Ice Age Trail Alliance

Ice Age Trail Alliance Our mission is to conserve, create, maintain, and promote Wisconsin’s Ice Age National Scenic Trail.
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Commemorate National Trails Day® on the Ice Age Trail! 🤩🐌Each year, people all across the country unite on the first Sat...
06/02/2026

Commemorate National Trails Day® on the Ice Age Trail! 🤩🐌

Each year, people all across the country unite on the first Saturday of June to recognize the importance of America’s trails and the value they add to our lives.

Celebrate on the Ice Age Trail with one of these local Chapter events on June 6th! Check out the list of events happening and find one near you.

For full event details, visit: www.iceagetrail.org/events/2026-06-06/
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📸: Photo (1) by Justin Key, (2, 6, 8, 11) by Unknown Photographers, (3) by Barry Wood, (4) by Ashley Pieper, (5) by Chad DuChateau, (7) by Greg Lawrence, (9) by IATA Staff, and (10) by Unity School District
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American Hiking Society

It's not too late to get your Cool Mammoth Koozie!🦣Become a member of the Ice Age Trail Alliance by May 31, 2026 to join...
05/29/2026

It's not too late to get your Cool Mammoth Koozie!🦣

Become a member of the Ice Age Trail Alliance by May 31, 2026 to join the Mammoth Koozie Crew. It's FREE with membership! Membership starts at just $50 a year (only $4.16 a month).

As a member, you’ll help protect land, build new miles, connect new people to the Trail, and keep the Ice Age Trail thriving.

Join the Alliance to get yours: www.iceagetrail.org/coolkoozie/
Supplies are limited. Not sold in stores.
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📸: Photos by IATA Staff
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The Blue Hills were the perfect place to kick off the 2026 Ice Age Trail Crew Trailbuilding Season! 🥾⚒️From May 13–17, 1...
05/28/2026

The Blue Hills were the perfect place to kick off the 2026 Ice Age Trail Crew Trailbuilding Season! 🥾⚒️

From May 13–17, 116 volunteers donated more than 2,700 service hours to continue Trailbuilding work in Rusk County. Crews cleared the Trail corridor, built new tread, maneuvered stepping stones, extended a retaining wall, and improved signage on the Blue Hills Segment.

The event also included a celebration honoring the life of Don Erickson, a longtime Alliance volunteer, Superior Lobe Chapter member, and dedicated steward of the Trail with more than 10,000 volunteer hours. The tribute culminated in the dedication of a boardwalk (aka the “Bog Walk”) in his honor.

By the end of the event, a nearly three-mile stretch of new Trail was open to hikers (extending from the parking area near the southern end of the Hemlock Creek Segment to Cheese Factory Road). Please note: blazes will be added to this section soon!

Thank you to all the volunteers who made this first Trailbuilding event such a success!

Read the complete event outcomes here: https://bit.ly/4dVg5lz
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📸: Photos (1, 3, 5) by Dave Caliebe, (2, 4) by David Okonski, and (6) by Patrick Gleissner
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We’re wrapping up our prescribed burns series at Mammoth’s Back Preserve with a look at how fire benefits the remnant bl...
05/22/2026

We’re wrapping up our prescribed burns series at Mammoth’s Back Preserve with a look at how fire benefits the remnant bluff prairie! 🐝🪻🦋

The nine-acre bluff prairie, surrounded by agricultural fields, has experienced degradation from farming practices that disturbed the soil and created opportunities for invasive species to intrude. Without fire, red cedar trees and other undesirable woody vegetation established in the prairie, shading out native plants. Additionally, grazing by previous property owners reduced the size and strength of the prairie to only about 6 of the 9 acres.

The Alliance’s goal for prescribed burns on this hillside is to set back brush that is still trying to grow and promote native prairie species in these more degraded areas. Success is already apparent in areas where several prescribed burns have consistently occurred!

Importantly, burns occur only on small sections of the remnant prairie that reestablished well after the initial tree clearing. Why not burn the entire prairie?

Typically, remnant bluff prairies like the one at Mammoth’s Back Preserve host isolated populations of rare insects, including certain butterflies and moths. Historically, these insects could move freely throughout the environment, but habitat loss and fragmentation have confined them to smaller areas. Like monarch butterflies and milkweed, many rely on specific plant species to complete their lifecycle and often overwinter in the prairie’s duff layer.

If the entire prairie were burned at once, the Preserve’s insect populations could be lost with no way to reestablish from surrounding habitats. For this reason, a large portion of the highest-quality prairie is left unburned as refugia. Insects in these areas can recolonize burned sections and help reestablish the prairie throughout the summer.

Read the full blog article here: https://bit.ly/3Pi0qEJ
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📸: Photos by Steve Pence
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There's still time to join the Mammoth Koozie crew! 🦣Become a member of the Ice Age Trail Alliance by May 31, 2026 to ge...
05/21/2026

There's still time to join the Mammoth Koozie crew! 🦣

Become a member of the Ice Age Trail Alliance by May 31, 2026 to get this season's hottest piece of Trail Gear (AKA this Cool Koozie) for FREE. Membership starts at just $50 a year (only $4.16 a month).

As a member, you’ll help protect land, build new miles, connect new people to the Trail, and keep the Ice Age Trail thriving.

