You've got a friend in me: friends of parks groups in the Twin Cities show their support for public land.

The Twin Cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minn., mirror each other in more ways than one. Each boasts an extensive park system supported heavily by user groups. But each city's park system depends on those user groups in slightly different ways.

Political Power in St. Paul

Back in 1984, residents of St. Paul, Minn. were surprised when real estate developers announced plans to erect a high-rise residential building at Crosby Farm Park, a 736-acre oasis bordering the Mississippi River. After convincing the city council to stop the project and preserve the park, the grassroots activists decided to form a permanent non-profit group, the Friends of the Parks of St. Paul and Ramsey County.

After two decades, the St. Paul-based group has proven itself one of the most effective park-advocacy groups in the United States. And it is only part of a tradition of citizen involvement that has also helped St. Paul's twin city of Minneapolis maintain its highly regarded park system.

Since its initial success rescuing the Crosby Farm Park, the St. Paul-Ramsey County group has scored other important victories through the years and helped shape park management policies. The group convinced the city council and county board to establish park citizen commissions and its members lobbied for a 1989 study that yielded 100 major recommendations on park management, acquisition and enhancement, and "no net loss of park land" amendments to the city and county charters.

Greg Mack, Ramsey County director of parks and recreation, holds the group in high regard. "They worked on one of the real landmark pieces of legislation in our county--the no net loss of parkland provision" Mack says. "They got out to the voters and got the question on the ballot and there has been about an 87 percent positive response to that."

A driving force behind the St. Paul-Ramsey County group is co-founder Peggy Lynch. After their initial success, the St. Paul City Council appointed Lynch and 24 other city residents to a task force charged with "looking at the park system and charting a course to get us into the 21st century" Lynch recalls.

She notes that one of the keys to the group's early effectiveness was its founders' political savvy. "We knew a lot of people in the community. A number of us had been involved for years in the St. Paul League of Women Voters, and understood how local government works. We had all been activists or wouldn't have become involved."

The sense of activism translates well when the pressure is on. Mack points out that the citizen groups can fill a role that park staff can't. "As a staff person, when I talk to the legislators, they know who I represent. But when citizens can come forward and present convincing arguments that come from the gut and heart, they can make a huge difference in decisions, he says. "We ask them not to be lobbyists for us, but to get behind proposals, make contact with their own legislators to tell them what they think about an issue--not what they should think about it."

Mike Prichard, a longtime group member and a past president, points out another effective function of the Friends board. An ex-officio group made up of representatives of the city and county parks and public works departments, and state Department of Natural Resources meets monthly with the Friends board.

"They sit down and let us--and each other--know what's happening in their bailiwicks, and the others have a chance to ask questions. This gives them and us a chance to talk about similar issues that are affecting everyone, and leads to a spirit of cooperation."

Lynch says, "the wheels of government move slowly most of the time. It seemed to take forever to get some of this stuff done." But she has support. Today, Friends has 300 dues-paying members and a 21-member board of directors.

To keep this number of local citizens involved in Friends' mission, ongoing communication is essential, Lynch contends. "We have a newsletter that comes out three times a year, and I send out fliers when there is something coming up. We have 1,800 names on a database that includes every elected official in the county." Outside communication is equally important. "Our members don't go out and work in parks," Lynch says. "What we need them to do is call [public officials] at apropos times."

While the Friends group has a sense of activism and togetherness, Mack says they come from all walks of life. However, he notes, "They know a lot about grassroots citizen advocacy, so wherever they need to plug in, they've been able to organize neighborhood groups to advance some initiatives"

Minneapolis Parks Thrive on Volunteers

On the other side of the Mississippi River, the city of Minneapolis also has a longstanding tradition of park activism. But unlike the ever-present political agenda of St. Paul, park groups in Minneapolis tend to grab shovels more often than gavels.

In Minneapolis, a number of neighborhood groups focus on individual parks, such as the Friends of Loring Park and the Kenwood Neighborhood Tennis Association, which has raised funds for the badly needed tennis court renovations.

Volunteer involvement is "critical" to furthering the city parks' mission, says Don Siggelkow, the city's parks director. "It's a very significant contribution, especially when you incorporate coaches and people who volunteer in other ways. Without the volunteers, we couldn't function."

