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Our mission

Protect Special Places, Forever

Groundswell Conservancy is a Wisconsin nonprofit and community-based organization. We believe everyone should live in a world filled with green places where communities thrive. Land is essential for people’s physical, emotional, and spiritual wellness. All should enjoy equitable access to the benefits of land and nature. If we don’t protect undeveloped land now, it may be lost forever.

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It all starts here

The environmental issues facing our world have never been greater – our climate is changing, farmland is disappearing, not everyone has good access to land, wildlife habitat is vanishing, and people are losing their connections with the outdoors. Groundswell Conservancy is pushing back. With the help of our supporters, landowners, partners and volunteers, we are taking on big issues with focus and resolve. Acre by acre we are getting results.

Upcoming Events

June

Cover Crop & Pollinator Workshop

June

Wetland Restoration Tour at Walking Iron

July

Ho-Chunk Tradition and Cultural Landscape Tour

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Volunteers processing seed with a hammer mill, Photo Credit: Ben Lam

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With your help, we restore and care for our local natural landscapes for communities to enjoy and wildlife to thrive. No experience is necessary, and we provide the tools for the job.

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Our Latest Images from Instagram

🌼🐝 It’s Pollinator Week! 🐝🌼

This bee, dusted in golden pollen and hard at work on a vibrant yellow flower, is doing what pollinators do best—keeping ecosystems thriving. 🐝💛 We’re committed to conservation where you live that protects and restores habitats that make this kind of magic possible.

One special place where this happens is Westport Prairie, just north of Madison. Once farmland, this land is being lovingly restored to native prairie, where many flowers are in bloom right now—and where pollinators like bees, butterflies, and beetles find the food and shelter they need.

Every buzz, every bloom, every seed carried by the wind is a sign that we’re moving toward a healthier, more biodiverse future. And we couldn’t do it without your support.

If you want to visit Westport Prairie and see the flowers for yourself, it's free! https://groundswellconservancy.org/special-place/westport-prairie/

#PollinatorWeek #MadisonWI #Conservation #Outdoors #Nature #WestportPrairie #SaveTheBees #PrairieRestoration #PollinatorHabitat #NativePlants

📸BJ Byers
Most places don’t come with a sticker that says how they were protected — but maybe they should.

This is our second post in a series on how Wisconsin's best tool for land conservation — the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program — is in danger. State lawmakers aren't showing the level of support needed to protect special places like Lodi Marsh, pictured here.

If you’ve been to Lodi Marsh, you know how special it is. Walk the trails on any day, and you’ll find people soaking in the views, exploring wetlands, and enjoying the rolling hills.

Thanks to Knowles-Nelson, Groundswell has been able to help protect land around the marsh. Without this program, it will be much harder to protect similar places in the future.

📣  Your voice can help save it. Lawmakers are deciding now whether to keep funding the program. Speak up for the lands you love — it only takes one minute thanks to the help of @gatheringwaters.
👉  Tap the link in our bio to send a message to all of the lawmakers who need to hear from you right now.

📸  Ben Jones
Groundswell Conservancy's offices on Paterson Street will be closed on Thursday, June 19, in observance of the Juneteenth holiday. The office will reopen the following day for normal business hours. Attempts to contact our staff on the holiday may result in delayed responses as we give our dedicated workers the day off.

Groundswell's publicly accessible property at Patrick Marsh in Sun Prairie, and Westport Prairie, will remain open for visiting on Juneteenth.
Most places don’t come with a sticker that says how they were protected—but maybe they should.

Wisconsin’s best tool for land conservation—the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program—is in danger. If you knew how many of your favorite places were protected with its help, you’d wonder how lawmakers could ever let it disappear.

One of those places is Avon Bottoms State Natural Area in Rock County. Thanks to Knowles-Nelson funding, Groundswell helped protect hundreds of acres along the Sugar River.

Avon Bottoms is home to a huge variety of native plants and animals because it’s so large. It’s also one of the best places in Wisconsin to paddle when the Sugar River floods. Floating through the trees on a warm day? Pure magic. ✨

We need more places like this.

But state lawmakers haven’t committed to renewing Knowles-Nelson funding. We’ve been speaking up at the state Capitol with our partners at @gatheringwaters, and lawmakers tell us the same thing again and again: your voice matters.

📣 Take one minute right now to tell your legislators to protect Wisconsin’s conservation future.
👉 Tap the link in our bio to send an email to the lawmakers who need to hear from you right now.

Let’s make sure future generations can enjoy places like Avon Bottoms, too.

📸Pat Sheahan
One of the best parts about protecting special places is seeing all of the wildlife flourishing on land we helped protect forever.

Kris Kubly of Four Oaks Farms near New Glarus sent us this picture from a trail camera he has set up near the firebreaks on his property. It regularly captures coyotes and a badger on the prowl. But this is the first time he ever saw them both in frame at the same time. Kris thinks its possible the two could be hunting cooperatively! 

Do you have any wildlife photos you think show something special? Share them with us! #WildlifePhotography #NatureConservation #TrailCamera #WisconsinWildlife
Welcome back Prairie Partners! After a hiatus last year, the program is in full swing and our interns are working hard to keep Groundswell properties healthy. And this group of passionate land stewards have been putting in the work, rain and shine.

In partnership with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Ice Age Trail Alliance, and Riverland Conservancy, we give the Prairie Partners professional experience while they restore valuable wildlife habitats. #WisconsinNature #LandStewardship #PrairiePartners #WildlifeHabitat #InternshipProgram #ConservationEfforts
You are looking at the first batch of biochar ever produced at our Westport Farm! We made it by roasting a whole bunch of invasive buckthorn and honey suckle down into this pile of black charcoal-like material. This had the triple benefit of combatting invasives, feeding the soil,  and sequestering carbon.

We've never done anything like this before, so we are not exactly sure how much of a boost it will give to plants grown at the farm. Have you ever used biochar or do you know how we should expect our soil to change? #Biochar #SustainableFarming #SoilHealth #InvasiveSpecies #CarbonSequestration #WestportFarm #SoilImprovement
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