Anderson Nature Preserve

Once a dairy farm, the Anderson Nature Preserve is now managed to provide habitat for grassland birds such as bluebirds, meadowlarks, and bobolinks. Grassland birds have become increasingly rare as the acres of unmowed fields they require for nesting become farmed or developed.

Bottecher Road Wetlands

Eagle Centre Prairie

Located in the Village of Eagle, this rare, dry prairie remnant showcases endangered kittentails, pasque flowers and prairie smoke-native plants common to southeastern Wisconsin before European settlement. The owned parcel is contiguous with a conservation easement parcel, preserving the integrity of the oak savanna ecosystem.

Frog Hollow

At the south end of Nagawicka Lake, Frog Hollow is a valuable wetland complex, protecting the springs that feed the lake while holding the rich sediments and nutrients that make it an ideal habitat and breeding ground for muskrat, mink, wading birds, salamanders, turtles, snakes, ducks, and of course, the many frogs that give this former quarry its colorful name.

Genesee Creek Headwaters

Gramling/Martin Donation

Hartland Marsh Preserve

With assistance from the Wisconsin DNR Stewardship Fund, the Hartland Marsh Preserve has been purchased by the Waukesha County Land Conservancy.

Twenty-eight acres located in the Village of Hartland, with 1500 feet of frontage on both shores of the wild Bark River, will stay natural forever. Permanent protection of the entire Hartland Marsh (170 acres) is now guaranteed.

The purchase of the Hartland Marsh Preserve protects ancient bur oak trees and vital habitat for song birds, hawks, mink, turtles, and other woodland animals.

The Preserve will be open for bird watching and nature study. Local schools will use it for outdoor educational experiences. A trail will connect to the neighboring Ice Age Trail property.

Langer Nature Preserve

Lakewood Farms Preserve

In the Town of Mukwonago, this critical parcel lies within the watershed of the pristine Mukwonago River. Its preservation will help to ensure the water quality of the river while also protecting a deep, wooded kettle, the shore of a small lake, and a field that is prime to be restored to an oak opening.

Thanks to the dedication of the Waukesha County Land Conservancy’s members, community volunteers, and board of directors, over 1500 acres in Waukesha County are protected through ownership and by land preservation agreements.

These are just some of the sites owned by the Waukesha Land Conservancy.

Marsh Hawk Preserve

Martin's Woods and Geigner

This 52-acre lowland woods in the Town of Vernon is home to 135 plant species, including a small but thriving stand of rare Kentucky Coffee trees. Botanists believe that Martin’s Woods is among the sites containing the greatest plant diversity remaining in the county.

Minor's Hamestead

Mud Lake

Nagawicka Kettle Bog

Nicholas Preserve

This 20 acre site in New berlin is a good mixed forest, with sugar maples, a very large hackberry tree, and a groundlayer of wildflowers including Jack-in-the-pulpit and wild geranium.

Nelson's Woods

Ottawa Wildlife Refuge w/ Izaak Walton Addition

Designated as a “Significant Natural Area,” the 350-acre Ottawa Wildlife Refuge provides a critical link in the same corridor containing Scuppernong Creek Preserve and Nelson’s Woods, two other Waukesha County Land Conservancy sites. The Ottawa Wildlife Refuge provides feeding and nesting habitat for several uncommon woodland bird species including the veery, the Nashville warbler, the blue-gray gnatcatcher and northern water thrush. Geologically significant also, the refuge has numerous oval drumlin hills. Over half of the preserve was once the bottom of a large, shallow glacial lake, now a thriving wetland.

Scuppernong Wetlands

Steuer/McCauley Woods

Tamarack Swamp Preserve

Part of the larger Tamarack Swamp in Menomonee Falls, this 147-acre site was acquired in 2004. It protects beech trees (rare this far west), ephemeral ponds and threatened Butler’s Garter Snake. Observers have seen woodcock, several hawk species, warblers, a host of sparrows, nesting woodpeckers, vireos, and flycatchers on the property described as a “birder’s heaven.”

Albert Thiesen Donation

Wilson Wood Duck Sanctuary