Mississippi Valley Conservancy, which has weathered controversy over its widely praised bluffland protection work for the City of La Crosse, also has had to confront another issue: How to fill key leadership positions made vacant by term limits.

Tim Kabat, Mayor of the City of La Crosse, has proclaimed Saturday, May 4, 2013 as "International Migratory Bird Day".

WASHINGTON DC – On Tuesday evening, April 16, 2013, the Center for Plain Language conferred a national award upon Mississippi Valley Conservancy in a ceremony held at the National Press Club.

 On Monday, March 18, landowner Sue Strehl donated a conservation agreement to Mississippi Valley Conservancy to permanently protect her family's farm.

Land is first purchased since dispute with city of La Crosse

LA CROSSE, WI – Mississippi Valley Conservancy is pleased to offer the public a guided snowshoe hike at the Mathy Preserve. This hike kicks of our 2013 “Linked to the Land” series of outdoor experiences.

Mississippi Valley Conservancy, which partnered with the production company Untamed Science, is working to complete a documentary film entitled Mysteries of the Driftless that features the secret places and unique landscape of the blufflands region (“Driftless Area”) of the Upper Mississippi River and its tributaries.

 LA CROSSE, Wis. - The Mississippi Valley Conservancy and City of La Crosse have come to an agreement over concerns with the organization's use of funds. Earlier this year, city and state officials requested an audit of the bluffland protection agency, focusing specifically on 1.4 million dollars in grants and city money. The audit found the money was used properly. As part of the agreement, MVC has agreed to make improvements to its accounting practices and transfer ownership of all seven properties it used city funds to purchase. That was something MVC officials say they had agreed to do all along. "There were contract disputes between the city and MVC and all the parties have decided let’s focus on moving forward and do a positive thing," said MVC Executive Director Tim Jacobson. MVC will continue to maintain the blufflands in the area. 

Mississippi Valley Conservancy has opened up about 4,000 acres of  formerly private land for public recreation, including hunting, fishing, trapping, hiking and cross-country skiing, in more than a half-dozen counties in southwestern Wisconscin.

Nov. 1 marked the 15th anniversary banquet held by Mississippi Valley Conservancy at the Radisson Hotel, La Crosse.

Tim Jacobson and George Howe were in Salt Lake City earlier in October representing MVC in a recognition ceremony as part of a conference held by the Land Trust Alliance. The Land Trust Alliance Commission, an independent organization, awarded MVC accreditation this past February.

 I recently learned that Mississippi Valley Conservancy has received the distinction of accreditation by the Land Trust Accreditation Commission and wanted to offer my congratulations.

Wisconsin’s Great River Road Scenic Byway was recently voted by readers of the Huffington Post as the Prettiest Drive in the Nation. The 250 mile byway beat out such competitors as the Hana Highway in Hawaii and the Big Sur Coastal Drive in California.

“The recognition is long overdue,” says George Howe, conservation director for the Mississippi Valley Conservancy, “It’s one of the most ancient, scenic places in North America. It is known worldwide as a special landscape. People come from all over the world to drive it.”

Guests watched in awe as the bluff’s patron peregrine falcon couple swooped and glided alongside the cliff’s edge where their nest and chicks reside. 

While the guests watched on the bluff top, falcon experts fifty feet below carefully gathered the young birds and climbed back to the top of the bluff with them. It was falcon chick banding day once again on the Howe family bluff.

Mississippi Valley Conservancy's Tunnelville Cliffs State Natural Area property is featured on the back cover of the April 2012 issue of Wisconsin Natural Resources Magazine, a publication of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. (See http://dnr.wi.gov/wnrmag/)  After providing a description of the property and the species found there, the magazine cover states:

The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center (The Archaeology Center) is recognizing Mississippi Valley Conservancy (the Conservancy) with the “Regional Archaeology Award” for 2011. This award goes to organizations or individuals who have brought a heightened awareness to archaeology and site conservation in the region.

The awards ceremony is on Thursday, February 16, 2012, at UW-L's

CartwrightCenter in La Crosse.  There is a short social 1/2 hour at 6:00 p.m., with the awards presentations at 6:30 p.m.

Although Mississippi Valley Conservancy has as its mission “conserving native and working landscapes” of southwestern

Wisconsin, it also helps protect rare geological and archaeological features and remnants.  These features are a priceless and informative part of these lands.

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Neighbors Harry and Sylvia Peterson and Denise Dipert and John Selby share more than a boundary. 

They share a love of the natural world.

Through their generosity, this love will live forever due to protective easements on their lands near the town of La Farge in VernonCounty donated to the Mississippi Valley Conservancy (MVC) this past summer.

The lands are relatively small at 14 and 10 acres respectively, but they harbor some big-time resources.  Both parcels include springs and a small creek which find their way to the adjacent MVC-owned 1,100-acre Tunnelville Cliffs State National Area.

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Bonnie Wideman has donated a conservation easement on her 160-acre Crawford County farm, adding to the lands protected by conservation easements administered by the Mississippi Valley Conservancy in the Kickapoo River Valley, a priority area for the La Crosse-based land trust.

Wideman said she wanted to protect the improvements that she has made on the farm such as her rotational grazing program. She organically raises sheep and beef cattle on the rolling farmland fringed by oak woodlands.

