The school district is the first in the state to receive this designation. Students marked the occasion by helping build a new section of trail.

In a banner year for conservation efforts, the land trust completed 17 projects for an overall total of nearly 9,900 acres of protected land.

Funding will be provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Coastal Wetlands Conservation Grant Program.

The Ice Age Trail expanded to over 700 miles in 2024. Volunteers set a new record for service hours logged.

Tall Pines Conservancy protects the 139-acre property with a conservation easement funded in part by the Wisconsin Farmland Protection Partnership.

The grant will support a three-year project to plant and monitor trees on land owned by The Ridges Sanctuary.

The 38-acre Agaski Bluff, one of the Driftless Area’s last remaining prairies and home to the state endangered pale false foxglove, is now protected by The Prairie Enthusiasts.

A serene property among the pines of Halls Creek, north of Black River Falls, is now protected by a conservation easement.

The Metz Preserve in the Town of Erin is an 84-acre farm property that connects two sections of the Loew’s Lake Unit of the Kettle Moraine State Forest.

A 13-acre property with one of the highest concentrations of Dwarf Lake Iris will be conserved by the Door County Land Trust.

SWLC is ready to continue restoration and educational programming at the 75-acre property.

Conservation groups came together in Door County to advocate for the 2025 renewal of the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program.