Field Trips
The Land Trust Alliance is pleased to offer 11 field trips that will take place on Thursday, October 13th and Friday, October 14th. Local land conservation groups have planned these field trips specifically for Rally 2011 registrants to highlight the City of Milwaukee, Southeastern Wisconsin and Northeastern Illinois.
Please note the following:
Field trips fill up quickly, so register early
- All field trip participants must be 16 years or older
- All trips include transportation, lunch and equipment rental if applicable (canoes, bicycles, etc.)
- All trips will take place rain or shine, although they will be canceled or significantly altered if weather conditions pose a safety risk
- Field trips are non-refundable if canceled or altered due to weather conditions
Thursday October 13
FT-01: Canoe the Crooked Creek - SOLD OUT!
Hosted by The Nature Conservancy
Thursday, October 13, 7:00am – 5:15pm | $80
The Mukwonago River (“Crooked Creek”) winds through the Southern Kettle Moraine area of Wisconsin with its rolling glacial topography and unique aquatic and upland ecosystems. Hike and paddle on properties protected by The Nature Conservancy located in Wisconsin’s most intact and pristine small river system. The tour features multiple restoration projects, birding and a reception with Wisconsin refreshments to end the day. This paddle trip is approximately five miles on quiet water.
FT-02: McCormick Woods Preserve: A Rare Remnant Ravine
Hosted by Lake Forest Open Lands Association
Thursday, October 13, 7:15am – 3:30pm | $70
Lake Forest is home to McCormick Woods Preserve, the best remaining example of rare remnant ravine habitats along the Lake Michigan shoreline. Learn about the flora and fauna, threats and management of this beautiful habitat with a hike down and through the ravine. Visit Forest Park Beach to hear about bluff restoration underway, culminating in lunch on the beach. The tour will also include a stop at the historic Elawa Farm. The Farm is a working environmental campus on the Middlefork Preserve, which also boasts some of the best surviving black soil savanna in Illinois.
FT-03: A Glacial Journey on the Ice Age Trail
Hosted by Ice Age Trail Alliance and Cedar Lakes Conservation Foundation
Thursday, October 13, 7:30am – 4:30pm | $65
Over 10,000 years ago great ice sheets receded from North America leaving Wisconsin with a glacially sculpted landscape. The Ice Age National Scenic Trail is a 1,000-mile footpath entirely within Wisconsin that highlights these Ice Age landscape features. Learn about unique partnerships that helped create the trail, visit the Kettle Moraine State Forest and take a four-mile hike to an observation tower. Enjoy lunch at the historic Oak Lodge on the shores of Big Cedar Lake. Conclude with a one-mile hike as you learn about how these partnerships work.
FT-04: Geneva Lake Watershed Tour
Hosted by Geneva Lake Conservancy
Thursday, October 13, 8:00am – 5:00pm | $100
Spend the day touring some of the easement-protected land in the Geneva Lake Watershed, both by bus and by chartered Lake boat. Geneva Lake is glacially formed; encircled by historic and significant estates with landscapes by noted landscape designers and residences and outbuildings by noted architects. Visits will be made to all three sites on the National Register of Historic Places in the Lake Area. Enjoy lunch at Lake Geneva's Horticultural Hall, a locally famous Prairie School design. Tour the grounds of the Black Point Historic Preserve and end with a late afternoon reception at The Mill House, headquarters of this member conservancy.
FT-05: Milwaukee Urban Farm and Garden Tour
Hosted by Center for Resilient Cities
Thursday, October 13, 8:30am – 5:00pm | $85
Begin the day at plenary speaker Will Allen’s Growing Power, a national model for urban agriculture and community engagement. Enjoy lunch at a local restaurant, followed by a tour of Sweet Water Organics, an urban farm that has repurposed an industrial building and is using aquaponics to grow fresh vegetables and fish. Stop by community gardens in Milwaukee’s Bay View neighborhood. Finish the day with a visit to Alice’s Garden, a Lindsay Heights community garden, followed by a reception and discussion at the North Avenue Marketplace Business Improvement District of other neighborhood farm and food initiatives. Learn how Milwaukee is leading the charge in the “Good Food Movement”!
