Native Seed Production Technician at MNL – Lonsdale, Minnesota

Are you someone who enjoys hands-on outdoor work, likes working with both plants and equipment, and wants to support meaningful environmental restoration? Do you thrive in a team setting and take pride in maintaining quality from the ground up? If so, this might be a great fit for you.

About Us

MNL is a full-service ecological restoration company dedicated to Healing the Earth. Our services include native seed and plant production, shoreline and wetland restoration, prescribed burns, conservation grazing, vegetation management, and ecological consulting. We also support solar and infrastructure projects with pollinator-friendly practices and land stewardship expertise.

Our Seed Production Team is responsible for growing, harvesting, cleaning, and preparing high-quality native seed from over 100 species. The work includes both outdoor field tasks-like managing weeds, transplanting, and harvesting-plus indoor processing tasks, where seed is cleaned, sorted, and packaged using specialized equipment.

The Opportunity

We're hiring a Native Seed Production Technician to support a wide range of tasks at our Lonsdale production farm. This is a flexible, team-oriented role that will focus on wherever help is needed most: from planting and weed management to seed handling and processing.

You'll work alongside experienced teammates to help meet production goals, maintain equipment, and ensure MNL's native seed is properly handled from field to finished product. This position is ideal for someone who enjoys varied, outdoor and indoor work, cares about both ecology and agriculture, and is comfortable with physical tasks and light equipment operation.

What You Will Do

• Support field weed control operations, including hand pulling, chemical spot treating, weed whipping, etc.
• Assist with manual (hand) and mechanical (combine, tractor, etc.) harvests, including handling harvested material and supporting equipment use.
• Participate in seed processing and cleaning, operating a variety of machines to prepare seed for sale or internal use.
• Help transplant new native plant crops, both by hand and using transplanting equipment.
• Assist with seed handling during and after harvests by moving harvested materials between wagons and storage containers using pitchforks, shovels, or similar tools.
• Operate or assist with small equipment for field maintenance, weed control, or harvest as needed.
• Contribute to facilities upkeep, shop organization, and basic maintenance when time allows.
• Communicate with your teammates, leads, and supervisor to ensure safety, task completion, and shared understanding of the day's priorities.

What You Will Need To Be Successful

• Experience or strong interest in ecological restoration, agriculture, landscaping, or related field work.
• Comfortable working outdoors and indoors, with exposure to various physical environments including dust, noise, and weather (with proper PPE).
• Ability to lift up to 50 lbs.
• Willingness to obtain a Commercial Pesticide Applicator License within 6 months (with assistance from MNL).
• Ability to follow directions, communicate clearly with the team, and stay organized.
• Strong attention to detail and a proactive mindset for noticing and fixing small issues before they become big ones.