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Notes from the Field: The Power of Wisconsin Land Trusts

Notes from the Field: The Power of Wisconsin Land Trusts

by | Mar 23, 2026 | Conservation, Land Protection, Staff Updates

Across Wisconsin, land trusts are steadily shaping the future of the places we all love.

At their core, land trusts are nonprofit organizations dedicated to protecting land, forever. They work with landowners and communities to conserve natural areas, farmlands, water resources, and the character of our landscapes. Through tools like conservation easements and land acquisition, land trusts ensure that the health, diversity, and beauty of these places endure for generations to come. 

Here in the Driftless Area, that work is deeply rooted in the land itself. At Driftless Area Land Conservancy (DALC), our mission is simple and enduring: Conservation, Care, Connection. We partner with landowners and communities to maintain and enhance Southwest Wisconsin’s natural and agricultural landscape through permanent land protection, restoration, and stewardship. 

DALC is proud to be an accredited land trust. This distinction from the Land Trust Accreditation Commission reflects our continuous commitment to the highest standards of excellence, ethics, and permanence in land conservation. Accreditation ensures that the lands we help protect will remain cared for for generations to come.

 

That commitment also guides how we engage with the broader conservation community. From March 11th-13th, six DALC staff members traveled to Milwaukee, WI, to attend the Wisconsin Land Trust Conference, a statewide gathering of conservation professionals, board members, and partners. 

 

Attendees hear from State Senator Jodi Habush Sinykin. Photo by DALC Staff. 

 

Hosted by Gathering Waters, Wisconsin’s Alliance of Land Trusts, the conference is designed to promote learning, collaboration, and inspiration by bringing together all those working to protect Wisconsin’s lands and waters. This year’s conference offered opportunities to deepen knowledge, exchange ideas, and strengthen connections across the conservation community.

DALC was proud not only to attend, but also to contribute. 

DALC Executive Director Jennifer Filipiak shared insights into DALC’s growth, both internally as an organization and externally across the landscape, highlighting how strong systems and strong relationships go hand in hand.

Shannon presents a session at the Wisconsin Land Trust Conference.

Shannon presents at the WI Land Trust Conference. Photo by DALC Staff.

DALC Easement Stewardship Manager Shannon Roznoski also co-presented a session with other land trust professionals titled Making the Human-Technology Connection, which explored how land trusts can thoughtfully integrate technology to strengthen and streamline conservation easement processes. 

Shannon reflected, “Technology adoption can be a struggle in any industry, but the openness and collaboration of the entire Land Trust community mean we support and learn from one another, making everyone’s experience better.”

The opportunity to gather with fellow land trusts from across Wisconsin was a reminder that this work is bigger than any one organization. 

Together, land trusts are a powerful force for conservation, protecting critical habitats, preserving farmland, safeguarding water resources, and ensuring that future generations can experience the same sense of connection to places that we hold today. 

We are beyond grateful to Gathering Waters for hosting such a meaningful and energizing conference, and to our partners across the state who continue to inspire and strengthen this shared work. 

Because at the end of the day, conservation doesn’t happen in isolation; it happens through community. 

 

 Written by Katie Cervenka

DALC Communications & Development Associate

Katie Cervenka
DALC Welcomes Three New Board Members

DALC Welcomes Three New Board Members

by | Feb 16, 2026 | Conservation, Staff Updates

DALC's three new board members. From left to right, Rickey Chernik, Kathy Moody-Cefalu, and Gene Schreifer.

People who care deeply for the Driftless Area often find their way here through different paths, but share a common commitment to stewardship, community, and the land itself. Rickey Chernik, Kathy Moody-Cefalu, and Gene Schriefer each bring unique experiences and perspectives shaped by their personal and professional lives, and by a shared belief in caring for this landscape.

Rickey Chernik grew up in southern Wisconsin and formed a deep connection to the Driftless Area through his family ties and life in Iowa County. As a trail runner and owner of Driftless Endurance, he creates events that highlight the region’s terrain and help people experience it firsthand. With a background in events, marketing, and operations, he is passionate about building trails, supporting the Driftless Trail, and connecting people to the outdoors. He lives in Middleton with his family and is grateful to be part of a community that cares for this place.