Friday, October 14
FT-06: Tour des Farms, Drumlins and Kettles - SOLD OUT
Hosted by Tall Pines Conservancy and Drumlin Area Land Trust
Friday, October 14, 7:00am – 5:15pm | $70
Tour two self-sustaining farms preserved through the Purchase of Agricultural Conservation Easement program: one located in the heart of a drumlin field that features certified organic grazing and the other a sixth-generation dairy farm. Hear about Wisconsin’s Working Lands Initiative and taste local food and cheeses. Take a horse-drawn-carriage ride, tour a straw-bale home and hike through a 325-acre preserve featuring an ecologically diverse wetlands complex located in the Kettle Moraine.
FT-07: Exploring Glacial Landscapes of the Hackmatack - SOLD OUT
Hosted by Openlands and Friends of Hackmatack
Friday, October 14, 7:15am – 5:00pm | $65
The proposed Hackmatack National Wildlife Refuge would establish a new urban refuge to enhance local communities and provide metropolitan populations easy access to nature and recreation. Take a tour of key areas in Wisconsin and Illinois including a visit to a remeandered creek, a restored wetland, a LEED-certified environmental education center, and a fall harvest festival. Enjoy lunch and tour a 19th Century farm slated to become a living-history site. Finish the day with ice cream and shopping in beautiful Lake Geneva.
FT-08: Wisconsin Partnerships, Landscapes and Flavors - SOLD OUT
Hosted by Ozaukee Washington Land Trust
Friday, October 14, 7:45am – 4:30pm | $80
The Ozaukee Washington Land Trust is leading urban-edge initiatives through partnerships and inclusion of diverse groups. Hike the Mequon Nature Preserve followed by a hands-on service-learning project with fourth graders and a tour of the sustainable educational center. Enjoy a local lunch at Forest Beach Migratory Preserve and learn about efforts to restore this property from a golf course to a preserve. Visit Donges Bay Gorge Preserve to view the historic landscape, stone bridge and structures and then finish off the day at the award-winning Sprecher Brewery.
FT-09: Greenseams Project Tour and Hike
Hosted by The Conservation Fund and Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District
Friday, October 14, 8:00am – 4:30pm | $65
Greenseams is an innovative flood-management program developed through a partnership between The Conservation Fund and the Metropolitan Milwaukee Sewerage District. On this tour visit three exciting restoration properties where over 10,000 trees have been planted. Hike the Oak Leaf Trail and enjoy lunch at Miller Park, home of the Milwaukee Brewers. In the afternoon view multiple green infrastructure and urban redevelopment projects such as the Pabst Brewery Redevelopment and Rockwell International’s Green Roof.
FT-10: Milwaukee River Valley Urban - SOLD OUT
Hosted by River Revitalization Foundation
Friday, October 14, 8:15am – 4:00pm | $55
Discover the wonders of the Milwaukee River Valley and its parks through an exploration of natural resources just minutes away from the Convention Center. Hike the Beerline Loop of trails connecting three County Parks, the Urban Ecology Center and the Wheelhouse Gateway - the major entrance to the river valley. Enjoy lunch at a riverfront restaurant and then head to Lake Michigan to explore Lakeshore State Park. Top it off with a local brew along the downtown Riverwalk.
FT-11: Woodland and Human Legacies of Southeastern Wisconsin - SOLD OUT
Hosted by Milwaukee Area Land Conservancy
Friday, October 14, 8:30am – 3:00pm | $65
Student ambassadors will lead a tour of the Indian Community School, and explain how the school cultivates wisdom, spirituality and commitment within Wisconsin tribes. The school, designed by renowned architect Antoine Predock, presents a seamless fusion of education, ecology and architecture anchored by 200-year-old pines from the Menominee Tribe. Hike to rare beech and maple woodlands with vernal pools and discuss their ecology. Enjoy a gourmet lunch under a canopy of 19th-century oaks and then take a tour of settlement buildings from the same era guided by the Historical Society.
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