Great Outdoors Presenters

The Eagle Nature Trail

Retzer Nature Center

Paradise Springs

Lulu Lake

Old World Wisconsin

 Information about our presenters and partners.

Eagle Nature Trail

The Eagle Nature Trail connects the Alice Baker Library and the Eagle Elementary School. It has places for people to sit, observe, decompress, explore, regard, and basically absorb nature.

The Eagle Nature Trail has been a community, volunteer, and educational project that engages students, local organizations, and adults in the creation and maintenance of a walking path, a prairie, a woodland, and pond area.

The Eagle Nature Trail is convenient for relaxing or beautiful short walks. Unlike a park that is meant for people, the Eagle Nature Trail is a habitat area for the plants and animals that defined this part of Wisconsin for thousands of years. An early settler’s journal from 1837 describes the prairies of Eagle when he arrived. The Eagle Nature Trail prairie reminds us what this area used to be.

Friends of Mukwonago River
Formed in 1999 by Nancy Gloe and Ezra Meyer to mitigate some of the potential threats to the Mukwonago River watershed and its natural resources, primarily from development.  The Mukwonago River watershed is home to over 50 species of fish including the threatened Longear Sunfish (Lepomis megalotis), several species of rare freshwater mussels, an incredible diversity of wetlands, and some of the highest water quality in Southeastern Wisconsin.

Friends of Retzer Nature Center
The Friends of Retzer Nature Center, Inc. is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to encouraging, perpetuating, and promoting the work of conservation and natural resource education.

The nature center site was originally the retirement home of John & Florence Retzer. It was the wish of Florence Retzer that the Waukesha County Park System develop the land as a nature center. Shortly after Florence passed in 1973, work began to fulfill her dream.

Kettle Moraine SF – Southern Unit
More than 22,000 acres of glacial hills, kettles, lakes, prairie restoration sites, pine woods and hardwood forests can be found in the Southern Unit, making this a popular area for a wide variety of visitors. The Forest is 30 miles long, extending from the village of Dousman, almost to the city of Whitewater. The forest headquarters is 3 miles west of the village of Eagle on State Highway 59.

Lulu Lake
Lulu Lake is an assemblage of exceptionally high quality and diverse wetland and upland communities on glacial topography in the Kettle Moraine region. Many of the natural communities protected here have been virtually eliminated from southeastern Wisconsin. The focal point of the area is the 95-acre Lulu Lake, a 40-foot deep, hardwater drainage kettle lake fed by the Mukwonago River and situated at the base of glacial deposits.

Old World Wisconsin
Old World Wisconsin is an open-air museum located near Eagle, Wisconsin. Opened in 1976, the museum is owned and operated by the Wisconsin Historical Society. It portrays housing and the daily life of immigrants in 19th century Wisconsin. The largest outdoor museum of rural life in the United States, it encompasses nearly 600 acres (2.4 km²) of rolling wooded hills and contains over 60 historic structures. These range from ethnic farmsteads with furnished houses and rural outbuildings to a crossroads village.

Waukesha County Park System
The park system is composed of eight different parks throughout the county: Fox Brook Park, Fox River Park, Menomonee Park, Minooka Park, Mukwonago Park, Muskego Park, Naga-Waukee Park, and Nashotah Park. “From swimming to camping to hiking and cross-country skiing, each park has its own personality.”  The park system also has five lake accesses: Ashippun, Nagawicka, Nemahbin, Pewaukee, and School Section, three golf courses: Wanaki, Naga-Waukee War Memorial, and Moors Down, two ice arenas: Naga-Waukee and Eble, Retzer Nature Center and the Expo Center.

The Great Outdoors Links & Resources

‘Great Outdoors’ – Where To Go

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources – Explore outdoors
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources – Trails, Parks, Lakes, Campsites
Hunt Fish Camp Wisconsin

   Parks

Jefferson County Parks
Walworth County Recreation
Waukesha County Parks
Wisconsin State Park System
Wisconsin – Find a Park

   Lakes

Eagle Spring Lake
Lulu Lake
Waukesha County – Find a lake
Wisconsin – Find a Lake
Wisconsin – Beaches and shoreline

  Trails

Eagle Nature Trail
Ice Age Trail
Kettle Moraine Southern Unit
Lapham Peak, Kettle Moraine State Forest in Delafield

‘Great Outdoors’ – What to do

   Camping
Kettle Moraine State Forest

   Hiking
Greenbush Trails 
Ice Age Trail: Kettle Moraine 
John Muir Trails and Emma Carlin Trails 
Lapham Peak Unit 
McMiller Trails
Nordic Trails 
Scuppernong Trails 
Stute Springs and Homestead Nature Trail
Zillmer Trails

   Biking
Bugline Trail
Lake Country Trail
New Berlin Trail
Wisconsin Biking

   Birding
Great Wisconsin Birding & Nature Trail

   Hunting

Public hunting land and grounds in Wisconsin

   Fishing

Accessible fishing piers in the DNR Southeast Region

   Water Sports
Rafting and Tubing

   Nature/Outdoor Photography/Art
Nature
Kettle Moraine State Forest Nature Center in Eagle
Retzer Nature Center
Waukesha County Land Conservancy
Wild Ones – Kettle Moraine Chapter
Wisconsin Chapter of The Nature Conservancy

   Astronomy
Charles Z. Horwitz Planetarium

   Orienteering and Geocaching
Badger Orienteering Club – The Badger Orienteering Club is the main organization in Wisconsin for orienteering — a racing sport where competitors navigate through a landscape using a map and compass.
Geocaching