Fall 2025 Update from the Midwest Center for Regenerative Agriculture

At Powell Gardens’ Midwest Center for Regenerative Agriculture (MCRA), fall is a season of both reflection and momentum. Ahead, there are new opportunities to restore, learn, and share on our living laboratory.

Restoring Land

Over the past year, the MCRA team has been busy turning once-degraded land into a thriving home for plants and animals. Using techniques like planting cover crops, removing invasive brush, and conducting safe prescribed burns, we’re bringing native ecosystems back into balance.

The conservation grazing program continues, with sheep and cattle rotating daily across pastures. This practice helps protect the soil, encourage native grasses, and improve biodiversity. Thanks to these efforts, more than 90 acres of prairie and pasture are recovering, with wildflowers, birds, and pollinators returning in greater numbers.

Trees, Bees, and Berries

This year also marked the planting of a 10-acre elderberry field, a crop that’s both nutritious for people and a magnet for pollinators. Rows are designed to support alley cropping, where animals graze between plantings to naturally fertilize the soil and reduce weeds. With drip irrigation, hay mulch, and even the addition of our first honeybee colony, this once low-performing farmland is becoming a model for how farming and ecology can work hand in hand.

Learning in the Field

Our apprentices are gaining hands-on skills in everything from chainsaw safety to fire ecology to agroforestry. Workshops this year included mushroom log inoculation, fruit tree grafting, and a popular Elderberry Workshop with expert Terry Durham.

We also hosted our first-ever Bioblitz. Volunteers and families helped identify over 600 species of plants, birds, and insects on MCRA land. This is clear evidence of a healthier, more balanced ecosystem and makes us excited for what the future holds.

Tracking Progress

Every tree planted, every grazing rotation, and every soil sample tells part of the story of the land’s recovery. So far, the MCRA has planted more than 2,100 trees and restored over 90 acres of prairie, pasture, and woodland. With ongoing soil testing and wildlife monitoring, we’re watching this landscape transform right in front of us.

Looking Ahead

The work doesn’t stop with the change of seasons. Next year, we’ll introduce other crops between elderberry rows, grow our apprenticeship program, and welcome even more participants to public workshops and events.

Looking further ahead, the launch of our MCRA Dashboard in 2026 will give visitors a digital window into the site, allowing anyone to track herd rotations, soil health, and biodiversity in real time.

If you’re interested in learning more or supporting the work of the MCRA, please visit www.powellgardens.org/midwest-center.

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