The Nature Conservancy. Protecting nature. Preserving life.™

Water touches our lives in so many ways from a cool drink on a hot summer day to that favorite ice fishing hole in the dead of winter. Without water, life as we know it would cease to exist. Yet, while water is everywhere, there’s a lot we don’t know about it.

Here are a few interesting things to know about water:

• 97 percent of the water found on earth is salty and 2.5 percent is locked up in ice
• Americans use 5.7 billion gallons of water a day to flush our toilets
• It takes 20 gallons of water to make an 8-ounce glass of beer; most of that water is used to produce the barley
• More than 1 billion people on earth lack access to clean water

Water is a fixed asset. All that we have today is all we’ll ever have. If we use it wisely, we can ensure it will meet our needs and the needs of nature today and in the future.

The Nature Conservancy is working with partners across Wisconsin to ensure that people and nature have enough clean water to live and thrive. We are protecting the forests and wetlands that help keep our water clean. And we are testing new ways to use land and water to meet our needs while protecting water quality and quantity. Explore our freshwater work in Wisconsin!