels on the rise in Eden Prairie?

Will Annett • November 6, 2025

A northern Eden Prairie resident has seen an increase in albino squirrels, which might benefit from living in the suburbs.

Neighbors ask visitors to respect Prairie Bluff and stay on the paved path

Jody Carey • October 28, 2025

City staff and residents are working to restore Prairie Bluff Conservation Area in Eden Prairie, one of the last native prairies in Minnesota.

A shade above your average squirrel

Stan Tekiela • October 27, 2025

Naturalist Stan Tekiela explores the genetics and surprising advantages behind black squirrels, nature’s colorful twist on a common creature.

Eden Prairie’s water stewards, Part 2: Cures for contaminated creeks, lakes and rivers

Jeff Strate • October 24, 2025

Part 2 of a three-part series on Eden Prairie waterways looks at efforts to protect the Nine Mile Creek watershed, Mitchell Lake, and the Minnesota River.