More Ice Age Trail Coming to Waupaca and Manitowoc Counties!

Ice Age Trail Alliance protects two strategic properties for future Trail.

Photos by Kevin Thusius and Claire Finucane.
Photos by Kevin Thusius and Claire Finucane.
The Ice Age Trail Alliance permanently protected two strategically located properties in Waupaca and Manitowoc Counties for future Ice Age National Scenic Trail. The Alliance officially acquired both properties on March 21, using its own funding.

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Take the Cornell to Lake Eleven Shortcut While You Can!

Recent property protection: great for the Trail, not so great for shortcut seekers.

A scenic shot of trees with fall colors overlook a lake in the distance.
Otter Lake Preserve contains a creek and high-relief hummocky glacial topography, including several small ice-walled lake plains along the Perkinstown Moraine. Photo by Jared Wildenradt.
For years, hikers have shaved miles off a 40-mile connecting route between the Cornell and Lake Eleven segments by following state highway 64. A recent property protection for the Trail, however, will soon upend this popular shortcut.

The Ice Age Trail Alliance closed on a 76.08-acre property along County Highway H in Chippewa County. Now known as Otter Lake Preserve, the property contains a creek and high-relief hummocky glacial topography, including several small ice-walled lake plains along the Perkinstown Moraine. Continue reading

2023 Dane County Chapter Hike-A-Thon

Join the Dane County Chapter on Saturday, October 14, 2023 for the annual Dane County Hike-A-Thon!

Choose between 2 hike options:

  • A 16-mile hike going south to north on the Montrose Segment and part of the Verona Segment
  • A 5-mile hike going south to north on part of the Verona Segment

See below for hike details!

Either way, you’ll get a shuttle, refreshments, some swag, and you’ll get closer to completing the Mammoth Hike Challenge!

We ask that each Hike-a-Thon participant make a personal gift of $50 per individual or 1st member of a household, $25 for 2nd adult in the household. Children under 18 accompanied by an adult are $10.

All proceeds from the Hike-A-Thon will go towards the Dane County Land Protection Fund, which allows quick action when a land protection opportunity arises, providing funds to pay for critical, time-sensitive costs related to land acquisition, such as appraisals, land surveys, and other fees.

 

The Details:

All participants will receive a shuttle from their car to the start of the hike, and refreshments during and after the hike.

15-Mile Hikers: Meet at Badger Prairie Park Shelter #1 at 7:30 am for check in.

  • The bus will leave promptly at 8:00 am and shuttle hikers to County D along the Montrose Segment for the start of the hike.
  • Hikers will then walk the Montrose Segment, a short connector route and part of the Verona Segment ending at Badger Prairie County Park Shelter #1.

5-Mile Hikers: Meet at the Badger Prairie Park Shelter #1 at 11:30 am for check in.

  • The bus will leave promptly at 11:45 am and shuttle hikers to the parking lot at Prairie Moraine County Park.
  • Hikers will then walk portions of the Verona Segment ending at Badger Prairie County Park Shelter #1.

There will be two aid stations along the with water refills and lots of snacks: Bosco and Prairie Moraine parking lot.

Location/Parking Details:

LOCATION: Badger Prairie County Park, Link to Google map

PARKING: Badger Prairie Park Shelter #1, Link to location on Hiker Resource map

Post-Hike Celebration:

After your hike, join Dane County Chapter volunteers at the Badger Prairie Park Shelter #1 for grab and go sandwiches provided by Millers & Sons Grocery, soda, beer, hot apple cider and other drinks, and snacks to refuel after a long hike. 

Make plans to enjoy local businesses in the our Trail Community of Verona. 

The Ice Age Trail Alliance is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Your gift as part of this event is tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.

Thank you sponsors for supporting the Dane County Hike-A-Thon:

  • Miller and Sons Grocery
  • Verona Chamber of Commerce

 

A Genuine Team Effort Expands the Trail!

Ice Age National Scenic Trail, Ice Age Trail, Chaffee Creek Segment, Pleasant Lake easement, Land Protection
A setting sun lights up the sky, celebrating the brand-new mile of Ice Age National Scenic Trail. Photo by Riley Dupee.
MT Summer 2023-p11-11_Land Conservation highlights_Pleasant Lake Management District_Locator Map)

Wins Delivered for Many Participants.

Article author: Tricia Baker, guest writer and member of the Waukesha/Milwaukee County Chapter
Thanks to a genuine team effort, the Chaffee Creek Segment in Waushara County just got one-mile longer. Explore this section of Ice Age National Scenic Trail using summer’s extra daylight hours. And, while you saunter, ponder the collaboration that delivered key wins for so many people – including you!

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Your Incredible Support Leads to Match Increase

Mueller Lake 600x400
The response to the Ice Age Trail Alliance fundraising campaign to permanently protect property for the Ice Age National Scenic Trail in Langlade County was INCREDIBLE. In little over a month, supporters donated nearly $160,000—exceeding our initial fundraising goal way before deadline!

