Wisconsin

By pioneering innovative approaches to land protection, the Fund and its partners have helped to safeguard more than 14,000 acres of Wisconsin’s most vulnerable wildlife.

Prairie chicken We started 2010 by preserving two tracts of prime grassland habitat—totaling 883 acres— adjacent to the Buena Vista Wildlife Area in Wisconsin's last stronghold of the famed Greater Prairie-Chicken. We purchased the land from Blue Top Farms, Inc. and will transfer ownership to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to manage as habitat for a variety of grassland birds, most notably the Greater Prairie-Chicken.

“We’re thankful to our partners—Dane County Conservation League, Golden Sands Resource Conservation & Development Council, Portage County Land Preservation Fund and the Wisconsin DNR – for their involvement in this project,” said Peg Kohring, Midwest director of The Conservation Fund. “No one group alone could acquire the property, but by working together we have made this a huge success.”

Populations of Greater Prairie-Chickens have declined to near extinction over the past century due to the conversion of grassland to forestland and farmland. They once inhabited every county in Wisconsin but are now found in only six counties in the central part of the state.

Click here to watch a video of a prairie chicken's unique dance and learn more about the prairie chicken's place in American culture.

Brule River State Forest

Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, with Wausau Paper and The Conservation Fund, announced in June 2007 the conservation of nearly 6,000 acres of working forestland to be incorporated into the Brule River State Forest. Read more>

Lower Wisconsin River

The Fund's acquisition of more than 400 acres along the Wisconsin River safeguards sensitive shoreline habitat for vulnerable wildlife species such as the endangered ornate box turtle and trumpeter swan. Read more>

Milwaukee Watershed Conservation Plan

The Conservation Fund continued its work with the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District to implement the district's Conservation Plan, an ambitious initiative to conserve water and prevent flooding through land protection. Read more>

The Greenseams Program

The Conservation Fund works with the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District to implement the District’s Greenseams program, an ambitious initiative to conserve water and prevent flooding through land protection. Read more>

Upper Midwest Conservation Initiative

To protect this uniquely American landscape, The Conservation Fund has, since 1985, joined with public agencies, private land trusts and landowners to safeguard more than 52,000 acres of recreation areas, wetlands, working forests and wilderness in the Upper Midwest. Read more>

Willow Creek Flowage

In concert with the Packaging Corporation of America and Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resources, the Fund helped protect nearly 1,000 acres of forestland along the shores of Willow Creek in northeastern Wisconsin. Read more>