If you’ve ever hiked the trails of the Aldo Leopold Nature Center (ALNC), you know that nature abounds, as does the recognition that this land is to be experienced and enjoyed. Tucked behind the hill, with paths winding through native Wisconsin prairie, woodland, and wetland habitats, Monona’s hidden gem gives a sense that the city has faded away. As ALNC celebrates 30 years of children’s environmental education this year, the organization is setting the course for its next 30.

Often overlooked by those outside of Monona, what makes this place so special is that it’s everyone’s to experience. The trails of ALNC are public land thanks to the efforts of concerned Monona residents who came together 30 years ago to petition the City of Monona to purchase the land. It’s thanks to this group and the residents of Monona who voted to save the land from development that the 20 acres where ALNC is located, as well as Woodland Park, the beautiful oak savanna hill on which the Monona water towers sit, were preserved as wild spaces for all to enjoy.

This land, of course, has always been special. The Ho-Chunk, on whose ancestral land Madison and Monona are built, stewarded this land for thousands of years prior to settler colonization. According to early land surveys, this property and surrounding areas hosted a major Native American trail through at least the mid-19th century. Mounds can also be found in the adjacent green spaces of Woodland Park and Edna Taylor Conservation Park. Following the forced removal of the Ho-Chunk from this land by the expanding United States, others left their legacy on this land, including European immigrant farmers who plowed the land and grew crops where ALNC now sits. 

In the early 1920s, a Madison doctor named Louis Head purchased the land and opened Morningside Tuberculosis Sanitarium, which served as a healing sanctuary for over 50 years. When the sanitarium closed in the 1970s, the land was preserved through a private foundation, and the L.R. Head Nature Center was created where the sanitarium’s 20-acre manicured gardens and grounds once stood. A predecessor to ALNC, its mission was to provide environmental education for area schools and further the principles of famed 20th-century Wisconsin conservationist Aldo Leopold. The L.R. Head Nature Center operated for 25 years and hosted 7,500 school children at its peak.

When the L.R. Head Nature Center closed in the early 90s, the land was sold and slated for development to become homes, condominiums, and businesses; however, those who came to love the land and its wild inhabitants knew it must be conserved. That’s when many passionate and forward-thinking Monona residents organized a campaign to save it. After extensive negotiations, the City of Monona purchased the land with the stipulation that a nature center be located on the site.

In 1994, a group of dedicated local supporters, including Leopold’s eldest daughter, Nina Leopold Bradley; Madison business leader and philanthropist Terry Kelly; and a board of directors, incorporated ALNC as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a mission to, in the words of Leopold, “teach the student to see the land, understand what he sees, and enjoy what he understands.” Around this time, ALNC also spearheaded Nature Net, which continues to connect regional environmental education providers and resources with schools and families around Wisconsin.

Since its humble beginnings in a converted greenhouse, countless connections have been sparked over ALNC’s 30 years. The organization has grown from serving 4,000 visitors a year in 1994 to over 80,000 school-aged children, their families, and community members annually. During this time, ALNC’s programs and offerings also evolved as dedicated staff, board, and community stakeholders worked together to expand summer camp and field trip programs and add a wide variety of opportunities for kids, their families, teachers, and community members to connect with the natural world.

Clear evidence of this evolution is the opening of the Aldo Leopold Nature Preschool, in 2019, providing outdoor and indoor environments rich in hands-on materials, literature, and open-ended play time, encouraging wonder, discovery, experimentation, invention, creation, and the opportunity to see the results of one’s actions. That same year, the nonprofit remodeled its outdated and partially defunct Climate Science Center into indoor and outdoor classrooms, filling the organization’s need of nature-accessible teaching space for expanding programming.

Today, the work of the ALNC stands at the intersection of environmental education, children’s health, and childcare. The organization knows that early childhood experiences set individuals up for success throughout their lives and believes the benefits of connecting with and learning about the natural world are essential to humanity’s success, making time spent outdoors vital to our existence.

Unfortunately, in today’s fast-paced world, opportunities to connect with nature are not equally distributed—time, money, language, and transportation can all be barriers to spending time outdoors. Through subsidized school field trips, sliding scale tuition, and annual free programming, ALNC is striving to reduce the financial barriers families face in connecting with ALNC’s programs. And by bringing programs On the Road—such as through a unique partnership with Madison Metropolitan School District’s Play & Learn, providing transportation to kids in after-school programming, and offering materials in multiple languages—ALNC is working hard to eliminate each of these barriers. 

This year marks the 30th anniversary of ALNC, and the organization is celebrating its lasting success and planning for future sustainability by cementing access initiatives into its business model. ALNC is not the same nature center it was 30 years ago, nor will it be the same nature center 30 years into the future. By bridging barriers, the organization is changing the narrative about who has access to environmental education, addressing two of the greatest and inextricably linked challenges today: the health of our children and the health of our planet.

ALNC is located at 330 Femrite Drive in Monona. For more information, please visit aldoleopoldnaturecenter.org.

Cara Erickson is the marketing and communications manager at the Aldo Leopold Nature Center.
Photographs provided by the Aldo Leopold Nature Center.