DALC Board Member Rickey Chernik
Learn More About Rickey

Kathy Moody-Cefalu brings a lifelong connection to the Driftless Area, where her family roots run deep and where she now helps care for prairie, woodland, and wildlife habitat alongside her husband and parents. She spent her career with TDS Telecom, retiring as Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, and holds degrees from the University of Wisconsin–Platteville and Edgewood College. Kathy and her husband live on Lake Wisconsin, enjoying time with their children and grandchildren and continuing their commitment to caring for the land.

DALC Board Member Kathy Moody-Cefalu
Learn More About Kathy

Gene Schreifer’s passion for farming began on his grandmother’s small New Jersey farm and led him to the Midwest, where he and his family purchased land in Iowa County in 1984. Guided by a philosophy of improving the land while making a living, he restored the farm’s health, increasing soil resilience, wildlife, and productivity. Gene spent much of his career with University of Wisconsin Extension and as a grazing specialist, later serving as Executive Director of the Farm Service Agency. Today, he and his wife continue to raise sheep and grass-finished beef on their restored Driftless farm.

DALC Board Member Gene Schriefer
Learn More About Gene

Together, these three new board members reflect the diverse experiences and shared dedication that sustain the Driftless Area. Through recreation, professional leadership, and agricultural stewardship, each contributes to a future where the land remains healthy, productive, and deeply connected to the people who call it home.

Celebrating the Snow

Celebrating the Snow

by | Feb 15, 2026 | Conservation, Land Management, Staff Updates

February Notes from the Field: Written by Stephanie Judge, Conservation Director

While I know February can be a tough month for many, I love the winter, and I love it most when we have snow! Of course I appreciate snow for many of the traditional reasons – it’s fun for kids to play outside, it’s easier to enjoy winter sports, and it brightens what are otherwise some of our darkest days of the year. But, I also love snow (and cold) because it helps us accomplish important land restoration work!

As climate change brings warmer, less predictable winters, we’re increasingly challenged to conduct timber harvests on frozen ground or to burn piles of invasive shrubs. Happily, the winter of 2025/2026 has provided excellent conditions for many of these important activities. 

 Winter is also a time for site reconnaissance and planning. Frozen ground helps us walk across wetlands without sinking knee deep in muck, scout distances across sites when no leaves block our views, and get out to see land without bugs seeing us. 

At Wild Oaks Preserve in Dane County, which will open to the public later this year, DALC and our site partners, the BadgerLand Foundation, removed over 500 black walnut trees where we’re restoring savanna and prairies. Income from the harvest will help fund ongoing work at the site, including a pending hydrological restoration that will re-meander a stream and fill ditches in a previously drained wetland.

Black Walnut harvest at Wild Oaks Preserve.

Photo by Stephanie Judge.

At Erickson Conservation Area in Argyle, where an old plantation of swamp white oaks and tamarack trees was planted back in the ‘90s, we thinned 7 acres into what will eventually become a more naturalized swamp white oak savanna.

Erickson Conservation Area BEFORE thinning.

Photo by Stephanie Judge.

Erickson Conservation Area AFTER thinning.

Photo by Stephanie Judge.

And, elsewhere at Erickson, we gathered with volunteers to burn brush piles collected in past years. On this day – the last of January’s intense cold – we enjoyed the sunny 15 degree conditions along with chili heated to boiling in a cast iron pot on the coals.

DALC staff & volunteers warm up by a fire with chili.

Photo by Stephanie Judge.

Thank you to my colleague Shannon for that wonderful treat, and trick, that she learned while stewarding York Prairie State Natural Area near her New Glarus home!

