View of the historic East Koshknonong Church, built by David Gunnulson’s great-great-grandfather, as seen from a SoWBA prairie restoration in August 2017 (SoWBA photo).
As a nationally-accredited land trust, Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance seeks to permanently protect important places for birds and other wildlife species. We are proud to restore and steward more than 2,600 acres (currently) of habitat throughout this part of the state. And we just got a big boost to conserve even more.
On Friday, June 14, Dane County officials announced that they will award Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance $900K through their Conservation Fund Grant Program, with the county board set to give final approval in the coming weeks.
These funds will be essential to finalize the acquisition of 348 scenic acres just south of Cambridge that have been owned by the Gunnulson family for nearly two centuries. David Gunnulson has stewarded this land his whole life and wants to ensure that it will be conserved for generations to come.
David has strategized with our organization to preserve the property’s natural characteristics and we have collaborated to restore prairie ecosystems at the site. Our board and staff will be working with David to finalize the acquisition of the land this summer, culminating a vision and process that began in 2016. In addition to county funds, SoWBA was awarded a $1.4 million Knowles-Nelson Stewardship grant from the state to put towards the purchase.
We are so excited and grateful to be awarded this funding, and we cannot wait to share the story of this amazing place with you soon. Thank you to everyone involved in making this possible!