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Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert and his wife Jean have donated a conservation easement with the Mississippi Valley Conservancy on their 403-acre farm on the Mississippi River bluffs in Crawford County.

Hastert, who represented Illinois’ 14^th Congressional District for 20 years and served as speaker from 1999 to 2007, said, “This is a unique piece of property and should be conserved from commercial, industrial and development pressures. This is a legacy people will appreciate in years to come.”

The easement allows the land to continue as working farmland while protecting it from development.

Abbie Church, MVC conservation specialist, underscored the importance of the easement, noting that the land is highly developable with panoramic views of the Mississippi River from all of the fields that roll along the bluffs.

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Mississippi Valley Conservancy received a Ford F-250 Super Duty truck for habitat work, thanks to the Dahl Family Foundation and many other donors.  This truck is critical for the prescribed burns that MVC performs on prairie lands and the invasive species control on thousands of acres in our area according to Nate Fayram, MVC's land management director.

The La Crosse Community Foundation has announced a $15,000 grant to Mississippi Valley Conservancy toward the production of a documentary film MVC is co-producing along with Untamed Science.

“Mysteries of the Driftless” is a documentary about a team of explorers and scientists kayaking down deeply cut tributary valleys, flying in ultralights, and climbing rocky bluffs to reveal answers to the mysteries within the Driftless Area. Their journey will expose both the science and threats behind three unique features of the zone - rare plants and animals, odd geological phenomenon, and striking remnants of a Native American pilgrimage like no other.

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The La Crosse Community Foundation awarded MVC the grant for a documentary they are co-producing with a group called Untamed Science. The documentary is called “The Mysteries of the Driftless” and will focus on rare plants, animals and remnants of Native American pilgrimage. MVC executive director Tim Jacobson said the half-hour documentary uses science-infused adventure to highlight the unique geology and ecology of the bluffland areas of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa untouched by the last ice age.

Mississippi Valley Conservancy acquired Borah Creek Prairie in 2008 in partnership with the Driftless Land Conservancy, The Prairie Enthusiasts, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. The Mississippi Valley Conservancy has been working with The Prairie Enthusiasts to restore the prairie.

Come on — taking the kids to the pool is getting old and you know it. But what else can you do outdoors this summer?

Did you know prairie flowers, bright green moss and trees so tall you are dwarfed by their trunks are only a few miles from downtown La Crosse? The bluffland is packed with trails that weave throughout the natural beauty of this region.

Unfortunately, some trail heads are so small you could easily pass by without taking notice. But, if you look a little closer, you’ll find a new backyard to bike, run or take a relaxing stroll — without the stoplights and traffic.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010 in the La Crosse Tribune.
La Crosse foundation awards grants
 The La Crosse Community Foundation Board of Directors has awarded $32,768 in grants to six local agencies.

Mississippi Valley Conservancy received a matching grant for its outreach coordinator position. The foundation will award $16,000 when MVC meets its fundraising requirements.

The conservancy said it needs to raise $32,000 for environmental education to qualify for the grant. The outreach coordinator will work with schools to organize environmental education and help the public get involved in ecological restoration work.

 Brody Huth and Jonathan Lindsey spied a bird perched in a far-off tree. Was it a cool hawk, waiting for its prey? Or was it just a common robin taking a break on its way across the New Amsterdam Grasslands?

Mississippi Valley Conservancy is pleased to announce an expansion of staff in an effort to provide better service to the communities of southwestern Wisconsin by engaging the public outdoors, providing more environmental education, and highlighting the many recreational opportunities available on MVC-owned lands.

Protected bluff land above Onalaska increased by 51 acres just before Christmas as the Mississippi Valley Conservancy purchased Greens Coulee bluff property partly in the city and partly in the Town of Onalaska.

A family with historic roots in the state’s dairy industry has added a gift of Kickapoo Valley land to its Wisconsin legacy.

Birders around the country will see conservation projects of Mississippi Valley Conservancy, a La Crosse nonprofit land trust, twice featured in the fall 2009 issue of “Bird Conservation,” the national magazine of American Bird Conservancy.

At an awards ceremony Wednesday evening, the Crawford County Land Conservation Committee honored Mississippi Valley Conservancy as “Crawford County‟s Wildlife Habitat Development Award Winner” for 2009.

The southwest Wisconsin farm made famous by Ben Logan in his book, "The Land Remembers" will be open to the public for a tour on Saturday, May 16, at 10 a.m.

The Bad Axe River has received new conservation protection in its watershed under an easement granted by a Vernon County landowner, the Mississippi Valley Conservancy announced today.

Mississippi Valley Conservancy, a La Crosse-based non-profit land trust, was honored at a statewide conference in Platteville and named "Friend of Conservation - Outstanding Organization" by the Wisconsin Chapter of the Soil and Water Conservation Society (SWCS) at its annual meeting.

Ben Logan, whose autobiographical book "The Land Remembers" gave readers a sense of place and love of the land, has protected the southwest Wisconsin farm he wrote about.

Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.) was honored today on a farm near Galesville for his support of a conservation tool that aids landowners who want to preserve their land.

Dairyland Power Cooperative has granted a conservation easement to Mississippi Valley Conservancy (MVC) to permanently preserve 110 acres of Mississippi River bluffland near Alma, Wis., in Buffalo County.