Climate Strong Communities
Amid the challenges of a warming planet, we can find strength in nature—and in each other.
Nature-Strong Communities
In collaboration with The Nature Conservancy and our partners, Midwest communities are building a thriving, greener future.
Throughout the Midwest, communities—both large and small, urban and rural—are embracing nature-based solutions that help protect people from severe weather, maintain clean air and water and provide food and energy.
Learn how The Nature Conservancy (TNC) collaborates with these communities, as well as government and Tribal agencies, organizations and other partners, to build a resilient, sustainable future where people and nature thrive.
Together, we find a way.
© Laura Stoecker
Bringing Nature into Cities
By adding the benefits of nature to cities, we can shape a healthy future for people.
The Midwest is home to some of the country’s most famous, bustling cities where more than 4.5 million people live. Cities are ecosystems too, yet many cities were built without green infrastructure, such as tree-lined streets and rain gardens, which resulted in unique ecological problems that harm people. For example:
- Severe weather often overwhelms city stormwater infrastructure, flooding neighborhoods and causing tremendous damage to homes and businesses.
- A lack of trees and greenspace worsens air quality and heat island effects, which threaten the health of residents.
As a result, communities with less access to greenspace often have higher rates of adverse public health effects.
Our Partner Work in Midwest Cities
As part of our 2030 goals to help 100 million people at severe risk of these and other climate-related impacts, TNC supports community-driven initiatives for equitable, nature-based solutions in our cities.
Explore the projects TNC is working on with partners to address these issues across the Midwest’s major cities.
Milwaukee
Green schoolyards for healthier students
While nature provides vital resources for physical health, such as clean air and water, experiencing nature also positively impacts mental and emotional well-being, which can be especially impactful for kids. Prolonged immersion in nature and nature-based therapy programs have been shown to have positive effects for managing chronic mental health conditions that affect a student’s focus and performance, including depression, anxiety and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). As little as 15 minutes in a natural space can reduce stress and boost creativity and memory, and students’ test scores improve when they are given time to enjoy schoolyards with ample green space.
In Milwaukee, TNC works with local non-profit Reflo on the Green and Healthy Schools project, which has raised more than $7.1 million for projects that replace problematic schoolyard asphalt with green infrastructure. These vibrant nature-inspired landscapes capture rainwater and reduce neighborhood flooding, increase urban biodiversity with trees and plants, and nurture students’ curiosity and critical thinking about our relationship to the environment.
Chicago
Trees in the Windy City
Throughout the Midwest, TNC partners with local groups to greenify our bustling metropolitan areas. For example, we partner with Latinos Progresando, who lead the largest tree planting initiative by a community organization in Chicago. This project prioritizes planting trees in the south and west sides of the city, where integrating nature has the greatest potential to address climate challenges. This includes the South Lawndale Community Area, where tree canopy covers merely 15%, much lower than the city average of 23%.
We also partner with the Imani Green Health Advocates program on several urban conservation projects, including Treesilience, which is helping remove barriers for a healthy tree canopy in the city.
Detroit
Weather-resilient homes in Detroit
For years, TNC has partnered with the Grassroots Detroiters, a local nonprofit serving Detroit’s historic Greater Eastern Market neighborhood, to connect our conservation work in Michigan’s northern forests with efforts to improve energy efficiency and storm resilience in Detroit. Using revenue gained from our sustainable forestry practices in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, TNC works with the Grassroots Detroiters to support programs that help residents improve the resiliency of their homes in the face of more extreme weather. These renovations—such as roof replacements, insulation and energy efficiency updates—also help community members increase their eligibility for additional home repair and weatherization programs. Our collaboration with Grassroots Detroiters compliments our work supporting nature-based solutions in Detroit, such as tree canopy restoration and green stormwater infrastructure, which demonstrates how we can strengthen resiliency for nature and people at the same time.
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© Fauna Creative
Sustainable Farming for Healthy Communities
Midwest farmers are implementing innovative practices to help their farms thrive in a changing climate.
