Welcome to the Driftless Region
A beautiful blend of prairies, oak savanna, and grasslands makes up the Driftless region of Wisconsin. Among the rolling hills and steep forested ridges, you may find pine, hickory, or black cherry trees. Residents of Wisconsin don’t have to travel too far to fish brook trout or hike through the limestone landscape.
The story of how the ‘Driftless’ got its name began thousands of years ago. The area remained unglaciated during the last ice age, so the area has no “glacial drift”: sand, gravel and other materials deposited on the landscape by glaciers. Spanning across parts of Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, the Driftless Area is a biodiversity hotspot for many native species.
A person canoing in the Sugar Bowl in the Lower Dells of the Wisconsin Dells. Photo by Satiya Buell
Conservation challenges in the Driftless
Over the years, this untouched landscape has faced many pressures and has become highly fragmented. While significant beauty still exists, the changing of this landscape has impacted migratory bird species, native pollinators, and human communities.
The sensitive slopes of this hilly landscape are cared for by both conservationists and community members. Together, they make remarkable efforts to restore and conserve this Wisconsin gem.
In 2021, the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin, along with six other partners, created the Wisconsin Driftless Conservation Plan to begin landscape-scale conservation efforts. The Conservation Plan serves as a guide for conservationists throughout the Driftless region to restore, preserve, and adaptively manage the most threatened habitats of the area.
The organizations aim to achieve a common vision:
The barrens, savanna, and prairie communities and surrogate grasslands of Wisconsin’s Driftless Area are sustainably managed and strategically protected, providing a resilient, high quality, and connected ecosystem in the frame of a changing climate.
A rainbow over the Driftless Area. Photo by Jay Carlson
What is landscape-scale conservation?
Traditional conservation practices focus on smaller parcels of land, but landscape-scale conservation focuses on much larger areas. Protecting larger sections of land and connecting habitats allows wildlife to safely move and migrate freely. This well-rounded approach considers different ecosystems, benefits to people, habitat quality, and the corridors needed for migrating species.
Experts say landscape-scale conservation can reduce the effects of climate change, habitat loss, and biodiversity loss. Still, landscape conservation teams face significant challenges. Limited funding and the need for a dedicated leader can cause projects to fail. Strong coordination is needed to work at such a large scale.
NRF is committing to work at this larger scale in order to meet Wisconsin’s growing conservation needs.
People watching for migrating sandhill cranes along the Wisconsin River. Photo by Emma Schatz
Laying the groundwork
Since the Wisconsin Driftless Conservation Plan was published, NRF has been working to put the plan into action. Using an international conservation planning process helped the team recognize threats and brainstorm strategies for conservation. However, scaling up efforts to reach organizations outside of the working group can have greater impact across the region.
In 2023, NRF secured a grant from the Network for Landscape Conservation’s Catalyst Fund. The Catalyst Fund allowed the Natural Resources Foundation to partner with a graduate student from the Nelson Institute of Environmental Studies over the summer of 2024. Together, they made a plan for increasing engagement with partners in the Driftless Region. This was the first step towards securing partnerships for collective conservation.
A person fly fishing in a creek on a foggy morning in the Driftless Area. Photo by Ann Paese
Connecting the community
To connect with local conservationists, NRF created a plan to understand their challenges, share knowledge, and engage with underserved communities. By sending surveys to our partners, we were able to learn about obstacles organizations face in using management strategies. We also learned more about the meaningful work already happening in the Driftless Area, and that participants value partnerships between organizations.
Conservationists also work very closely with landowners in the Driftless area to help them achieve their land stewardship goals, and ensure that restorative actions are aligned. NRF helps foster and build these partnerships by organizing and hosting workshops that align partners on values, strategies, and challenges across a landscape.
In the heart of the driftless, a young timber rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus) overlooks the landscape. Photo by Braden Alexander
Continued efforts to connect
The conservation challenges faced in the Driftless are similar to those faced around the world. Restoration, outreach, and collaboration requires time and resources. One survey participant said it best: “Even the cheap conservation work isn’t really cheap and smaller scale projects are not actually all that small.”
When conservation organizations share their success stories and lessons learned with each other, they can problem-solve and overcome obstacles together.
An overlook at Pleasant Valley Conservancy State Natural Area. Photo by Chris Hofmann
Written by Tiana Snyder, NRF’s former Conservation Project Associate