State Natural Areas contain some of the rarest and most ecologically important landscapes in Wisconsin and North America. These protected areas provide critical habitat for endangered or threatened wildlife and rare plants. They also contain some of the last remaining parcels of Wisconsin’s native landscapes as they would have been prior to farming and development. […]
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The seeds of conservation and preservation were planted in me during my formative years while camping with my family in Columbia County just north of Madison. But it took a solo cross country bike ride for me to elevate my game and pursue land stewardship with a passion. The Ah-Ha! Moment It was the fall […]
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The Natural Resources Foundation and the Aldo Leopold Nature Center have a long history together, since the very beginning of the Nature Center’s formation. Some of our first grants from the Besadny endowment went to the construction of an accessible pier on the Edna Taylor Park grounds in 1996. Since then, we have supported several […]
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It is a late night in June in Wisconsin’s beautiful Kickapoo Valley and I am straining to hear the calls of frogs around me. It’s not that they’re faint, it’s that there are too many of them, coming from the woods in all directions. I try to remember what a seasoned birder once told me—that […]
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Seven years after staff at the Mequon Nature Preserve (MNP) in southeastern Wisconsin began a project to re-establish the hardwood forests that once dominated the landscape, they noticed wildlife returning. But while snakes, frogs, and birds had returned in abundance, one important resident family of species was still missing: salamanders. Farmland development, parking lot construction […]
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Wisconsin has an astounding number of adult white trumpeter swans. These animals are the largest native waterfowl species in North America, and they’re quite the sight—beautiful white birds that stand five feet tall and weigh up to 35 pounds. As their name suggests, one sure way to know you are around a trumpeter swan is […]
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By Lisa Charron Imagine 90,000 acres of protected forest. Seventy-five miles of hardwood-lined river winds its way through the property. Paddlers and people fishing drift on the open water, while thrill-seekers maneuver through the rapids. Deer, wolves, raccoon, black bear, otter, bald eagles and ospreys make their homes along the lush banks while musky, sturgeon, […]
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