By Alan Branhagen, NLI’s Executive Director
I am writing this near the end of our Year End Appeal to replenish funds for Land Acquisition while in the midst of hiring for the Stewardship Team so NLI may be prepared to hit the ground running in 2026. I’m so grateful for all the meaningful gifts to NLI in 2026 from an anonymous gift worth almost $1.3 million to several $5 gifts from individuals to attend one of our events. They all matter! It’s impossible to assign a real value to all the wonderful volunteers and all they have accomplished for NLI over the past year as well. NLI will reach our lofty goal for membership and we are finalizing our decisions on staff hires – the incredible candidate pool gives me hope for the future with so many quality people interested in land conservation.
NLI senior staff are putting together quite an agenda for 2026 and we hope you can participate and experience joy in what your gifts to NLI have accomplished. Mark your calendars and watch for upcoming events starting with our Dark Sky and S’mores Bonfire at the new addition to Pecatonica Ridge Preserve on January 21. On February 2 join us for our annual Nygren Wetland Preserve winter walk in the full moon-light during Wander at the Wetland. We’re excited to bring Birds of the Great Lakes author, Dexter Patterson, to Rockford on February 18th for a book signing and program. March 19th is our Annual Dinner and you are in for a treat as our speaker is Joe Duff who was instrumental in the Whooping Crane’s recovery and leader of Operation Migration teaching young birds how to migrate from Wisconsin to Florida. Please consider sponsoring this event, invite friends to attend, or donate to its silent auction fundraiser.
NLI still has work to do at our new Blair Road Woodlands so please watch how volunteers can become involved in the final cleanup of the site. We hope to announce some sort of preview walk there in the coming year as well, so we can share what you helped us protect. We have several species of plants yet to identify: they need to bloom before we can make a positive ID! We also can’t wait to see the woodland late next year if we are blessed with rains and the site’s phenomenal fungi put on at least a normal show (they were impacted by last year’s drought).
Alan Branhagen stands on the trail that goes by the Ray and Char Ferguson Bluebell Woodland at Oxbow Springs during the Open House on April 30, 2025. Photo: Patrick Yarbrough
Staff are working on virtual interpretive nature trails for our Bob and Beverly Beebe Nature Trail at Oxbow Springs (currently open to the public) and the Stephen and Dorothy Baits Nature Trail at Busse Prairie Preserve (not quite yet open to the public). We will surely announce when the Virginia bluebells are at their peak at Oxbow Springs because that magical open house day last April is forever imprinted in my brain as one of my favorite experiences of 2025. We have some North American Wetland Conservation Act grant funds to control invasive species and additional work on the site’s management plan at Busse Prairie and maybe after those are accomplished, we will open that property to the public.
So, Cheers to 2026 and may we see you at an upcoming NLI event and may you continue to support NLI and its mission to protect our precious natural lands.