Wildflowers and Diversity - Prairie Restoration in Western Manitoba

Learn more about wildflower seed production and prairie restoration in the mixed grass prairies of western Manitoba. Skinner Native Seeds has been busy, both collecting and increasing wildflower seed for prairie restoration and restoring prairie, using a highly diverse blend of local wildflowers and native grasses. This talk will highlight several projects and methods used to restore prairies in our province. 

This talk can be attended in-person or online. 

This event is a fundraiser for The Friends of the Living Prairie Museum. Proceeds from all tickets and donations will support education and conservation work at Living Prairie Museum. 

The Speakers: 

John Skinner's interest in plants started early, growing up in a nursery with a father who was a renowned plant breeder and horticulturist. He came home to farm and to teach in 1993 - his first native crop was locally collected big bluestem. Since then, he has acquired experience growing many different warm season grasses, cool season grasses, and more recently wildflowers.

Michael Skinner grew up farming with his dad, John, fostering a passion for native plants that led to him completing a biology degree at the University of Saskatchewan and pursuing a career in field biology with Parks Canada. He worked in Grasslands National Park for five years, eventually leading the native seed program, working on seed collection, cleaning, sourcing, and storage, and designing seed mixes for habitat creation for species at risk in the park. In 2022 he moved back to Manitoba to manage Skinner Native Seed’s Fort Ellice restoration project for Nature Conservancy Canada and to expand seed production to enable the use of higher diversity seed mixes across the prairies.