A former municipal golf course in Edina, Minn., is being transformed into restored wetland, as Hennepin County moves to retrofit a piece of the 20th-century suburban landscape for the realities of heavier rain and dirtier waterways.
Fred Richards Park sits on 43 acres where the Fred Richards Golf Course operated until 2014, when declining golf participation and the city's need for more diverse public green space led Edina to close the course and begin converting it to natural parkland. A city master plan adopted in 2019 called for wetland and prairie restoration on the site, replacing the water-intensive turf with native ecosystems. Now Hennepin County is moving to make that vision concrete, seeking contractors for the wetland restoration work through its supplier portal.
The stakes go well beyond one park. Fred Richards sits within the Nine Mile Creek watershed, a chain of waterways that has been on Minnesota's impaired waters list for decades due to chloride, sediment and nutrient pollution from suburban development. Nine Mile Creek drains to the Minnesota River, and under the federal Clean Water Act, local governments face increasing obligations to reduce the pollutant load flowing into it.
Source: NationGraph.
Restored wetlands are a cost-effective tool for that job. They slow, filter and absorb stormwater far more efficiently than concrete pipes and detention basins, and that capacity matters more than ever. Minnesota's state climatologist has documented that high-intensity rainfall events have roughly doubled in frequency since the 1970s, overwhelming stormwater systems built for a drier era. Converting a golf course, itself a significant source of fertilizer and pesticide runoff, into a functioning wetland addresses both problems at once.
Hennepin County has been ramping up this kind of work under its 2040 Climate Action Plan, which calls for expanded habitat and green stormwater infrastructure across Minnesota's most populous county. Funding for projects like this typically draws from overlapping sources, including Minnesota's Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment, a constitutional sales tax passed by voters in 2008 that has directed hundreds of millions of dollars into wetland and habitat restoration statewide. The county has pursued similar work elsewhere, including native prairie restoration at a county conservation area.
The Fred Richards project also reflects a broader trend across the Twin Cities metro, where shuttered golf courses are being reimagined as green space rather than redeveloped. Minnesota has lost roughly half of its pre-settlement wetlands, with losses concentrated in the metro, making every acre of restoration significant in a region under continued development pressure.
No project budget has been publicly disclosed. The scope of the restoration work and a construction timeline are expected to become clearer as the county selects a contractor.
