The Nature Place Reservations and Rentals

Celebrate at The Nature Place & Give Back to Your Community

March 11, 2025

Erica Black | Facility Rental Coordinator

Every event hosted in our space helps support environmental education, free community programs, and land stewardship efforts. Whether planning a wedding, birthday party, shower, or corporate retreat, your rental directly contributes to nature-based learning and accessible outdoor experiences for our entire community.

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Wing prints in the snow outside The Nature Place

Winter Thoughts

February 20, 2025

Paige Manges | Marketing & Communications Coordinator, Central Conservation

“Winter Thoughts” highlights the community found at The Nature Place, providing a purpose to be found within the season. At The Nature Place, seasons are uniquely celebrated, giving us all an opportunity to feel the renewed sense of appreciation and perspective on the lessons our natural world continually teaches us.

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Emma Ehlers, Community Programs Assistant holds The Nature Place's snake, Humphry.

A Full Circle Mission

January 9, 2025

Emma Ehlers | Community Program Educator, AmeriCorps Member Why I love the outdoors –  My inspiration to serve our environment started at a young age. As a student of an art-focused charter elementary school, my love and dedication for nature evolved throughout years of hands-on, nature based exploration. From handling creatures to standing amongst trees…

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Overly Overlooked Overlooked Opossums

Overly Overlooked Opossums

November 27, 2024

Steph Hanna, our Community Programs Manger writes about the superpowers of one of her favorite marsupials, the Virginia Opossum.

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Critter Cindy tagging a Monarch Butterfly

A Monarch’s Journey

October 30, 2024

Cindy Blobaum, our Environmental Education Program Manager introduces and inspires our community to experience the beauty of tagging migrating monarch butterflies in her approach to connect people to nature for the benefit of both.

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Purple Coneflowers with a Silvery Chersopt Butterfly on the seed head.

Coneflower Power and Other Native Plant Perks

August 15, 2024

Mace Tompson | Visitor Services – Gardens and Grounds AmeriCorps Member, September 2023 – August 2024 Growing native plants in your garden can be as simple as sprinkling seeds onto a patch of dirt in fall and seeing what pops up in spring, or it can be more involved like starting seeds indoors at the end…

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Gabby Arnold, Community Programs Educator takes an image of a yellow bellwort flower in Hixion Forest, La Crosse, WI

Community Science, a Catalyst to a Connected World

May 30, 2024

By Gabrielle Arnold | Community Program EducatorAmeriCorps Member, September 2023 – August 2024 The concept of delving into the scientific community with no prior experience is intimidating. Without a degree and years in a lab, what makes you qualified to make scientific observations? How could you, without any credibility, possibly contribute to a field filled…

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A Clay-colored Sparrow is foraging on the ground. The bird is small, streaky brown, and scratching up leaf litter with its foot.

Watching Out for Warblers…and Windows

May 16, 2024

By Emma Lather | Environmental Educator AmeriCorps Member, September 2023 – August 2024 As an undergrad, I got hooked on Pokémon Go. In grad school, I got hooked on birding. The similarities are uncanny; I wander through the tall grass in search of new creatures to capture in my Pokéball (binoculars), record in my Pokédex…

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Spring into Ephemerals

May 2, 2024

In Wisconsin, we’re familiar enough with the unpredictable Midwestern weather to know that the phrase “April showers bring May flowers” might just mean snow showers! But did you know that despite the saying, and the sometimes uncooperative weather, many native flowers actually bloom well before May?

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