How Your Gift Helps

As a private, non-profit organization, Carpenter Nature Center (CNC) heavily relies on donations from generous supporters like you. Your financial contribution helps keep our trails open and available to the public, allows us to continue our education and habitat work, and supports the physical and mental health of the community.

Here’s what our supporters helped us accomplish in 2024:

• Education

  • CNC naturalists taught more than 8,189 visiting PreK-12 students through onsite, hands-on environmental education programs. Our most popular programs include Apple Orchard, Insects, Maple Syruping and Flowers & Pollinators.
  • CNC naturalists reached an additional 17,465 people of all ages through off-site outreach programs. These included activities with scout groups, programs at senior living facilities, community expos, events at local libraries, partnerships with the City of Hastings, and educational programs in school classrooms. Of these, approximately 10,514 were PreK-12 students.
  • More than 260 youth attended Carpenter’s summer camps, which include day camps focusing on nature exploration, science, and outdoor skills, and overnight canoe trips on the Namekagon and Kinnikinnic Rivers. In 2023, CNC was able to host a special overnight trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area for older teens thanks to funding from a private donor.
  • Carpenter continued a multi-year collaboration with the South Washington County Watershed District by providing six weeks of Water Quality & Watershed programming to sixth graders in South Washington County Schools.
  • Thanks to funding from the Power of 100 Women – Hastings, Carpenter was able to go into the schools and teach every 1st grade classroom in Hastings about “Animals of the Mississippi”, at no cost to the students or school.
  • CNC hosted 7 college interns in the fields of Environmental Education, Orchard & Land Management, Avian Field Work, and Communications and Visitor Services.

• Habitat & Land Management

  • Carpenter maintained and restored habitat on 725 acres of land in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Special projects led by staff and our weekly habitat volunteer team include removal of non-native species, prairie burns, and planting of native species.
  • CNC contributed to several citizen science research projects, including Project Owl-Net migration research, MAPS breeding bird studies, and migratory bird monitoring through the Midwest Migration Network, Motus, and CTT systems.
  • Carpenter staff managed a 11.5-acre teaching apple orchard with the help of many volunteers to grow high quality produce in an ecological and sustainable manner using Integrated Pest Management.