Agriculture is rooted in American—especially Midwestern—identity. But decades of intense farming practices are taking a toll. Soil health is declining and the runoff of excess fertilizer and sediment from crop fields contributes to water quality issues in our lakes, streams and rivers. Here’s the encouraging part: farmers are excellent at solving challenges. And they have a great opportunity to grow their crops in ways that restore nature and benefit their communities.
Midwest Agriculture by the Numbers
-
$14.5B
contributed to the economy by Midwest agriculture
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15%
of U.S. dairy products produced by Midwest agriculture
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1.85
gigatons of potential CO2 absorbed by sustainable croplands
How We Work in Agriculture
Learn how we’re working with farmers to maintain clean water while they feed the Midwest.
Dive into our workIn the Midwest, TNC partners with farmers, agribusinesses and companies and influences policy to create a healthier, climate-resilient food system for the future. These practices, such as cover crops, reduced tillage, nutrient management and edge of field practices, help capture and hold carbon in the soil, enhancing soil health and improving water quality for both their local rural communities and communities downstream.
Investing in Healthy Soils
Farmer Ryan Shaw holds a cover crop planted to protect the health of the soil in his fields.
© Fauna Creative
Farmers lead the way for sustainable agriculture
With support from Farmers for Sustainable Food, TNC and Wisconsin’s producer-led Watershed Protection Grant Program, Wisconsin farmers are sharing what they learn with each other and neighboring farmers, and they are setting goals and tracking conservation outcomes annually. In Ohio, TNC co-developed the curriculum for the peer learning network “Farmer Advocates for Conservation,” with a farmer-led advisory group that helps fellow farmers implement regenerative practices. Since 2020, this group has directly reached nearly 10,000 farmers managing approximately one million acres of farmland, and their messages have indirectly reached an additional 1.5 million people through articles, social media and other online content.
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© Fauna Creative
Restoring Wetlands, Rivers and Coastlines
From the Great Lakes to woodland streams, water is a crucial part of the Midwest landscape and our communities.
Woven throughout the Midwest is a vast network of rivers, streams, wetlands and tributaries. These vital resources bring fresh water to our communities while supporting and connecting diverse wildlife habitats, which helps nature thrive and adapt in a changing climate. The spectacular shorelines along the Great Lakes, including rare and crucial habitats like coastal wetlands, buffer communities from flooding and storm surges. What’s more, these ecosystems are valuable carbon sinks, helping mitigate climate change.
But these habitats are also severely threatened by a combination of human activities, which alter freshwater systems. For example, rising water levels might naturally force a coastal wetland to move inland, but this relocation can be blocked by human development, so the coastal wetland is instead converted into open water and lost. Ohio alone has lost more than 90% of its wetlands.
To save these vital places and help the communities and wildlife they serve, TNC and our partners are improving the quality of Midwest streams, wetlands, floodplains and coastlines through restoration projects. In addition, by engaging with policy makers and regional collaborators, we aim to protect resilient and ecologically connected coastal sites to ensure a healthy future for fresh water.
© Rebecca Nieminen
A (Climate-Resilient) River Runs Through
Established in 1990 and running eight miles along the East River through the communities of Ledgeview, De Pere, Bellevue, Allouez and Green Bay, Wisconsin, the East River Recreational Trail is an important recreation and economic driver for the region. However, because it was developed in independent segments and without coordinated flood-resilience planning, the trail is prone to flooding-related closures at various times of the year, which negatively impacts local businesses and communities.
To address this concern, TNC and the Village of Allouez, with funding support from the Wisconsin Coastal Management Program, teamed up to bring the five impacted communities together to create a master plan for the trail. The plan identifies 22 sites with conceptual designs for projects like elevating or relocating trail sections in flood-prone areas; deploying nature-based solutions like wetland, prairie and pollinator plantings and rain gardens; and improving infrastructure that currently impacts the flow of water in the river system. In addition to making the trail more usable, these projects will improve habitat for fish and wildlife, enhance water quality, increase water storage capacity and restore the floodplain to a more natural state, all of which builds resilience to climate change for the benefit of people and nature. In addition, the Green Bay Packers Foundation awarded a generous grant that will be used to advance several of the highest priority projects identified in the master plan.
