Working Across Borders, Aisles & Sectors
Our nonpartisan approach, commitment to science and collaboration with local partners and colleagues around the globe will help us realize a future in which nature and people thrive together.
Our Challenge
Our planet faces the dual crises of rapid climate change and the loss of biological diversity. We have years, not decades, to address these existential threats. And that calls for our biggest most ambitious plans—for nature and people. The Nature Conservancy is committed to helping conserve, protect or restore 30% of the world’s lands and waters and removing or sequestering 3 billion metric tons of carbon by 2030. Our work in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota is aligned with that audacious goal.
Chapter Priorities
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Protecting Land & Water
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Tackling Climate Change
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Providing Food & Water Sustainably
The Nature Conservancy has helped conserve more than 900,000 acres across Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. Yet today, the rivers, lakes, forests and prairies we worked for decades to protect are facing unprecedented threats that require us to significantly increase the pace, scope and scale of conservation.
Places We Protect
Our network of preserves offers opportunities for you to experience some of the most iconic habitats of our region, and they serve as places for us to test and demonstrate conservation practices. Plan your visit to a preserve today.
Accelerating Conservation to Meet the Moment
Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota’s forests and grasslands help keep our air and water clean, but what remains is at risk due to climate change and conversion for agriculture and other uses. Globally, 320 million acres of forests have been lost since 1990. A significant percentage of the rivers in the U.S. are too polluted for fishing and swimming—including many in our region. Those forests, rivers, lakes and streams are central to our health and well-being and important economic sectors such as outdoor recreation, which directly employs 136,000 people across the three states.
Improving those conditions, saving places that define our culture and safeguarding habitat for wildlife are core to the mission of The Nature Conservancy. In the coming years, we will protect land and waters with new tools, new relationships—and new urgency. Climate change is altering forests, grasslands, rivers and lakes, and our way of life. But with partners, leaders and everyone who lives, works and plays in these three states, we can take actions today that will benefit nature and people.
Climate change is happening right now. The Nature Conservancy is leveraging science, innovation and collaboration to help nature adapt, to prevent catastrophic impacts and to reduce future greenhouse gas emissions.
Our Changing Climate
We must act today to prevent extreme disruption to our economy, devastating health impacts and a loss of our way of life. Dig into our work to use the power of nature and people to tackle climate change and discover how you can support a sustainable future. Learn More.
Harnessing the Power of People and Nature
The past decade has been hotter than any other time in recorded history. In Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, climate change is altering our lands, our waters and our lives. Imagine grasslands without prairie chickens, forests without moose, or lakes and rivers without loons and walleye. Experts predict that one-fourth of Earth’s species will be headed for extinction by 2050 if the climate warming trend continues at its current rate. Farmers are trying to feed a growing population while adjusting to more extreme and less predictable weather conditions, putting the more than $37 billion combined annual income from agriculture across the three states on the line.
There are solutions available, and The Nature Conservancy isn’t waiting to act. Our research shows that proper land management can provide up to one-third of the emissions reductions necessary to keep temperature rise below two degrees Celsius—a critical threshold. Those practices—along with smart policies, an informed constituency and strategies to help nature adapt—can bring us closer to a healthier tomorrow.
Providing food and water sustainably to an increasing global population is imperative. With collaboration, we can restore and protect nature and ensure that farmers remain productive and profitable.
Beef, Bison and Climate Change
To feed the world and combat climate change, we are working at the intersection of ranching, land management and habitat restoration. Bison and cows can be a part of the solution to protecting our iconic grasslands and helping those areas retain significant amounts of carbon. Find out what you can do to help.
Protecting Nature, Nourishing People
Farmers are stewards of the land, working to maintain their own livelihood. They can play a significant role in addressing the climate crisis, improving water quality and protecting wildlife and habitat. Those outcomes can be achieved while also feeding the world— which is no small task. Agriculture production must double by 2050 to keep pace with the global population.
That’s why in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, we are collaborating with the agriculture sector to provide enough healthy food for all of us without sacrificing nature. We are bringing tested solutions such as the 4R Nutrient Certification Program to local farmers, which lowers their costs and offers incentives to apply the right fertilizer at the right rate at the right time and in the right place. With respect, collaboration and commitment to the shared goal of sustainable production, we can have clean water, abundant food and a thriving economy— today and tomorrow.
Our Insights, Your Inbox
Keep up with great conservation work happening here at home and around the globe.
Our Greatest Strength Is People
Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota make up a diverse, beautiful and threatened region. Together, our staff of experts, dedicated trustees and advisors and everyone who loves this part of the country can meet this moment and ensure nature can inspire and sustain generations to come.
Get to know our senior leadership team.
Rachel Bush
Grassland Strategy Director
Bismarck, ND
Matthew Graeve
Prairie Forest Border Land Steward and MN Fire Manager
Cushing, MN
Jacqueline Hartman
Deputy Chapter Director, Culture & Operations
Minneapolis, MN
Angela Becker Kudelka
Deputy Chapter Director, Conservation
Minneapolis, MN
John Littlewolf
Tribal Nations & Indigenous Communities Partnership Director
Minneapolis, MN
Jim Manolis
Director of Forest Strategy and Stewardship
Minneapolis, MN
Mary Miller
Director of Stewardship - North Dakota and South Dakota
Leola, SD
Paul Imon Pedtke
Finance Director
Minneapolis, MN
Stephanie Pinkalla
Government Relations Director, Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN
Anna Rockne
Marketing & Communications Director
Minneapolis, MN
Contact for Media Inquiries: anna.rockne@tnc.org
Eleanor Trenary
External Affairs Director
Minneapolis, MN
Jamie Ziemann
Director of Philanthropy
Minneapolis, MN
Meet the knowledgeable, dedicated trustees who help advance conservation across Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.
