Outdoor museum gains status

Winnipeg’s Living Prairie Museum is now officially a Key Biodiversity Area and part of a national network of sites considered critical to the survival of the country’s most at-risk and unique species and ecosystems.

The designation was announced Wednesday by the Wildlife Conservation Society of Canada.

The 13-hectare preserve in St. James  is one of Manitoba’s last largely unplowed tallgrass prairies and listed as a provincially-endangered ecosystem, the society said in a news release. The city-managed site is home to more than 150 native plant species, more than 300 insect species (including the globally imperiled Whitney’s Underwing moth and the Threatened Yellow-banded Bumble Bee), and a one-of-a-kind wildflower that grows in only two locations in Canada (Downy Gentian – Gentiana puberulenta).

The city-managed nature park with an interpretive centre and year-round educational programs is supported by non-profit partners such as the Friends of the Living Prairie Museum and through volunteering and fundraising.