Nature Centers & Conservancies

Get inspired with nature by visiting a nature center in Sauk County. Many nature centers and conservancies offer activities to learn and connect with our historic landscape.

Sauk County is home to the global headquarters of the International Crane Foundation, which offers live crane exhibits, guided and self-guided tours, nature trails, all while working to protect cranes and their habitats.

With thousands of acres in Sauk County, The Nature Conservancy – Baraboo Hills works to protect the land and water on which all life depends. The organization has helped protect over 10,000 acres in the Hills.

The Sand County Foundation holds approximately 2,000 acres of Wisconsin River frontage, marsh, woodland and prairie in the Town of Fairfield. The land is maintained for landowner enjoyment, support of peer-reviewed quality research, long-term monitoring of savannas and grasslands, understanding of floodplain ecology and support of incentive-based effort to improve the deer herd and its habitat.

The Aldo Leopold Foundation surrounds Aldo Leopold’s original 140 acre farm and “shack,” where Leopold observed and wrote about the natural world.

Dedicated to conservation uses in the 1990s, the land known as the Riverland Conservancy’s Merrimac Preserve provides an integral wildlife corridor between the Baraboo Bluffs and the Wisconsin River.

Click on the link below to find a nature center or conservancy in Sauk County.