CAPTURING THE ESSENCE OF THE DRIFTLESS REGION
We know that only if you can first love a place, will you work to support it, to protect it, to enhance it. We want to encourage that love, that magic if you will, of the region, and brand and share the Driftless Region to those near and far. We will engage young and old to see their surroundings in exciting new ways. Ways that encourage participation, hope, engagement, and pride. We believe this will foster our youth to return or to not leave, our long term residents and business owners to thrive, our visitors to be glad they made the trip.
The Driftless Region is an enchanted land that a mysterious force shielded for more than a million years from powerful, massive continental glaciers of the last Ice Age. The landscape is filled with rugged, stunning scenery, bizarre microclimates, and deep caves. The world’s oldest river meanders its way through the center, having carved beautiful cliffs lush with rare wildflowers. Native American effigy mounds and petroglyphs remain from a thousand years ago. The region also is known for eclectic and fun river communities, the birthplace of soil conservation and leadership in organic agriculture, world-class rugged terrain for silent sports, and appreciation for the arts. It is where waterskiing was invented, and where Aldo Leopold conceived his idea for a land ethic.
Check out our latest newsletter (summer 2024)
Sustainable Driftless, Inc. is a 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring resource conservation, vibrant communities, and sustainable growth in the Driftless Region.
Our board of directors has included the following individuals:
Tim Jacobson (president), the late George Howe (vice president), Julia Henley (treasurer), Nancy Breed (secretary), Brian Murphy, Rev. Kent Johnson, Brian Rude (past board member), Prof. Thomas Johnson (past board member), and Michelle Jerome (past board member).
SDI partnered with Untamed Science, Inc., another nonprofit organization, to produce Decoding the Driftless, a feature-length documentary film about the the Driftless Region. In 2021, the film was honored with a regional Emmy Award from the Upper Midwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. SDI has again partnered with Untamed Science to produce a new film with an expected release in 2024!
Support our work, and you’ll help us help thousands more people experience and cherish the most precious, mysterious and beautiful places on the Driftless landscape!
Sustainable Driftless, Inc. | P.O. Box 1231 | La Crosse, WI 54602
Visit our online STORE to buy DVDs, Blu-ray discs, and T-shirts!
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Always Searching For The Best the Driftless Offers
We seek out the beauty, the majesty, the rare and precious, the innovative, the creative, the tasty, and the fun. Then we connect you to those wonderful things in the Driftless Area.
“I have found no better way of engaging students in a discussion of environmental responsibility than showing them the film Mysteries of the Driftless…. We can only care for the things we know, and that is why a full length film about the Driftless Region would be such a valuable teaching tool.”
“The Emmy Award-winning documentary Mysteries of the Driftless … is just the beginning: Sustainable Driftless, Inc. will take the story to the next level…”
“The entire Driftless is an outdoor museum awaiting discovery and interpretation…. We enthusiastically support Sustainable Driftless’ new feature length documentary project.”