Parks and Open Space

The Living Prairie Museum is a 12 hectare (30 acre) tall grass prairie preserve located inside the City of Winnipeg. Set aside in 1968, this preserve is home ot over 160 species of prairie plants and a great array of prairie wildlife. Prior to European settlement, tall grass prairie covered one million square kilometres in central North America, stretching from Texas to southern Manitoba. Today, tall grass prairie is all but gone. In Manitoba only 1/20th of 1% of the original tall grass prairie remains. The Living Prairie Museum is one of the few remaining fragments of this once vast ecosystem.

The goal of Living Prairie Museum is to provide awareness and conservation of natural areas, specifically tall grass prairie, through environmental education. Download a copy of our Environmental Education Brochure.

Volunteer Seed Collecting

Join the Living Prairie Museum for native seed collecting in some of Winnipeg's prairie habitats. Collecting seeds helps us improve genetic diversity in our restorations. Volunteers learn about our efforts to produce native seeds as well as sustainable harvesting practices. You can also keep some of the seeds you collect.

New location - Volunteers have the opportunity to harvest native seeds from our seed plots in St. Norbert. See rows of native grasses and wildflowers and learn how these seeds are used throughout Winnipeg. The location of our seed plots will be provided upon registration.

Please call the museum to register.

The Living Prairie Museum Interpretive Centre opens for the season with the blooming of the Prairie Crocus, Manitoba's provincial flower. The Interpretive Centre has displays on prairie history and ecology and a second story observation deck that offers a great view of the prairie. Books and wildflower seeds are available for purchase through our Prairie Bookstore.

Print your self a self guided trail brochure & explore.

May to June - open Sundays only from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

July - August - open daily from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

September - open Sundays only from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

The Interpretive Centre is located at:

2795 Ness Avenue
Winnipeg, Manitoba
R3J 3S4
Phone: 204-832-0167
Fax: 311

Everyone is welcome to visit the prairie year-round from dawn until dusk whether or not the Museum Interpretive Centre is open. Self-guiding trail booklets are available at the front entrance to the Interpretive Centre.

For more information regarding history, videos, and herbarium, please visit www.livingprairie.org

To become a Friend of the Living Prairie Museum, please visit www.friendsoflivingprairie.org

For a walk through the prairie past, including historical photography, please visit www.virtualmuseum.ca/virtual-exhibits/exhibit/a-walk-through-the-prairie-past-the-history-of-the-living-prairie-museum/