Environmentally Minded People of Minot is a grassroots nonprofit organization working to educate and enable people to lead more environmentally sustainable and responsible lives. Founded by Tim Baumann in 2017, the organization serves the citizens of Minot, a community of about 47,000 people located in central North Dakota. “We don’t have any catastrophic environmental justice issues that the city is facing,” Baumann says. “We don’t have rising water or contaminated groundwater or anything like that. Our mission is really about improving the lives of our neighbors, our kids, our grandparents, and everyone else who calls this community home.” To this end, Environmentally Minded People of Minot leads educational campaigns to raise citizens’ awareness of sustainable living practices, lobbies local decision-makers to adopt eco-friendly policies, and helps the people of Minot come together to create an environmentally conscious community and beautiful outdoor spaces where both humans and nature can thrive.
Volunteers plant trees in Minot, North Dakota. Photo: 1,000 Trees for Minot
A volunteer-led organization with only one staff member, Environmentally Minded People of Minot is leading the charge to make Minot, North Dakota, a greener city. In 2021, the organization launched the Minot Pollinator Project, an initiative that planted 16,000 square feet of pollinator gardens in ten public green spaces across the city. That same year, Environmentally Minded People of Minot created an offshoot group called 2,000 Trees for Minot, which aims to plant two thousand trees over a five-year period to restore the city’s shade canopy and prepare for warmer summers. The organization played a key role in starting Minot’s Curbside Recycling Program as well, making recycling more convenient and accessible for local citizens while promoting sustainability and protecting the environment. Environmentally Minded People of Minot also hosts litter cleanups, tree-planting labs, and is collaborating with local ecologists to restore the city’s prairie ecosystems.
Bumblebees and butterflies visit Minot’s pollinator gardens. Photo: Tim Baumann