The Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) this week announced approval of a $2 million project by the Cooperative Sagebrush Initiative (CSI) to develop a market-based approach for restoring rangelands and critical wildlife habitat in the sagebrush region of the western U.S.  Initial funding for CSI was provided by Sand County Foundation’s Bradley Fund for the Environment. The Foundation has been the leader of this partnership since 2006 by securing funds, hosting meetings and sponsoring research.

Sand County Foundation and the Great Lakes Timber Professionals Association are proud to name Terry Peters as the winner of the $10,000 2008 Leopold Conservation Award in Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin-based conservation organization Sand County Foundation, in partnership with the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association and the Colorado Agricultural Land Trust, is proud to name Coleman Ranches, Inc. as the winner of the 2008 Leopold Conservation Award in Colorado.

The famed wide open spaces of Texas are under siege, threatened by ever-expanding suburban development and fragmenting into ever-smaller pieces as people in cities buy up land in the country. The good news is conservation-minded landowners are bastions against these trends, places like Llano Springs Ranch south of Junction, which on May 21 received the Leopold Conservation Award for Texas from Sand County Foundation and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, part of the department’s Lone Star Land Steward Awards program.

Sand County Foundation President Dr. Brent Haglund spoke Friday, May 2 at the Going Green Wisconsin Expo, at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, Wis. His presentation, titled Local Solutions for Environmental Improvement, gave voice to the idea that principled, voluntary, and enduring solutions to significant environmental problems have been developed by private landowners across America.

ARVADA, COLO. –April 8, 2008 –Sand County Foundation, the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association, and the Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust are proud to announce the finalists for the 2008 Leopold Conservation Award in Colorado.

MADISON, WIS. –April 7, 2008 –Sand County Foundation and the Great Lakes Timber Professionals Association are proud to announce the finalists for the $10,000 2008 Leopold Conservation Award in Wisconsin.

Idaho Statesman environmental writer Rocky Barker writes about the efforts to restore sagebrush habitat in the western United States. The Cooperative Sagebrush Initiative, in which Sand County Foundation plays a pivotal role, is a significant part of this effort.

Based on his writings, it is likely Aldo Leopold longingly looked out at the former Caledonia Floodplain from his shack and knew that someday it would be returned to its rightful place either by human action or by natural forces.  For over 10 years, Sand County Foundation has been quietly working with state and federal agencies to encourage restoration of the Caledonia Floodplain through removal of an aged array of unsafe sand dikes unsuitable to be called a levee.   The so-called levee system was assembled haphazardly over decades in the late 19th century of entirely local, highly permeable sandy soil.  In 1993 flooding almost prevailed over human effort to keep the sand dikes in place.  Engineering studies conclude that the dikes and people’s facilities would be at severe risk should a similar flood occur. 

Sand County Foundation is proud to be recognized as one of Madison's "Green Heroes" by Madison Magazine in its April 2008 issue.

Sand County Foundation seeks an individual to fill the position of Associate Program Director for its Community Based Conservation Network (CBCN). This individual will be responsible for coordinating and documenting citizen-led conservation projects across North America, facilitating learning exchanges among landholders and practitioners, and assisting Foundation staff in identifying and disseminating lessons learned across projects in North American and Africa.  The Associate Program Director will be assigned a lead role in designated projects and will support program development, management, and fundraising.

Sand County Foundation’s Bradley Fund for the Environment, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the University of Rhode Island sponsored a gathering to investigate ways to improve coastal ecosystems.

Sand County Foundation’s Bradley Fund for the Environment played a significant role in helping West Lunga Trust secure a four year $75,000 grant from the Norwegian Development Fund to help local communities in northwest Zambia improve their management of natural resources.

Austin, Tex. –11 March 2008 –Sand County Foundation and Texas Parks & Wildlife are proud to announce the finalists for the 2008 statewide Lone Star Land Steward Award and the Leopold Conservation Award in Texas, the state’s top honor recognizing wildlife conservation on private land.

Jim Andrew, a fifth generation Iowa corn and soybean farmer, was recently appointed to serve on the United States Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) first-ever national agricultural advisory board. As a director of the Iowa Soybean Association, Andrew has been a key player in Sand County Foundation's Discovery Watersheds program.

A report was completed detailing the conclusions from the International Workshop on Water Transactions for Environmental Flows, which was partially sponsored by Sand County Foundation’s Bradley Fund for the Environment.

The UW-Madison La Follette School of Public Affairs and Sand County Foundation sponsored a presentation by Terry Anderson, Executive Director of the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC). Anderson discussed the use of market approaches to spark environmental improvement.

SCF President Dr. Brent Haglund and the 2007 Leopold Conservation Award winner in Nebraska, Rod Christen, speak with Christin Kamm of the Nebraska Department of Agriculture about the Leopold Conservation Award.

Sand County Foundation, in partnership with the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association and the Colorado Agricultural Land Trust, seeks nominations for the 2008 Leopold Conservation Award in Colorado.