2025 Midwest Nature Wins Worth Celebrating

One of the most powerful ways The Nature Conservancy addresses the interconnected crises of climate change and biodiversity loss is by protecting and restoring the lands and waters that sustain both wildlife and people.

While the Midwest is rich in natural diversity—from forests and prairies to river floodplains—much of this landscape is fragmented and privately owned. That’s why TNC is working closely and collaboratively with partners to connect and restore a network of protected places throughout the region. 

Together, through improved management and innovative conservation practices, we’re creating wildlife corridors that allow animals, birds, fish and insects to move freely, find food and shelter and adapt to a changing climate. However, this work doesn't just benefit nature—it also provides benefits such as cleaner air, reduced flooding and healthier environments to communities across the region.

Here’s a look at some of the wins we’ve achieved together this year.

To record the forest, small recording devices are strapped to trees in specific areas throughout the habitat. Findings from these soundscapes indicate that actively managed lands in the area, such as Hemlock Draw, exhibit significantly higher diversity and abundance of birds, wildlife and herbaceous plants compared to lands without intensive management.

These results reinforce the importance of TNC’s work in the Baraboo Hills over the past 65 years. Working alongside partners, TNC has protected over 12,000 acres in the area and is actively managing them with prescribed fire, invasive species removal and other science-based conservation strategies. 

Formally known as the Soundscape Baselines Project, the study began collecting 24/7 audio recordings in April 2024. The first year of the project concluded this past spring, although work will continue as funding allows.

Improving the sustainability of food production and water use has immense potential to benefit people and the planet. Regenerative agriculture practices can protect crucial sources of freshwater for our communities while improving soil fertility, reducing fertilizer use and storing carbon from the atmosphere. Sustainable fishery practices that prioritize restorative approaches over extractive methods help maintain crucial industries that provide food and economic benefits to both large and small communities.  

To support local fishers, farmers, Indigenous Nations and communities who are leading the way in resilient, nature-centered practices, TNC is engaging businesses, consumers, policymakers and others to accelerate regenerative practices and freshwater restoration projects.  

Below are a few of our recent wins for food and water.  

Restoring Whitefish in the Great Lakes

Once a prominent species supporting Great Lake fisheries, native Whitefish are struggling to produce offspring successfully in many areas of the basin. To restore populations of this iconic Midwest fish, TNC is partnering with the Bay Mills Indian Community, the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, the Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians.

We are now in the third year of developing and testing approaches to restore river-spawning runs of lake Whitefish, which were lost in the Great Lakes over a century ago. In 2024 and 2025, a total of 145,000 Whitefish eggs were stocked into the Jordan River, which connects to Lake Michigan. Different approaches were used each year, but both proved to be effective.

In 2024, our scientists documented that thousands of fish successfully hatched and drifted downstream to nursery habitats in the lake. In 2025, we successfully collected young Whitefish in the lake at the mouth of the river, several weeks after they drifted downstream. These efforts demonstrate that we can successfully rear Whitefish eggs in rivers, allowing them to imprint on these habitats and return as adults. 

But restocking is just one piece of the plan. 

Additional efforts to support this Whitefish work include a new eDNA (environmental DNA) initiative across the Great Lakes basin, which allows us to identify additional river tributaries that could serve as promising spawning habitats for future Whitefish stocking efforts. 

Additionally, this year, we completed a comprehensive study of 27 reefs in northern Lake Michigan, which Whitefish and other native lake species use for spawning. TNC partnered with the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Geological Survey on this research. The report fills critical information gaps needed by agencies and fisheries to prioritize and plan reef restoration projects for the fish that rely on reefs and the people who depend on these fish.

TNC’s core conservation work is critical to saving the Midwest and the planet from the worst impacts of climate change. By protecting and restoring forests, prairies, wetlands and other native habitats, TNC and our partners are helping these native habitats capture and store heat-trapping gases. 

However, nature-based solutions are not enough. To tackle climate change, we also need a full-scale, rapid deployment of clean energy, such as solar. TNC is working to expedite the clean energy transition by addressing a critical issue: the substantial amount of land required for solar and other renewable energy installations. When siting clean energy projects, we must preserve our remaining healthy natural areas. We also need to ensure that there is sufficient land for farming, housing and other essential services.

What progress has TNC seen toward these goals in 2025? Here are a few highlights: 

Partnering with Small Forest Owners

About 40% of the forests in the U.S. are owned by small private landowners. Among these are Sandy Breitenbach and Mary Loyer, two sisters who recently bought 119 acres of forest adjacent to TNC’s Laughing Whitefish Preserve in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

Sandy and Mary wanted to ensure the forested property would continue to grow and thrive. “Everywhere, we’re losing forests, we’re losing habitat, we’re facing extreme climate change, so Sandy and I felt we needed to save this place,” Mary says. 

Enter the Family Forest Carbon Program.

To assist private forest owners, such as Sandy and Mary, who own at least 30 forested acres, the TNC launched the Family Forest Carbon Program (FFCP) in partnership with the American Forest Foundation in 2022. Sandy and Mary enrolled 64 acres of their forestland in FFCP, which educates landowners on how to manage forests to improve the climate resiliency of their lands, as well as increase carbon storage potential.

“With this program nationally, the goal is to take 2 million tons of CO2 out of the atmosphere by 2030. That’s the equivalent of 5.3 gas-powered power plants’ worth of carbon,” says Matt Dallman, TNC’s Northwoods strategy director.

FFCP is currently in four Midwest states: Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin and (most recently) Ohio. Across these four states, FFCP has enrolled more than 14,000 acres and 148 landowners since program enrollment began in 2023.