© Jason Whalen
Restoring Coastal Wetlands at Erie Marsh
Along the coast of the sparkling North Maumee Bay is the Erie Marsh Nature Preserve, which contains 11% of the remaining coastal wetlands in southeastern Michigan. Coastal wetlands are extremely biodiverse ecosystems that provide natural flood protection and erosion control, and they improve water quality by filtering out chemicals and sediment before they can be discharged into oceans and lakes. They also support local economies through recreational and tourism opportunities and enable the aquatic food web on which local fisheries rely. However, coastal wetlands are also severely threatened, losing habitat at disproportionately higher rates than other wetland types. Michigan alone has lost roughly half of its coastal wetland habitats over the past two centuries, due mainly to human activities and climate change.
Erie Marsh had been degrading, too, for decades before TNC took ownership. Then in 2023, after a 12-year, four-phase, $7.5 million dollar, 1,000-plus-acre habitat restoration project led by TNC, which included repairing levees and engineering a new water management system, the marsh was fully reconnected to North Maumee Bay for the first time in more than 60 years. Now, visitors to the preserve can enjoy the rejuvenated marsh and its many populations of waterfowl, shorebirds and songbirds, as well as the waters that are once again teeming with stocks of white bass, bowfin, longnose gar, freshwater drum and other native aquatic life. And in the springtime, visitors can experience the wonders of thousands of migratory birds, who descend on this preserve to rest and refuel during their return from winter habitat.
© Dana Ohman/TNC
A Healthy Rialto Marsh Provides Relief
As part of the Mill Creek floodplain, the Rialto Marsh property was likely a forested wetland long ago that provided habitat and improved water quality for hundreds of plants and animals. But development and other activities by European settlers severely altered this freshwater ecosystem, as well as most of the wetland habitats throughout Ohio. Today, the state has lost more than 90% of its original wetlands.
TNC began restoring the Rialto Marsh site in 2021, as part of our stream and wetland mitigation program in Ohio. We partnered with an engineering consultant to remove drainage tiles and invasive species from the property, recontour the stream back to a natural flow, dig shallow pools to provide important wetland habitat and planted nearly 12,000 native trees and shrubs, which will shade the stream corridor and provide important forest wetland habitat for wildlife in time.
During the project’s construction, the berm along Mill Creek was notched to encourage floodwater to flow into the restored wetland habitat. After a heavy rainfall, such as the three-day rainstorm that besieged Cincinnati in 2022, the wetlands at Rialto Marsh absorbed and slowed excess water flowing downstream. This slow release of water helps mitigate flooding of the homes and businesses of community members downstream.
© Zane Williams
Helping Nature and Communities Adapt
From the deep Northwoods to sun-filled prairies, the Midwest is home to a stunning array of landscapes and natural areas.
The Midwest includes many beloved and special habitats, from forested hills to rolling grasslands to rich wetland corridors. Protecting the connections between these lands and waters provides safe passage for wildlife, helping them adapt to a changing climate as they look for food, resources or new homes. These habitats also play a vital role in absorbing and storing carbon, which helps mitigate climate change.
However, our Midwest landscape is highly fragmented, and most of our land is in private ownership. TNC is focused on expanding our partnerships with organizations, government and Tribal agencies, communities and businesses to exponentially increase efforts for reforestation, sustainable agriculture and freshwater restoration. By working together, we can expand the range of protected natural areas, including urban greenspaces, that increase the potential for natural climate solutions and provide ecosystem benefits to all.
Family Forest Carbon Program
This unique program opens up a pathway for small forest owners to improve forest health and help mitigate climate change while earning an income.
