Sep. 5—Despite the closing of a decades-old mine three years ago, the Kasota prairie has largely evaded attention since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now, local nonprofit Save the Kasota Prairie is organizing the first open house in two years on Sept. 17 without support of the company that owns the land.

"We want to show people that we still exist and that we still care about it here," co-director of the SKP board Eric Steinmetz said. "We have more people coming out here on their own and walking around than we ever had."

This year, the Kasota prairie open house being hosted by SKP will be missing investment from Ohio-based company Covia, which operated a silica sand plant on the land until 2019, Steinmetz said. Covia filed for bankruptcy protection in 2020 but has maintained the land up to this year as required in its agreement with SKP, such as clearing invasive species.

Since Covia vacated the prairie, the landscape has changed. A pond that was fed by mining activity now runs dry, and the nonprofit took the opportunity to spread seeds of native plants to fill the space.

With money SKP raised in past years' open houses that sat unused during the pandemic, the nonprofit will operate a smaller tent than usual, selling merchandise and signing people up for memberships as well as offering tours of the prairie.

"They indicated that as far as doing this open house, headquarters in Ohio didn't want to hear any questions about expenditures," Steinmetz said. "Apparently management just doesn't want to hear about Kasota. It's a black hole for them, not making any money."

Operations manager for Covia Reid Gronski said the company typically sends employees to assist during the open house, but since laying off the mine's workforce, they do not have people to contribute. Contradicting Steinmetz, he said he is not aware of the company contributing money toward the event in past years.

Despite SKP having fewer resources than in the past, Steinmetz said he hopes to see a strong turnout at the open house.

SKP board co-director Bob Idso said the pandemic quarantining attracted more people to the prairie for hiking and letting their dogs run, with many people coming regularly now.

"When people were afraid to leave their homes unless absolutely necessary, this was a place where you could come out and get some exercise, enjoy yourself," Idso said.

After idling the plant, Covia has not announced plans to reopen. The company closed three years ago due to changes in consumer demand, Gronski said.

"We're maintaining all of our permits and performing all compliance activities," Gronski said. "We're maintaining idle status with hopes that we can start the facility up again sometime in the future here."

Gronski said Covia has no plans to sell the land yet, but SKP has worked for years to find a third party to take over the land when the company is ready to sell.

Steinmetz said he doesn't see the mine reopening and thinks Covia will eventually sell the land because of maintenance costs.

"Are they going to be pouring more money into a property that's useless?" Steinmetz said. "Someday, and it could be someday soon, Covia's gonna say, 'Well we're out of here,' and when that happens, we need to find somebody who will take this land."

Steinmetz said SKP has reached out to organizations such as the state of Minnesota, Gustavus Adolphus College and Minnesota State University about eventually gaining the deed to the land. So far, the offer has not drawn interest.

"It's hard to get anyone to agree to anything so fickle," Idso said.

Idso and Steinmetz said after 40 years as members of SKP, they are concerned about the uncertainty in ownership and maintenance of the land in the future.

"We really don't know," Idso said. "We're both getting pretty old. All the people who were there at the beginning either died or are elderly."

But the two said they are encouraged to have several active members of SKP a generation behind them and don't see the prairie losing all advocates for its conservation anytime soon.

"Meanwhile, all we can do is make sure it's managed properly, help people find the place and reach out to people and let them know that we're still here," Idso said.

SKP Vice President Genevieve Brand, a conservation botanist, said she hopes that continuing to hold events like the open house will draw more people to the nonprofit's mission by demonstrating the importance of conserving the prairie to maintaining a diversity of plant and animal life in the area.

"You want to get the kids out there so they learn at an early age that nature is important, and we have this resource right in our backyard that they can come to and they can find a peaceful place or they can learn their native species," Brand said. "Someday more people will hopefully be active in the organization, and it'll be something that we can all enjoy for a long time."