FRIENDS OF BEAVER CREEK RESERVE INC
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Mission Statement
Beaver Creek Reserve’s mission is “connecting people with nature.” We strive to live out our mission every day. Our goal is to have each person that comes through our doors to connect with nature. We strongly believe that the only way to do this is to actually have an outdoor experience. This can include visiting the Butterfly House and having a butterfly land on you, tapping a maple tree, paddling down the river in a kayak, bird watching, playing in the stream, or even snowshoeing trails under the moonlight. Beaver Creek Reserve takes advantage of every season, rain or shine, to educate visitors of all ages on the importance of our environment and their ability to connect to nature.
About This Cause
In 1947 a group of Eau Claire County residents founded Beaver Creek Reserve, then known as the Eau Claire County Youth Camp, in order to offer local youth environmental education opportunities. In 1985, a group of individuals dedicated to the future of the Reserve created the Friends of Beaver Creek Reserve, a non-profit organization which raises funds and implements educational programs. In 2008, the Friends of Beaver Creek Reserve assumed daily operations working alongside Eau Claire County to connect people of all ages to the natural environment around them. Today, Beaver Creek Reserve offers over 400 acres of diverse habitats which are home to a variety of plants and animals; upland woods, river bottom forests, wetlands, and savannah areas are all found at the Reserve. Bordered by the Eau Claire River with two small trout streams that run through the property, there is an abundance of flora and fauna to be discovered. With nearly 9 miles of trails that wind their way through our 400 acres, visitors can explore and connect with nature 365 days a year. Since the Reserve was first established, Beaver Creek is now home to the Wise Nature Center, where visitors can gain a sense of the habitats and native Wisconsin critters in the Scheels Discovery Room before hitting the trails. Beaver Creek Reserve also has a Youth Camp, Citizen Science Center, Hobbs Observatory, Wildland’s Charter School, Seasonal Butterfly House, Nature Nook play areas, Outdoor Classroom, and greenhouse. Depending on the season, there is much to offer at Beaver Creek Reserve. In the spring, we celebrate the melting of snow with our annual Maple Syrup Saturday where we tap maple trees right at the Reserve in our sugar bush and educate the public on the history and process of maple syrup. Volunteers spend up to three weeks at our sugar shack boiling down sap and bottling delicious syrup. Our calendar is filled with school field trips offered to area schools. We also host a variety of educational programs to the public, such as a spring ephemeral walk, tree and shrub ID, and wild foraging. We celebrate Earth Day all month long with our Earth Day Every Day programs dedicated to educating the Chippewa Valley community on sustainable activities to promote a greener lifestyle. We finish the spring season with our Native Plant Sale, our biggest and most successful fundraiser of the year. Summer is our busiest season at the Reserve, from hiking, kayaking, geocaching, archery, tomahawk throwing, and star gazing, there are endless opportunities to get people outside! We also run summer camps for ages 5-12 starting in June and running through August. In July, our Butterfly House opens which brings in over 7,000 visitors every summer, many being from out of state. We constructed a new house in 2021 with the help of grants and generous volunteers to offer more space for Wisconsin-native butterflies and their host plants. The summer is also a great time for us to monitor aquatic invasive species, native bat species, bluebirds, and American Kestrels, which are all done through our Citizen Science Center. Since fall is probably our shortest season in Western Wisconsin, we try our best to fit in environmental programs before the snow falls. Some programs include seasonal phenology, foraging for wild edibles, and Boofest, a Halloween program we just started in 2021 to educate families on the importance of the creepy crawlies associated with Halloween. Area school groups begin their field trips out to the Reserve where we cater to various grade levels from elementary through high school. Thanks to grant funding, we remodeled our outdoor classroom so every group that visits us can have a complete outdoor experience from playing in the creek, to catching bugs out in the field. Our Citizen Science Center begins their Saw-whet Owl banding season which helps track their migration through Wisconsin. Visitors can also come to the Reserve at night and view constellations, planets, and stars through telescopes at the Hobbs Observatory. Last is winter, which is almost as busy as summer. Our hiking trails transition to cross-country skiing and snowshoeing trails, plus we offer candlelight snowshoe hikes, winter tree ID, animal tracking, learn to cross country ski, learn to snowshoe, and make your own snowshoes classes. We even continue with our Citizen Science research during the cold months. Beaver Creek Reserve is the only center in the state of Wisconsin to band birds during the winter. These programs are only a drop in the bucket for what goes on at Beaver Creek Reserve. Our staff, volunteers, and board members are constantly working together to build relationships with partners and adjust our programming to provide outdoor opportunities to fit the needs of our local community.