Land Management

In the Driftless Area, managing land is not just about maintaining beauty. It’s about protecting our natural heritage. We work to maintain and restore diversity and resilience.

Without active care, prairies become overgrown, wetlands lose their vitality, and the stories held in these landscapes begin to fade.

Many of Wisconsin’s native habitats rely on natural disturbances, such as fire and grazing, to remain healthy and resilient. Historically, Indigenous communities used tools like fire to shape and sustain these lands, encouraging beneficial wildlife and plants to thrive. 

Fire played an especially important role in southwestern Wisconsin, creating unique mosaics of habitats that our most iconic species, like badgers, butterflies, and oak trees, rely on.  These landscapes are the antithesis of monocultural lawns and wood lots overgrown with just few species of invasive shrubs; they are living, breathing communities of diverse plants, animals and people working together.

As our climate changes and the onslaught of invasive species advances, landscapes managed for ecological resilience become even more essential.