© David Ike
A Family (Forest) Affair
Nearly 40% of U.S. forests are privately owned, meaning family woodland owners are crucial partners in conservation practices that can help ensure a livable climate in the future. Yet, most of these properties are too small for typical carbon projects. To address this gap and increase the amount of private forests practicing climate-smart management, the Family Forest Carbon Program (FFCP) accepts landowners who own as few as 30 acres of forest.
The FFCP, a partnership between TNC and the American Forest Foundation (AFF), supports family forest owners who commit to sustainable forest management practices as part of a 20-year contract. These practices increase carbon storage and sequestration and support wildlife habitat, forest health and water quality. For example, the FFCP supports long-term maple and other hardwood forest productivity by growing forests longer and with selective sustainable timber harvesting, which helps trees grow fatter and store more carbon.
Across Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin, the FFCP has enrolled more than 11,000 acres and more than 110 landowners since the program began in 2020.
Busseron Creek
A groundbreaking collaboration permanently protected 3,950 acres near the Lake Glendora Test Facility (LGTF) in Southern Indiana in late 2024.
© Brent Drinkut/Indiana Department of Natural Resources
Sentinel Landscapes
Sentinel landscapes are working and natural landscapes adjacent to military bases. Protecting these buffer areas helps keep farms and forests healthy, improves water quality and provides important habitat for wildlife, all of which are crucial for improving climate resilience and ecological health.
TNC has helped protect many sentinel landscapes, including a groundbreaking effort that permanently protected 3,950 acres near the Lake Glendora Test Facility (LGTF) in Southern Indiana in 2024. The new Busseron Creek Fish & Wildlife Area is a cornerstone for biodiversity, clean water and flood mitigation through its extensive wetlands. Its protection supports public activities, such as hunting, hiking, kayaking and bird watching.
© Fauna Creative
Clean Energy for a Thriving Midwest Future
In the Midwest, TNC and our partners are helping to create a renewable energy future that benefits nature, communities and the economy.
As part of our 2030 goals to avoid or sequester 3 billion metric tons (about 3.31 billion tons) of carbon dioxide emissions each year, TNC is helping catalyze a rapid renewable energy buildout that safeguards nature and supports an equitable transition for communities. We’re working with governments to advance policies that grow clean energy, boost energy efficiency, modernize electric grids and advance battery storage technology.
This large-scale transition to clean energy is crucial for a sustainable future for the planet. In addition to helping mitigate climate change, clean energy and technological innovation are creating jobs and supporting economic growth in communities across the world. However, renewable energy development must be responsible and equitable, ensuring that people and nature will benefit long-term.
To that end, TNC empowers equitable renewable energy siting projects that address the needs of various people and communities while protecting wildlife habitat and optimizing carbon impact.
Repurposing degraded lands into clean energy hubs
When it comes to building utility-scale solar and wind installations, finding the right location is incredibly complex. Developing new large-scale energy projects on natural lands has long been thought to be the most affordable option, but it also can create local conflict and negatively impact nature, slowing down the clean energy transition.
Fortunately, there’s another option. TNC’s Mining the Sun report recommends siting clean energy infrastructure on degraded lands, also known as brownfields. These include abandoned mines, landfills and locations where chemical or oil spills have occurred. Suitable brownfields are located across the Midwest and the nation. For instance, the three states of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio have more than 1.1 million acres of minefields and brownfields that could accommodate solar projects.
In addition, these projects can act as a catalyst for economic revitalization. When mines close, local mining communities suffer. Developing clean energy on abandoned mine sites offers an opportunity to restore economic vitality to local towns through tax revenue and new jobs.
Recently, Ohio passed a state bill that will help incentivize renewable energy siting on some of Ohio’s least usable land, including former industrial sites, landfills and abandoned mines. Ultimately, policies like these across the Midwest will help to convert these poor-quality lands to clean energy hubs and will be a win-win solution for climate, conservation and communities.
Explore More in the Midwest
Discover more TNC stories throughout the Midwest and beyond.