Your commitment impressed the trustees of Prairie Springs: The Paul Fleckenstein Trust so much they decided to increase their match from $120,ooo to $200,000! Thanks to your generosity and that of Prairie Springs: The Paul Fleckenstein Trust, the Alliance will be able to protect and preserve additional land across the state.

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Protect Langlade’s Glacial Landscape!

Some of the most geologically significant land on earth exists right here in Wisconsin; Langlade County to be exact.

It’s an area where moraines once collided, resulting in amazing glaciation and hummocky terrain. It would be a hiker’s dream to traverse. But right now, the Ice Age National Scenic Trail currently runs along roads. With your help, this will change.

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IATA Preserves Benefit from Knowles-Nelson Funding

Ice Age Trail Alliance, Ice Age National Scenic Trail, Liebetrau Prairie, Table Bluff Segment, Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund
The Liebetrau Prairie in full bloom along the Table Bluff Segment. It's a view courtesy of the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program. Photo by Gary Hegeman.
Strung like pearls along the Ice Age National Scenic Trail’s winding route are both beautiful and geologically significant properties owned by the Ice Age Trail Alliance. Take, for example, the Marimor Preserve, in Taylor County, known for hosting one of the state’s finest examples of a terminal moraine. Another is the Moraine-Outwash Preserve in Langlade County – it offers spectacular views across the Antigo Flats and illustrates its name-sake glacial feature. And then, the Muir Preserve, in Marquette County, which protects the area surrounding John Muir’s boyhood homestead, allowing Wisconsinites better to appreciate the land’s hold and influence on Muir.

Another commonality among these properties? The Alliance purchased them using matching grant funds awarded from Wisconsin’s Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program.

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Bob & Victoria Connors Push to ‘Close the Gaps’ of the Ice Age Trail

By Sevie Kenyon, volunteer writer for the Ice Age Trail Alliance
Ice Age Trail Alliance, Ice Age National Scenic Trail, Vista, Burr Oak, Oak, Wetland
The Ice Age National Scenic Trail passes through private, state-owned, and Alliance-owned lands. Donations to funds like the Bob & Victoria Land Resource Fund offer the resources needed for the Alliance to acquire and protect land to host the Ice Age Trail. Photo by Nick Lane.

The Connors Family has a strong commitment to “close the gaps” in the Ice Age National Scenic Trail. The purpose of the Robert & Victoria Land Resource Fund is to facilitate land acquisition by the Alliance to host and permanently protect the Ice Age National Scenic Trail. The fund offers the resources needed to act quickly when land protection opportunities arise.

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Passage of ‘Great American Outdoors Act’ Bolsters the Alliance

Ice Age Trail Alliance, Ice Age National Scenic Trail, Table Bluff Segment, Rudbeckia, Black-eyed Susasn, Bloom, Summer
Black-eyed Susans in full bloom along the Table Bluff Segment of the Ice Age National Scenic Trail. The Land and Water Conservation Fund contributes to native prairie restoration projects, such as the prairie pictured above. Photo by Gary Hegeman.

On Wednesday, June 17, 2020, the United States Senate voted 73-25 to pass the Great American Outdoors Act to permanently and fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) and make a substantial investment in addressing the deferred maintenance backlog on our public lands.

The passage of this bill will help address priority repairs in our national parks and on other public lands by directing up to $9.5 billion over five years to address maintenance needs within the National Park System and other public land agencies. It will also fully and permanently dedicate $900 million per year already being deposited into the LWCF, our nation’s most important conservation program for land, water, and recreation areas for all Americans.

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Spring’s Woodland Beauties

Ice Age Trail Alliance, Ice Age National Scenic Trail, Woodland flowers on the IAT, Refuge in uncertain times, COVID-19, pandemic
Hepatica blooms along the Gibraltar Rock Segment of the Ice Age Trail. Photo by Nazan Gillie.
It’s a pleasant surprise to find small, dainty wildflowers peeking up through rough, brown leaves scattered across the forest floor. Such delicate beauty after a stark, frozen winter. Their emergence is a less a lesson about timing and patience, than it is of hardiness. They barely wait for a thawing earth before they surface and each year, it seems, their hardiness is tested as they endure one last snowy lashing of winter.

As you turn your face to the sun and head out on a hike, be on the look out for these woodland beauties:

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President Signs Bill Permanently Reauthorizing LWCF

Ice Age Trail Alliance, Ice Age National Scenic Trail, Advocacy, Save LWCF, Land and Water Conservation Fund, Table Bluff SegmentIn an historic victory for public lands and close-to-home recreation, the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) was permanently reauthorized yesterday, March 12, 2019, as part of a sweeping public lands package signed into law by President Donald J. Trump.

The legislation, which passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in the House (363-62) and the Senate (92-8) last month, was signed yesterday during a ceremony that included LWCF champions. The culmination of a year’s-long effort by Congressional champions on both sides of the aisle and by stakeholders across the country to preserve the unique character of this program. Continue reading