Our signature Land Legacy Gathering is approaching! This year the event will be held on April 27th at the Malcolm Stack Foundation in Ridgeway, WI – mark your calendars and make plans to join us! The Malcolm Stack Foundation was established in 2001 to promote land conservation, education, and equestrian activities through scholarships, grant-making, educational opportunities, and use of its facilities.
The Foundation property, which has been permanently protected by the Driftless Area Land Conservancy, is situated in the beautiful driftless area of Iowa County and provides a unique ecosystem for a varied collection of plants and wildlife. Visitors of the land may see deer, red-tail hawks, bobcats, foxes, or even a bald eagle! In a sense, the driftless area is like a fossil: it shows how the entire Midwest looked before the glaciers altered the landscape. Because this land was spared from the glaciers it includes pine relics and oak savanna as well as dramatic rock outcroppings and natural prairie. On a clear day one can even see the Baraboo Hills from the Foundation property, which is one of the premier geological sites in Wisconsin and is home to Devil’s Lake State Park.
One of the most interesting aspects of the Foundation property is the story that is told by the valleys, caves, and rock outcroppings. Five-hundred million years ago Wisconsin, as well as most of North America, was sitting on the equator – about 13,000 miles from where it is now – under a shallow ocean. The solidified lime, mud, sand, silt, and shells that accumulated in this ancient ocean can still be seen today at the Foundation! These layers of rock are like pages in an ancient book, each page telling an exhilarating geological story.
Please mark your calendars and join us for the 6th annual Land Legacy Gathering in April where we will start off with a hiking tour of this special property and experience the story that it tells for ourselves.
