The Butler County Conservation Board is looking back on a busy and productive year, as Naturalist Annette Wittrock outlined during a recent episode of the Outdoors in North Iowa podcast.
Wittrock said much of the board’s work happens behind the scenes; with a seven-person staff maintaining campgrounds, wildlife preserves, hunting areas and trails across more than 2,400 acres in Butler County.
“Many of the tasks that our staff does every day are not seen by the public eye. So what I mean by this is our staff does a lot of maintenance to our public hunting areas, our wildlife preserves, campgrounds, and the trail that the normal visitor may not see or notice.”
In 2025, the conservation board received its fifth consecutive Izaak Walton Wildlife Habitat Improvement Award, recognizing ongoing efforts to improve local habitat.
“We improve wildlife habitat. We do that in partnership with the Pheasants Forever chapters and we give away trees and lots of prairie seed for landowners for their CRP. And we do some prescribed burning and CRP and woodland areas to help with exotic species. Our staff also keeps track of 250 bluebird houses and 30 wood duck houses around the county. (We) plant food plots in both our public hunting and wildlife refuge areas to better the habitat for wildlife, treating invasive species and things like that.”
2025 also included facility upgrades at Camp Comfort, expanded county campground reservations and continued fundraising for the displays at the nature center, all aimed at improving outdoor recreation opportunities across the county.
