In our third year, we’re awarding nearly $1.8 million in grants to nonprofits and community groups that use nature-based solutions to reduce climate risks, improve water quality, and strengthen community resilience along the western shores of Lake Michigan.
2025 Grant Recipients
Clean Wisconsin (Madison, WI) along with partners at Midwest Hazelnuts, Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, UW-Extensions Emerging Crops Program, and the Food Finance Institute, will turn research into action in Lake Michigan Basin counties by building dependable supply chains for two climate-smart perennial crops—Kernza® and hybrid hazelnuts. Building on its Natural Climate Solutions Roadmap for Wisconsin agriculture, the project pairs on-the-ground technical support with market development so more farmers can profit from perennials that protect water, reduce erosion, and store carbon. By creating reliable markets and practical assistance across the value chain, this effort aims to scale perennials as a durable, nature-based solution—improving water quality and farm resilience while opening new revenue streams for producers in the Lake Michigan Basin.
Dairy Grazing Alliance (project in Random Lake, WI) will demonstrate how precision tools can expand pasture-based dairy as a nature-based climate solution. By piloting PaddockTrac (sonar biomass monitoring) alongside Halter (GPS-enabled virtual herding), the project will optimize grazing rotations to protect soil, reduce erosion and runoff, boost biodiversity, and increase on-farm carbon storage—while lowering labor demands and improving milk performance and profitability. In partnership with the University of Missouri and the University of Wisconsin, DGA will track economic and environmental outcomes and share results through field days, webinars, and farm media to accelerate adoption. Coupled with DGA’s bilingual apprenticeship, the effort lowers barriers for first-generation and underrepresented graziers, advancing cleaner water and more resilient farms in the Lake Michigan Basin.
Delta Institute (Chicago) will launch a Regional Tree Planting Consortium linking municipalities across Northern Lake County, IL, and Southeast Wisconsin. Building on its Northwest Indiana model, Delta will map local partners, convene communities, and provide training and a best-practices toolkit to coordinate climate-smart tree planting and maintenance. By aligning local governments, nonprofits, and residents around shared plans and resources, the consortium aims to scale equitable urban forestry that improves water quality and expands access to cooling green space across the Lake Michigan Basin.
Electa Quinney Institute at UW-Milwaukee (Milwaukee, WI) will continue their efforts to embed Indigenous knowledge and language into ecological restoration on MMSD Greenseams® sites. Building on prior work, the project combines experiential coursework and paid internships with Potawatomi-guided stewardship. By restoring flood-storage lands through an Indigenous relational framework, the effort improves water quality and habitat while training a new cohort of land managers rooted in Traditional Ecological Knowledge—advancing both climate resilience and an inclusive conservation workforce for the Milwaukee River watershed.
Elevate Energy (Chicago) will begin efforts to design a Milwaukee Climate Resilience Hub network that can serve as serve as a community support system during emergencies and every day. Resilience Hubs are designed to help frontline neighborhoods in times of extreme heat, flooding, poor air quality, and power outages. Partnering with Reflo and local stakeholders, Elevate will identify potential sites (e.g., community centers, libraries, faith institutions) that could serve as resilience hubs and engage community in identifying the areas’ specific needs. Resilience hubs are designed to prioritize sustainable features like clean energy and storage, green stormwater infrastructure, water reuse, and emergency communications. By centering community leadership and practical, nature-based upgrades, the effort aims to seed a citywide hub network that boosts climate resilience while lowering energy and flood risks in Milwaukee’s most vulnerable neighborhoods.
Global Philanthropy Partnership (Chicago) will allow the Green Infrastructure Leadership Exchange to map green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) efforts across the Western Lake Michigan Basin and help more communities implement it equitably. The interactive map of local GSI projects, policies, funding tools, and community partners will provide the basis for peer learning among municipality and utility staff. By connecting practitioners to proven practices—like centering community in project siting and designing for lasting neighborhood benefits—the effort aims to scale nature-based solutions that reduce flooding, cool heat islands, and improve water quality in historically overburdened areas.
GrassWorks (Hillsboro) seeks to expand managed grazing—a nature-based approach that improves water quality, stores carbon and keeps soil in place—across Wisconsin’s Lake Michigan watershed. Building on three decades of farmer-to-farmer leadership, GrassWorks will help farms implement well-managed pasture and equip producers—especially beginning farmers and communities historically excluded from agriculture—with practical skills to adopt profitable, pasture-based systems.
Great Plains Institute (Minneapolis) and Clean Wisconsin (Madison) will partner to show how utility-scale solar can double as green infrastructure that protects water quality. In partnership with US Solar on a 50-MW project in Kenosha County that will convert row-crop fields to native vegetation, GPI will apply its PV-SMaRT tools to design and measure stormwater infiltration, soil-health gains, and reductions in nutrient runoff—demonstrating solar sites can manage water as well as generate clean power. Working with Clean Wisconsin, the team will engage residents and regulators, share best practices, and explore standards that could enable solar projects to advance climate goals while improving soils and safeguarding Lake Michigan’s watershed.
