Habitat Restoration

Partners and programs help maintain conserved land

Stewardship of our nature preserves requires year-round maintenance. Our land management program includes a new internship program, partnerships with numerous state, federal, local and private organizations and an enthusiastic cadre of volunteers.

Our land management goals include:

  • Protecting and expanding habitat available for rare species
  • Restoring the structure and composition of natural communities to the quality and biodiversity that was present here more than 200 years ago
  • Maintaining resiliency in the face of changing conditions

Each of our sites have a land management plan to guide restoration activities and priorities. All of our sites are available for public access and environmental education and are utilized by professional researchers, educators and natural resource managers to track the impact of our efforts and evaluate different restoration techniques.

Restoration practices include prescribed burning, timber stand improvement, selective tree thinning, re-forestation, prairie reconstruction and invasive species control. Invasive species are a major threat to the native biodiversity and efforts continue year round. Join our volunteer list (by visiting the Volunteer page) and attend a volunteer workday to learn about these land management efforts first hand. 

Summer intern crew

Each summer we hire a crew of 3-4 interns to help with land management practices. The crew typically spends about a third of its time on our conservation easement sites and the rest is spent on conservancy-owned nature preserves. The crew gains experience in effective stewardship relating to the topics of invasive species, timber stand improvement, firebreak construction and native prairie and woodland ecology.

Hiring for the crew typically begins in May of each year. For more information or to submit an application for our summer land management internship, please see our Employment & Internships page.

Invasive species management

To protect our area's biodiversity, we spend a great deal of energy and resources fighting the many invasive species that have found their way in. Most conservation-minded landowners are engaged in the same battle. We recommend the following resources to help with invasive species identification and management:

Invasive Plants Association of Wisconsin (IPAW)

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources/Invasives