Whether you’re “a winter person” or not, we know this season has been difficult for all of us as individuals, for our communities and for our country. We also know that “hope springs eternal,” and by this late date in February, the days are getting longer, the natural world is waking up, and we can all feel a little more energy to keep going and keep working toward brighter days and a better future. Thank you for all you do to support your neighbors and communities, including this Driftless community. We SO appreciate you!

Written by Stephanie Judge

DALC Conservation Director

Steph Judge
Welcome Kevin Mason, DALC’s Preserves Manager!

Welcome Kevin Mason, DALC’s Preserves Manager!

by | Feb 5, 2026 | Conservation, Land Management, Staff Updates

We are excited to welcome Kevin Mason to the Driftless Area Land Conservancy team as our new Preserves Manager!

Kevins first came to Wisconsin to attend Lawrence University, and aside from a brief chapter in the Pacific Northwest, the state has been home ever since. Over the years, he has built a career centered on restoring landscapes and helping people connect to them in meaningful ways. Most recently, Kevin spent nearly eight years working with Quercus Land Stewardship Services, where he partnered with private landowners, municipalities, and public agencies to design and carry out ecological restoration projects across southern Wisconsin. 

At DALC, Kevin oversees the management and monitoring of our nature preserves and Driftless Trail segments. His work helps guide these lands towards long term ecological health through practices such as prescribed fire, grazing, and other restoration tools. Just as important, Kevin works closely with partners and staff to ensure stewardship efforts are collaborative, thoughtful, and grounding in care for both the land and the people who experience it.

Kevin is especially drawn to stewarding publicly accessible lands and to the many ways people form connections with natural places. He believes those relationships strengthen individual and community wellbeing, and a perspective that aligns closely with DALC’s mission. 

Outside of work, Kevin enjoys spending time outdoors hiking, camping, paddling, skiing, and biking, often alongside his family. He is also a musician and songwriter who finds inspiration in the natural world, and on clear nights, he can sometimes be found in his backyard gazing at distant galaxies through a telescope.

“I love that the Driftless Area can surprise even lifelong Midwesterners. It is an utterly unique ecological and cultural landscape with many nooks and crannies and hidden surprises. I love watching a half frozen stream gurgle through a valley in the winter, or a bluff prairie bursting with color in July.”

We are grateful to welcome Kevin to DALC, and look forward to the care, curiosity, and leadership he will bring to our preserves and trails across the Driftless Area!

Great Results from Bluebird Nest Box Program

Great Results from Bluebird Nest Box Program

by | Jan 7, 2026 | Connect with Nature, Conservation, Volunteer

Volunteers work to set up nests.<br />

Gene Kroupa explains how to install a bluebird nest box to Richard & Joann Laufenberg, of Mt. Horeb (Photo by Gene Kroupa)

DALC’s joint bluebird nest box program with the Bluebird Restoration Association of Wisconsin (BRAW) wrapped up its second year on a high note.

This past year’s reporting recipients fledged 387 bluebirds, while the 2024 group added another 268 for a total of 655 from their free nest boxes. Plus, 331 cavity nesters, including Black-Capped Chickadees, Tree Swallows and House Wrens, also fledged from their nest boxes, for a grand total of 986. WOW!

“In 2025, we distributed 160 free nest boxes, plus mounting poles and predator guards,” said Gene Kroupa, program director for BRAW. Most recipients picked them up at sites, such as the Bethel Horizons Camp and Retreat Center near Dodgeville, and received a brief orientation, plus informational materials. Funding came from the Community Foundation of Southern Wisconsin and BRAW members.

Bluebird pair settles into their new home.

A bluebird pair settles into its new home supplied by BRAW (Photo by Pat Ready)

To qualify, recipients had to have suitable habitat on their properties, plus agree to maintain and monitor the nest boxes throughout the season. Then they were asked to send in a summary report at season’s end about the nesting results to BRAW.

“We were impressed with how easy it was to work with BRAW and help Driftless landowners host bluebirds,” said Executive Director Jennifer Filipiak.

For more information about BRAW and attracting bluebirds, go to www.braw.org.

