Northeast Wisconsin Land Trust was founded in 1996 to “preserve and restore the natural heritage of Northeast Wisconsin land and waters through partnerships in land conservancy and resource management.”

 

In 1993 the idea to found NEWLT began with a simple but important concept which emerged from the 1993 The State of the Bay: A Watershed Perspective which stated “We cannot clean up lower Green Bay unless we clean up Lake Winnebago. We cannot clean up Lake Winnebago unless we clean up the Fox and Wolf Rivers. We have to attack pollution at its source and we have to do it through the entire watershed." NEWLT filed for tax exempt status through the IRS and was granted approval on December 10, 1996.

 

In 1998, Pat Timm donated a conservation easement on 60 acres of private land, creating our first conservancy.

 

One of our proudest achievements was adding land to our Mt. Morris Conservancy in 2009 – which provides a natural habitat for the federally endangered Karner Blue Butterfly. This addition brought our total acreage of preserved lands to over 3,500!

 

In 2012, we were able to build a boardwalk on our Guckenburg-Sturm preserve. This was a great opportunity that increased conservation and encouraged the community to come out and enjoy nature.

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In 2018 we preserved our largest property to date. With the preservation of over 700 acres of forestland and an entire northern lake we reached a milestone of protecting 5,900 acres with 30 miles of shorelines on 54 conserved properties.

 

We feel very lucky to have had so many great opportunities. To watch the number of preserves and conservancies grow and to consistently protect more land each year has only strengthened our commitment to protecting natural lands in northeast Wisconsin.

 

Thank you to all of our members and supporters, without you none of this would be possible!!