Mary Brainerd, Vice Chair
Retired, former CEO and President, Health Partners
Mahtomedi, MN
Steve Christenson
Retired, former Global Regulatory Affairs SVP & Associate General Counsel, Ecolab, Inc.
Minneapolis, MN
Judson Dayton
Venture Capital Investor
Wayzata, MN
Claire Dempsey
Community Volunteer, Nonprofit Board Work
Edina, MN
Kristin Weeks Duncanson
Owner & Partner, Highland Family Farms
Mapleton, MN
Catherine Gunsbury
Founding Partner/Co-Owner, Solhem Companies
Minneapolis, MN
Jessica Hellmann
University of Minnesota Director & Ecolab Chair for Environmental Leadership, Institute on the Environment and Distinguished McKnight University Professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior in the College of Biological Sciences
St. Paul, MN
George Hicks
Co-Founder and Co-Executive Chair, Värde Partners
Minneapolis, MN
Michael Hoffman
Co-Founder & Managing Partner, NewBound Venture Capital
Excelsior, MN
Tadd Johnson
University of Minnesota Regent, Professor Emeritus, tribal attorney, and public servant, Member Bois Forte Band of Chippewa
Duluth, MN
Jay Kim, Chair
EVP & General Counsel and Chief Administrative Officer, Heartland HTLF
St. Paul and Mabel, MN
Rick Kupchella
Founder & CEO, Informed Engagement Network
Minneapolis, MN
Craig Larson
Chairman of the Board/Executive Chairman, Starion Bank
Bismarck, ND
Sean McCauley
Senior Advisor, TPG Capital and Co-Owner of Rochester Home Infusion
Rochester, MN
Leni Moore
Community Volunteer, Nonprofit Board Work
Minneapolis, MN
David Mortenson
Chairman, Mortenson Construction
Minneapolis, MN
Tim Mulcahy
President & CEO, RMC Learning Solutions
Minneapolis, MN
Hema Nealon, Treasurer
VP Corporate Development, UnitedHealth Group
Minneapolis, MN
Amanda Norman
Community Volunteer, Nonprofit Board Work
Minnetonka, MN
Willie Rahr
President and CEO, Rahr Corporation
Minneapolis, MN
David L. Reinschmidt
Partner, Munger, Reinschmidt & Denne, LLP
Burbank, SD
Kathy Schmidlkofer
President & CEO, University of Minnesota Foundation
Minneapolis, MN
Peg Skold
Community Volunteer, Nonprofit Board Work
Prior Lake, MN
Randy Turner
Assistant Federal Public Defender
Pierre, SD
Mary Sue Vorbich
Arbitrator, Mediator & Owner, solVo LLC
Minneapolis, MN
Lucia Watson
Chef & Restauranteur
Minneapolis, MN
Christina Woods
Executive Director, Duluth Art Institute
Duluth, MN
This group of distinguished leaders plays an important role in advancing our work to restore grasslands and a host of other important strategies in North Dakota.
Jerry Doan
Rancher & Owner, Black Leg Ranch
Bismarck, ND
Randy Kreil
Retired, Wildlife Div. Chief, North Dakota Game & Fish Department
Bismarck, ND
Craig Larson
CEO & Chairman of the Board, Starion Bank
Bismarck, ND
Mark J. Magness
Retired Banking Executive
Fargo, ND
George Sinner
Senior Vice President, Business & Ag Banking
Fargo, ND
Our work in South Dakota focuses on rangeland management and protecting and restoring key rivers and streams, and members of this local advisory board inform and guide those strategies.
Jim Faulstich
Rancher & Vice Chair, South Dakota Grasslands Coalition
Highmore, SD
Deb Mortenson
Rancher & Lobbyist, The Nature Conservancy
Hayes, SD
Gordon Ommen
Principal, Capitaline - Farmland Investment
Brookings, SD
David L. Reinschmidt
Partner, Munger, Reinschmidt & Denne, LLP
Burbank, SD
Dan Rykhus
President & CEO, Raven Industries
Sioux Falls, SD
Jeff Scherschligt
Pendar Properties
Sioux Falls, SD
Randy Turner, Chair
Public Defender
Pierre, SD
Jeff Zimprich
Producer, South Dakota Grasslands Coalition Board of Director
Brandon, SD
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EXPLORE OUR PRESERVES
Weaver Dunes Scientific & Natural Area
Weaver Dunes SNA in Minnesota is on a sand terrace formed by the Mississippi, Chippewa and Zumbro Rivers.
John E. Williams Preserve
The alkaline lakes of Williams Preserve in North Dakota support a breeding population of piping plovers.
Samuel H. Ordway, Jr. Memorial Preserve
Ordway Preserve in South Dakota represents a fraction of the remaining Great Plains grasslands that once blanketed a fifth of North America.