Lake Forest Open Lands Association (Lake Forest) will advance an innovative coastal resilience project at the Greene Nature Preserve that pairs engineered and nature-based solutions to protect Lake Michigan. Complementing major NOAA support, the effort will stabilize failing ravine and bluff systems, restore nearshore habitat—including pilot reef features—and revegetate with diverse native species to reduce erosion, improve water quality, and enhance biodiversity. In partnership with Trickster Art Gallery, the project integrates Traditional Ecological Knowledge through Indigenous cultural monitoring and land-based practices, while LFOLA’s Center for Conservation Leadership engages overburdened communities in Waukegan and North Chicago in hands-on education. Together, these actions create a replicable model for Great Lakes shoreline resilience that benefits people and wildlife.
The Nature Conservancy (Madison) has been awarded $109,000 over two years to expand a small-grant and peer-learning program—run with Wisconsin Farmers Union—that helps historically underrepresented farmers in the Lake Michigan watershed adopt regenerative practices that improve water quality and increase climate resilience. Building on a successful 2024 pilot, the effort will provide mini-grants, with corresponding multilingual application support and one-on-one technical guidance, to producers for implementation of projects such as agroforestry plantings, pollinator habitat, rotational grazing upgrades (e.g., solar fencing), and solar-powered rainwater capture/irrigation. Farmer-led field days and trainings will share results across the community. By lowering access barriers and seeding durable on-farm practices, the program aims to cut runoff and erosion, build soil carbon, and strengthen farm economics while broadening who benefits from conservation investments.
Riverworks Development Corporation (Milwaukee) will continue its efforts to green the gateway of B-Line Park on the Beerline Trail—transforming an abandoned rail corridor into a climate-resilient, community-designed linear park. The project will install bioswales, rain gardens, native plantings, permeable paving, and climate-resilient trees (with 250 trees planned across the seven-acre park) to soak up stormwater, cool extreme heat, and boost urban biodiversity. In partnership with the MKE Fresh Air Collective, Riverworks will add real-time air-quality monitors and expand hands-on education so residents can track local conditions and advocate for cleaner air. Rooted in years of neighborhood input, B-Line Park links the Harambee and Riverwest communities to a broader trail network while restoring green space where it’s most needed—reducing flood risk, improving public health, and advancing nature-based solutions in one of Milwaukee’s most overburdened areas.
Sand County Foundation (Madison) will help dairy farms in Sheboygan and Ozaukee Counties improve soil, silage, and herd health by interseeding cover crops into corn silage. Building on promising UW–led pilot results, the project will work with five farms to add diverse covers between crop rows—keeping living roots in the ground to curb erosion, cut fertilizer needs, store carbon, and improve water quality, while enhancing forage quality that can lower enteric methane and boost milk performance. The team will collect soil, forage, and yield data each season, share practical results through field days and winter workshops, and publish guidance for broader adoption. By making interseeding a low-barrier step toward more regenerative systems, the project aims to scale climate-smart practices that strengthen farm profitability and watershed resilience in the Lake Michigan Basin.
Savanna Institute (South Central Wisconsin) will accelerate agroforestry adoption across Washington, Ozaukee, Milwaukee, Sheboygan, and Manitowoc counties by combining hands-on technical training with practical funding pathways. The project partners with Wisconsin Land + Water to train county conservationists, develop county programs that explicitly include agroforestry practices, and pilot cost-share models (e.g., per-tree incentives) that lower barriers for farmers and landowners. By integrating trees into working lands—windbreaks, alleys, and riparian buffers—the effort aims to slow runoff, protect water quality, build soil carbon, and diversify farm income, laying the groundwork to scale perennial, climate-smart systems across the Lake Michigan Basin.
Sustainable Business Council (Eagle) plans to launch a Green Bay Accelerator Cohort that engages ten small- to mid-size companies in designing and committing to nature-based climate solutions. Using SBC’s proven Green Masters Program®, participating businesses will receive guided training on energy and greenhouse gas management, water stewardship, and biodiversity/land management—then apply it to concrete projects such as bioswales, permeable pavement, green roofs, native landscaping and pollinator habitat, tree planting, and other practices that cut runoff, cool heat islands, and store carbon. In partnership with the Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance, the cohort will identify feasible projects, build internal capacity, and share results through a toolkit and peer learning—helping advance Green Bay’s clean energy and green stormwater goals while reducing emissions and improving water quality across the Fox-Wolf basin.
Youth Conservation Corps (Waukegan, IL) will transform its headquarters into a visible model of urban sustainability and climate resilience while training local youth for green careers. The project will install rain gardens, permeable paving, and educational signage to slow and filter stormwater, reduce localized flooding, cool heat-island hot spots, and support urban biodiversity in a highly vulnerable neighborhood. YCC’s YouthBuild members will help design, install, and maintain the green infrastructure—gaining hands-on experience in nature-based solutions and community outreach—while complementary solar training at the site broadens their clean-energy skill set. By linking on-the-ground improvements with workforce development and public education, “Greening YCC” will cut runoff, showcase practical green stormwater practices for Lake County, and empower young people to lead climate solutions where they live.