One of Minneapolis' most active park-volunteer groups is the Friends of Loring Park, instrumental in helping to refurbish and revitalize the century-old park near downtown Minneapolis. Since 1997, the group has been responsible for major changes in the park, including installing benches and memorial bricks, planting trees and keeping gardens cultivated.

Another positive, recent trend is that corporate volunteer groups have become increasingly active in helping the city parks system. "We haven't sought them out; they come to us when they want to do a volunteer day," explains Abby Schrader, coordinator of volunteer and community partnerships for the Minneapolis Parks Department. One reason for the upswing in corporate park volunteering is that corporations "usually have more than 100 volunteers in a group. A lot of non-profits can't handle that many people," Schrader points out. Removing invasive species such as buckthorn or garlic mustard is a typical project suitable for large groups, she says.

For example, in July, about 300 employees of Minneapolis-based retailer Best Buy volunteered their time clearing buckthorn in several city parks. Best Buy also made a $20,000 donation to the parks system. "We've developed an effective volunteer-coordinator function to reach out and try to find these people," Siggelkow notes. "The key with volunteers is giving them meaningful things to do and thanking them."

Providing volunteers with some recognition for their efforts is essential, according to Siggelkow. To accomplish that, each of the Minneapolis city park sites nominate a "volunteer of the year" to be honored at an annual dinner.

Schrader emphasizes the importance of thinking creatively to maximize the value of park volunteer groups. "We, as a system, get more requests than we can handle. I want to try to accommodate each one to the best of my ability and also steer them in a direction so they can help with a current project."

She adds that getting the word out to prospective volunteers is important, "because we're a government agency, people sometimes think we don't need volunteers," Schrader says. "But we can always use more help to make sure our parks stay beautiful."

Annie Young, a citywide park commissioner in Minneapolis, says the draw to volunteer is natural. "Minneapolitans love their parks," she says. "It is the main reason many people live here. In turn, they want to take care of their parks. Because we have so much within our 6,500 acres for people to do there are many great opportunities for people to volunteer. Volunteers love to volunteer if there is something for them to do--and in this case, there is plenty for them to do."

Minneapolis' longest standing park volunteer group may be the Friends of the Eloise Butler Wild Flower Garden and Bird Sanctuary, which has been instrumental in maintaining the oldest public wildflower garden in the United States for more than 50 years. The group raised money to make improvements to the park for the 2007 centennial, including building a shelter and installing drinking fountains and benches.

"They work really closely with the park board and staff to meet the needs of parks and their users," says Mary-Lynn Pulscher, manager of environmental education programs for Minneapolis Parks. Most of what they do is really visible. Volunteers get so many positive comments from the public. The park users are very grateful. So they get excited about what they do."

In addition to volunteerism, Minneapolis set up a system to keep the funds for parks coming in. In 2004, the city replaced its longstanding People for Parks umbrella organization with a new foundation to solicit financial support for park betterment. Using startup funds donated by the Coca-Cola Corp., the city created the non-profit corporation to offer a planned-giving component. "It's one thing we had been lacking," says Siggelkow. One of its key functions is contacting trust and estate attorneys to make them aware of parks-related planned-giving opportunities.

Parks Are For Pups, Too

While people enjoy the results of volunteer efforts and park advocacy, four-legged park users in the Twin Cities have also benefited from park groups. The Responsible Owners of Mannerly Pets (ROMP) convinced officials in Ramsey and Hennepin Counties and the cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis to dedicate areas where dogs can run off-leash. The area now has 19 off-leash parks, with plans for more.

"ROMP is very single-purpose-oriented, but they've been a very effective group in educating folks in the value of recreating with pets," says Ramsey County's Mack. "They helped us realize we weren't providing parks for dogs, but parks for people who recreate with dogs. That distinction has come hard for some, but there are real people behind the dogs."

St. Paul and Minneapolis send a clear message for park advocates everywhere: friends of parks groups can serve many purposes. They work through advocacy, volunteerism or philanthropic support to strengthen the public spaces that are important to them.