Celebrating Big Wins for Nature in the Midwest

Valued at over $7 billion annually, the Great Lakes fisheries are a mixture of Midwestern lore, history and culture. People travel from all around the world to experience Great Lakes recreational fishing, and its commercially harvested fish are eaten throughout the region, along the East Coast and in Europe.

This past year, we achieved significant progress with our partners on efforts to support thriving, productive fisheries in the Great Lakes. Our efforts include working with Tribal, state and federal natural resource agencies, and universities to study and restore native fish, like the elusive deep-water Kiyi. and assessing Great Lakes reefs (yes, we have reefs!) to learn more about the habitats where native fish spawn and thrive.

In collaboration with the Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians, Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians, Bay Mills Indian Community and Michigan Department of Natural Resources, we’re working to re-establish river-spawning Whitefish populations by stocking eggs in local rivers where they once flourished. In 2024, the team stocked more than 120,000 eggs in the Jordan River alone. 

TNC is partnering with farmers, agribusinesses and companies to create a more resilient food system—one that benefits wildlife, improves water quality and reduces carbon emissions. Throughout the Midwest, we’re helping farmers design, test and implement in-field and edge-of-field practices, which help control water flow and filter nutrients and sediments when heavy rain occurs. 

In Wisconsin, we’re collaborating with the Wisconsin Farmers Union to support farms owned or operated by historically underrepresented producers by offering stipends for sustainable farming practices.

This past year alone, we had record-breaking success with our Sustainable Option Wheat program in Michigan and Illinois, and our Dairy Feed-In-Focus program in Michigan and Wisconsin. These programs help implement and incentivize healthy farming practices that benefit both farmers and nature. In addition, our cover crop premium discount program in Indiana supported record levels of cover crop implementation for the third year in a row. 

In Ohio, we co-developed a curriculum on implementing regenerative agriculture practices for a peer learning network, Farmer Advocates for Conservation, which has reached more than 7,000 farmers to date. 

This year, we have made great strides toward protecting and restoring crucial river and wetland habitats. For example, after a devastating flood destroyed many farmlands in southern Illinois, TNC made it possible for farmers to secure conservation easements, aiding their economic recovery. Now, TNC is leading major efforts to restore the flood-damaged cropland at Dogtooth Bend into healthy habitats, including bottomland forests and wetlands that once thrived in the region.

In Wisconsin, we’re partnering with the East River Collaborative to enhance wetlands and wildlife habitat at 22 sites along the East River, which will benefit several communities throughout the Green Bay area. 

And in the Lower Wabash River—a critical floodplain in Indiana—we’re working to restore up to 30,000 acres of wetlands by 2030 to help improve water quality and wildlife habitat. 

Spanning northern Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, the Northwoods is a giant carbon sink, sequestering 12 million metric tons of carbon annually. With tree plantings and other restoration efforts underway, this landscape could sequester even more carbon. 

TNC recently shattered its own record for the number of trees planted in northern Minnesota. In 2024, we planted 2.3 million trees across partner lands, which is one million more than our previous record set in 2023. 

Did you know nearly 40% of U.S. forests are privately owned? Recognizing this, TNC launched the Family Forest Carbon Program (FFCP) with the American Forest Foundation. The program helps landowners implement sustainable forest management practices, which can increase carbon sequestration. 

2024 was FFCP’s inaugural year in Ohio. David Funk was the first to enroll. When he started planting trees on his property in the 1980s, he hoped to leave the land better than when he found it. Now he is hopeful that his efforts will live on for generations. 

FFCP is also in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Across all four states, FFCP has enrolled 10,936 acres and 109 landowners since the program began.

Indigenous Peoples are nature’s first, and rightful, stewards. Their knowledge systems are critical for guiding conservation practices, and while they make up about 6% of the world’s population, they manage over 25% of land on Earth, which is home to much of the world’s remaining biodiversity. But respecting and supporting Indigenous and community leadership goes beyond serving TNC’s 2030 goals. 

Native communities have the right steward to their environments, secure their rights to resources and shape their futures, and TNC remains dedicated to taking actions in support of these values. Our work includes partnering with local tribes on research and stewardship projects, as well as helping tribes reclaim their historic lands. 

For example, in collaboration with the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, in 2024, we helped facilitate the transfer of 760 acres of our Slate River Forest property, located within the boundaries of their reservation, to their ownership.

Everyone should have equal access to a healthy environment in which to live, learn, work and play, yet the lack of nature solutions in many cities contributes to higher concentrations of contaminated air and water, resulting in poorer health conditions for those living there. In addition, low-income families are saddled with higher costs of water and energy usage due to inefficient systems and outdated infrastructure that harms the environment. 

TNC is dedicated to addressing these problems by supporting community-led environmental efforts and advocating for environmental policies that seek to improve health and quality of life, particularly in our major cities. By bringing the benefits of nature to cities, we can help alleviate dangerous heat levels, promote sustainable food systems and provide cleaner air and other health benefits.

Across the Midwest, we’re advancing green stormwater infrastructure solutions to manage runoff, protect clean air and water and increase access to greenspace. From Milwaukee to Columbus, we’re advancing initiatives to plant trees, support community orchards and install native gardens. For instance, in partnership with Latinos Progresando, we planted 120 trees in the Little Village neighborhood in Chicago last year. 

Policy can take many forms, including legislation, ballot initiatives, regulations, tax credits, public funding programs and administrative rulings. Policy is playing an ever-increasing role in advancing our mission—and our collective conservation voices can make a big difference.

For example, in 2024, nature supporters in Wisconsin helped defeat two state constitutional amendments that could have jeopardized federal funding for conservation and emergency disaster relief.   

TNC’s Nachusa Grasslands in Illinois provides a high-quality habitat for the state-threatened ornate box turtle. But these turtles can be hard to find. Enter a team of Boykin spaniels who help scientists find and monitor the reptiles. 

The wetlands, prairies and savannas at TNC’s Newell and Ann Meyer Nature Preserve have long been admired for their beauty. Now, the Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science is identifying how we can better manage these lands to store more CO2. 

Get involved with TNC by helping us collect data on the plants and animals living on TNC's Michigan preserves. Next time you visit, snap a photo of a species or record a bird call and upload it to the iNaturalist app or website.

With the loss of Midwest prairies, populations of Franklin’s ground squirrel have dwindled. To restore the burrowing squirrel in Indiana, TNC and partners moved about two dozen of these short-tailed rodents to TNC’s Efroymson Prairie at Kankakee Sands.