Join the Alliance to get your Mammoth Koozie: www.iceagetrail.org/coolkoozie/
Act fast! Supplies are limited. Not sold in stores.
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📸: Photos by IATA Staff
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Lend a hand in building nearly two miles of new Ice Age Trail in Langlade County! ⚒️🏕️Join the Ice Age Trail Alliance on...
05/20/2026

Lend a hand in building nearly two miles of new Ice Age Trail in Langlade County! ⚒️🏕️

Join the Ice Age Trail Alliance on June 10-14, 2026 to craft brand-new tread on the newly created Antigo Heights Segment.

You’ll work among a jumble of moss-covered boulders—striking reminders of the area’s glacial past—while helping shape a sustainable route for future hikers. Plus, help create another Dispersed Camping Area along the segment.

All talent and abilities are welcome! No experience is necessary; expert staff and experienced volunteer crew leaders will provide hands-on training.

Sign up to volunteer by June 3, 2026: https://bit.ly/42QiUzh
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📸: Photos by Dave Caliebe
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🚨New Trail Alerts to be aware of on the Ice Age Trail🚨❗️Point Beach and Dunes Segments – Storm DamageAreas along the Poi...
05/19/2026

🚨New Trail Alerts to be aware of on the Ice Age Trail🚨

❗️Point Beach and Dunes Segments – Storm Damage

Areas along the Point Beach and Dunes Segments are impassible due to downed trees from recent storm damage. The DNR and local volunteers are actively working to clear the Trail.

Check our Trail Alerts Map for more details: https://bit.ly/3otaUPJ

05/19/2026

The first prescribed burn of 2026 was the 35-acre sedge meadow at the Ice Age Trail Alliance’s Mammoth’s Back Preserve. Why did we start with this burn? 🔥

It can be argued that a prescribed burn would be more beneficial to the native plants later in the spring when conditions might be drier, consequently, allowing for a more complete burn throughout the unit. However, considerations for when a prescribed burn is conducted go beyond plant community impact.

Wetland communities are home to an especially diverse range of wildlife. If a prescribed burn occurs later in the spring when the soil warms up more, many of the reptiles, amphibians, and insects would have emerged and been harmed by the fire.

What are the benefits of burning these areas for wildlife? The black ash in the burned areas provides excellent sunning conditions for the reptiles and insects that emerge from a cold winter. These concentrated insect populations above the burn unit also provide great foraging opportunities for birds coming through on their migration north for the summer. Removing much of the thatch that covers the tussocks of the sedges opens the area up and creates better avenues for wildlife, like rodents and secretive marsh birds, to move between the tussocks and be protected from potential predators, too.

Conversely, what are the goals for burning the bluff prairie at the Preserve?

Continue reading here: https://bit.ly/3Pi0qEJ
Or, check out the next post on 5/22 to learn about prescribed burns along the bluff prairie!
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📸: Video by IATA Staff
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PrescribedBurn

Fire is restoring habitats at Mammoth's Back Preserve! 🔥🌾The Ice Age Trail Alliance’s Mammoth’s Back Preserve, located i...
05/15/2026

Fire is restoring habitats at Mammoth's Back Preserve! 🔥🌾

The Ice Age Trail Alliance’s Mammoth’s Back Preserve, located in Dane County, is regarded as one of the more unique Alliance-owned properties in the state. Mammoth’s Back sits on the edge of the Driftless Area, featuring a distinct hill protruding from the surrounding agricultural fields, and Black Earth Creek running along the edge of the Preserve.

The Preserve’s wide range of habitat types requires equally diverse management techniques. Considering it is home to a dry sandy bluff prairie, a newly restored agricultural field, and a wetland sedge meadow, different management plans might seem obvious. However, a shared (and perhaps most crucial) technique for both types of habitats on the Preserve for promoting native species and controlling invasives is… prescribed fire!

Prescribed burning is important to prairies and other dry habitats, plus wetlands, which are fire-adapted and rely on a consistent regime of fire in order to thrive. Prescribed fire has played a critical role in restoring the diverse, native habitats at Mammoth’s Back Preserve.

The Alliance’s 2026 spring burn season started in late-March with the prescribed burn of just the 35-acre sedge meadow at Mammoth’s Back Preserve. The burn helped reduce the invading brush that was taking over the meadow from the long absence of fire in the landscape. The burn also promoted native sedges, grasses, and forbs that will grow and flower more prolifically in the years following regular burns.

The Alliance conducts several prescribed burns in early spring. So, why did we start with this burn?

Continue reading here: https://bit.ly/3Pi0qEJ
Or, check out the next post on 5/19 to learn about prescribed burns along the wetland area!
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📸: Photos by IATA Staff
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Become a member of the Ice Age Trail Alliance and join the Mammoth Koozie Crew! 🦣As a member, you’ll help protect land,...
05/12/2026

Become a member of the Ice Age Trail Alliance and join the Mammoth Koozie Crew! 🦣

As a member, you’ll help protect land, build new miles, connect new people to the Trail, and keep the Ice Age Trail thriving.

But wait, there's more! If you join before May 31, 2026, you’ll get this COOL KOOZIE (AKA this season's hottest piece of Trail gear)! Membership starts at just $50 a year (or $ 4.16 a month).

Get your Mammoth Koozie today! Supplies are limited. Not sold in stores: www.iceagetrail.org/coolkoozie/
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📸: Photos by IATA Staff
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Address

Cross Plains, WI

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 5pm
Tuesday 8am - 5pm
Wednesday 8am - 5pm
Thursday 8am - 5pm
Friday 8am - 5pm

Telephone

+16087984453

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