A New Chapter for Wintergreen

A New Chapter for Wintergreen

by | Dec 19, 2025 | Conservation, Driftless Trail, Land Protection

wintergreen-closing

Wintergreen property closing. Pictured from left to right: Danni Niles, DALC Board President; Stephanie Judge, Conservation Director; Terry and Susanne Shifflet, Wintergreen property owners; Jennifer Filipiak, Executive Director; and Angie Buelow, Development Director

We are thrilled to share some joyful, long-awaited news! Driftless Area Land Conservancy (DALC) has officially closed on the iconic Wintergreen property in Spring Green, Wisconsin. 

This remarkable place encompasses 245 acres and a 15,000-square foot, Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired event center perched high above the Lower Wisconsin Riverway. With this milestone, Wintergreen is now protected forever, joining the growing network of lands DALC stewards across southwest Wisconsin. 

Overlooking the longest-free flowing stretch of river in the Midwest, nestled beside Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin Estate, itself a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Wintergreen holds ecological, cultural, and community significance that is difficult to capture in words. For generations, it has been a place of gathering and joy. Once a working ski hill and lodge, Wintergreen welcomed families, students, and visitors who came for snowy winters, sweeping summer views, and a sense of belonging rooted in the land. 

Wintergreen lies within the 95,000-acre Lower Wisconsin State Riverway, a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance recognized globally for its ecological value. The Riverway supports many critical habitats and provides habitat for 121 rare animal species, including 17 species listed as glocally threatened with extinction on the IUCN Red List. 

Wintergreen also serves as a gateway to something larger. 

As the future anchor of the emerging Driftless Trail, the property connects people to a growing regional recreation corridor and responds directly to what the community has asked for: greater access to the Riverway and meaningful ways to experience the Driftless landscape. 

Looking ahead, Wintergreen has the potential to become a trailhead, a retreat and visitor center, a conservation-focused community hub, and a year-round destination for environmental education, gatherings, and low-cost recreation. It is a rare opportunity to preserve one of the last large-scale community spaces in the Driftless Area and to ensure it remains accessible to all.

For now, Wintergreen will not be open to the public as we take the time to carefully plan for safe public access and recreation. DALC is working with the land itself and with community and business leaders to envision what the event center can become.

The land and the people who care for it are at the forefront of every decision. We will continue to share updates through our website and social media as plans unfold, and we invite you to stay connected by signing up for DALC newsletters to learn about opportunities for public input. 

Subscribe to DALC’s newsletter to stay in the know!

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This achievement would not have been possible without extraordinary community support. Many people made their first-ever gift to DALC to help protect Wintergreen. Others stepped forward with their most generous contribution to date. In fact, private donations made up half of the funding needed to protect Wintergreen. Together, you carried this project across the finish line and demonstrated what is possible when a community shows up for the land it loves. We are deeply thankful and truly humbled by the trust you placed in DALC.

DALC staff with Terry & Susanne Shifflet

DALC staff with Terry and Susanne Shifflet (bottom row, fourth and fifth from the left).

We extend heartfelt thanks to Terry and Suzanne Shifflet for their vision, stewardship, and willingness to permanently conserve this incredible property. Their care and collaboration laid the groundwork for everything that comes next.

We are also grateful for critical funding support from partners including the State of Wisconsin’s Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program, administered by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, as well as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service North American Wetlands Conservation Act, Ducks Unlimited, and the Schlect Family Foundation. Their commitment to conservation in Wisconsin made this milestone possible. 

Wintergreen is now protected forever–a place shaped by memory, grounded in community, and open to possibility. Together, we are caring for the Driftless Area and carrying its story forward for generations to come.

For press related matters, please contact Jennifer Filipiak, Executive Director, at jennifer@driftlessconservancy.org, (608) 930-3252

If you feel inspired to be a part of Wintergreen’s next chapter, we invite you to support the revitalization of this special place. Your gift will help ensure the land remains healthy, the building remains a community asset, and Wintergreen continues to connect people to the Driftless.

Support Wintergreen's Future
Wintergreen during winter