For 52 years, the Natural Land Institute has helped residents of northern Illinois conserve the land they cherish. We are one of the oldest private conservation groups in the Midwest.

We are a member supported, nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving land and natural diversity for future generations. Since 1958, NLI has protected, managed, and restored more than 15,000 acres throughout Illinois and southern Wisconsin. These include prairies, forests, wetlands, and river corridors.

Serving as a regional land trust, the Institute accepts donations of properties, buys lands, manages natural areas, and helps landowners establish legal agreements that permanently limit harmful use and development.

Thanks to a generous gift from Judy McCleary of Roscoe, NLI was able to contribute $80,000 toward the acquisition of 10.5 acres of land on Kinnikinnick Creek.  The parcel was purchased by the Winnebago County Forest Preserve District and is now part of the Stone Bridge Forest Preserve. 
 
NLI also donated 61 acres of adjoining land on August 17 to the Forest Preserve District, and this, too, will be part of the Stone Bridge Forest Preserve.  We purchased this land in 2007 and restored an oak savanna with the help of Scouts and school groups who planted thousands of acorns, and volunteers who removed invasive woody species.  Many animals, including field sparrows, indigo buntings and Eastern bluebirds, are expanding their use of the area.

 

The Winnebago County Forest Preserve District is one of the many partners that NLI has worked with for 52 years to protect important natural areas.

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Become a Facebook fan of the Natural Land Institute to view  photos, learn about upcoming events and a lot more.  Please click here to view NLI's page.

Nygren Wetland Preserve Juried Art Exhibit

at Burpee Natural History Museum, Rockford, IL

September 24 to November 30, 2010

Register for the Plein Air on the Prairie Art Event at Nygren Wetland Preserve by clicking here and send the fee through PayPal; or download the registration form by clicking here and send by mail to the address on the form.  Non-refundable entry fees: $20 for the Professional and Amateur Divisions, $10 for Teachers planning to enter students/classrooms and $5 for the Children’s Division (ages 5 to 18).  Background information, criteria for judging, judges information, event dates and times and Rules for the Event are available here.  Registration packets with directions and trails will be mailed. For questions, call NLI at 815/964-6666.

Works of art completed within the last two years and derived from the Nygren Wetland Preserve will be accepted with proper registration.

Entries for the Nygren Wetland Preserve Juried Art Exhibit at Burpee Natural History Museum must be submitted and delivered to the judging site on either Friday, Sept. 10, or Saturday, Sept. 11.   Awards will be announced on Friday, September 24.  The Professional Division cash award is $750.  The Amateur Division cash award is $250.  Each entrant in the Children’s Division will receive a participation certificate.

The Public will be invited to view the Exhibit to select the People’s Choice Award on Friday, Sept. 24.  The People’s Choice cash award is $100.  The People’s Choice Award will also be depicted on the cover of NLI’s 2010 Annual Report.

Limit of two entries per artist. These events celebrate the 10^th Anniversary of the Nygren Wetland Preserve, a restoration project of the Natural Land Institute (NLI).  NLI is a not-for-profit land conservation organization based in Rockford.  A portion of the sale of artwork from the juried Exhibit will benefit NLI’s efforts to preserve the precious woodlands, wetlands and prairies at the Nygren Wetland Preserve.

The natural landscape and wildlife at the Nygren Wetland Preserve will be celebrated in an art exibit opening on  

Friday, September 24, from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the Burpee Museum of Natural History, 737 N. Main Street in Rockford.  The show runs through November 30 and features the work of artists in oils, acrylics, watercolor, photography and other two-dimensional media.

The public is invited to select the People's Choice Award during the opening reception on September 24.  Sheryl Almquist Hall, coordinator, said the artwork that will be submitted to the juried exhibit will be exceptionally beautiful because the wetlands, prairies and woodlands at the Nygren Wetland Preserve provide an array of wildlife habitats for hundreds of species of plants, birds and other animals.
 
"Some of the artists are depicting sandhill cranes raising chicks in the wetlands, songbirds in the prairies and savannas, and river otters in Raccoon Creek.  Many artists visited the preserve in mid-July for a Plein Air on the Prairie event, when the landscape was a sea of colorful wildflowers as far as the eye could see," Hall said. 
 
Professionals, amateurs and children are participating. Stillman Bank is sponsoring cash awards: Professional Division $750, Amateur Division $250.  The People's Choice Award of $100 is

donated by the Natural Land Institute.   Each entrant in the children's division will receive a certificate of participation.  Judges are Sherrie Dorr, Carol Jacobs, Tom Heflin and John Verl McNamara.  Most of the artwork will be for sale by the artists, with a percentage of each sale going to support the Nygren Wetland Preserve.
 
The Natural Land Institute is hosting the exhibit to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Nygren Wetland Preserve and the restoration of natural vegetation to the 721-acre wildlife sanctuary on the banks of the Pecatonica and Rock Rivers.  All proceeds from the exhibit benefit the preserve. 

 

New interpretive signs along the Dianne Nora Nature Trail are helping visitors increase their appreciation for the wetlands, prairies and woodlands at the 721-acre preserve.

 

Thirteen signs - one at the trailhead at the Hansberry Road entrance and 12 along the 2.5-mile trail - include information about birds and other wildlife, archaeology, and stewardship.  The signs provide details of how the Natural Land Institute and volunteers restored native vegetation to the land and returned Raccoon Creek to its historic meanders.  
 

NLI appreciates the gift from the Smith Charitable Foundation which made the production and installation of the signs possible.