It’s no surprise that Scott County is full of amazing, influential people who take remarkable steps towards protecting our natural resources, and the Scott Soil and water Conservation District (SWCD) is delighted to award the title of 2024 Conservation Leader to Shakopee resident Maxine Hughes!
The Conservation Leaders program gives appreciation and recognition to outstanding conservationists, trendsetters, and stewards of the land in Scott County. Maxine and her husband Keiran embody that stewardship wholeheartedly.
Living on the shores of O’Dowd Lake, the Hughes have completely transformed their property with stabilizing lakeshore plants, a robust prairie planting, pollinating trees and shrubs, and low-mow fescue grass. Maxine cares for the land she lives on and advocates for the community as a whole through numerous leadership roles with her local lake association, citizen science opportunities, and exceptional volunteerism. Her mindset is years in the making and will have beneficial impact for years to come.
Restoring her shore
Maxine and Keiran Hughes started restoration projects on their home after purchasing it in 2019. After attending a Scott SWCD “Plant Native Prairie” workshop that same year, Maxine reached out to Natural Resource Specialist Meghan Darley for assistance with a native buffer planting and got to work.
Darley assisted them with designing their new landscape. Typically, shoreline buffer projects must be a minimum of ten feet wide and span at least fifty percent of a shoreline. Maxine went above and beyond: She chose to not only create a ten-foot buffer that stretched her entire 160 feet of shoreline, but she also seeded an additional half-acre of their upland yard into a robust and vibrant native prairie! Maxine knew restoring their entire shoreline was the best plan for the health of their land, and for the quality of the water in lake O’Dowd. From O’Dowd, water flows into Thole Lake then runs north through Jackson Township and the Shakopee, eventually making its way into the Minnesota River. So projects like the Hughes have a profound downstream effect on pollution reduction.
Combined, the Hughes’ prairie and shoreline buffer provides a unique water quality benefit due to the prairie’s location directly upland of the lakeshore. The design effectively doubles the power of their yard’s natural filtration system. Runoff has to pass through the thick, diverse native prairie and the strong, stabilizing roots of their shoreline buffer before it gets to the lake. The result is cleaner water, a stable shoreline, and diverse, pollinator-friendly habitat.
Since its installation, the Hughes have seen all kinds of bees and other pollinators, with a highlight being the annual June firefly show that they watch with their grandchildren. Now in its fifth year, the planting is fully established, with a wide variety of flowers like purple hyssops, pink bergamots, and yellow coneflowers blooming all throughout the growing season!
Protecting the lake and community
Maxine’s protection and restoration efforts go well beyond the boundaries of just her property. In spring 2020, Maxine spearheaded an initiative to remove invasive buckthorn on her property and the small Islands on O’Dowd Lake. Maxine contacted public and city officials, rented buckthorn removal wrenches from the Scott SWCD, and got to work. In the end, she and Kieran removed a quarter of an acre of buckthorn across the projects sites and restored them with native grass and wildflower seeds. Four years later, the results still stand: Her lawn now boasts even more patches of native vegetation, and the island’s shoreline is full of vibrant goldenrod for the public to enjoy. Maxine ensured that public involvement and education stayed at the forefront of the restoration, informing lake users and residents alike on the negative environmental effects of invasive species and importance of native vegetation.
In addition to the benefits she provides the land, Maxine has worked as a Great River Greening volunteer for the last 27 years assisting the organization with buckthorn removal, tree plantings, prairie seed collection, and numerous landscape restoration projects. Most recently, she has taken on additional responsibilities as a monitor for pollinator activity at Spring Lake Regional Park, and she also voluntarily provides water quality monitoring for O’Dowd. Maxine hopes to not only protect the lake, but also restore it.
One of her more recent restoration efforts have been creating an invasive species steering committee for the O’Dowd Lake Association. After a summer of rapid curly leaf and milfoil growth that choked out native aquatic habitat and made boating impossible, Maxine’s goal is to help draft an AIS management plan for the lake and prevent the problem from spreading. The formation of this steering committee is just one example of Maxine’s leadership skills and ability to channel her passion into tangible improvements for her community.
A future for conservation
Maxine summarized her views best: “O’Dowd is the headwater of our mini watershed. Everything we do to protect water quality matters downstream. Water is life, and we all play a part in protecting our water for the present and future generations.”
Maxine is an exemplary leader in shoreline and urban conservation, proving to her immediate neighborhood and larger Scott County community that conservation can be beautiful, economical, and beneficial to the land and people. She is continually reaching out to her community to improve the landscape and—most importantly—maintaining the good practices she has already started. She views conservation and environmental protection as necessary actions in the present and takes every opportunity to pass her stewardship to future generations.
Maxine’s biggest message for the current and future generation of environmental stewards is, in her own wise words, “We all play a role in protecting the water. We need to re-imagine what lawn and land care looks like and pass that knowledge, curiosity, and love to those around us. And to those that come next!” Her message and overall character is inspiring, hopeful, and pragmatic. Congratulations to Maxine for her Conservation Leader recognition, and may her positive impacts continue to improve the soil quality, water quality, and environment in Scott County.
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