Audubon Center of the North Woods - environmental education and conference center

All About ACNW

The Audubon Center of the North Woods is a private, non-profit residential environmental learning center (RELC), a wildlife rehabilitation facility, and conference & retreat center nestled on the shores of Grindstone Lake near Sandstone, MN in east-central Minnesota. Our diverse 535-acre sanctuary includes a variety of habitats, including old-growth red and white pines, hardwood forests, restored wetlands and prairies. Our unique center features a mixture of historic as well as newly constructed facilities that can provide lodging and meals for up to 150 participants. Our participants have the opportunity to experience a wide range of learning environments including our wildlife barn, yurt, log cabin, formal science classroom, and of course, the great outdoors!

We offer a great variety of environmental learning experiences for people of all ages, with programming in natural history and science, team-building, adventure programming, and outdoor/environmental education.

We welcome visitors to explore our trails, visit our raptors, shop our Nature Store, or to stop and just say "Hi" to the North Woods!

We strive to provide the best environmental experiences for the thousands of K-12 students who come to our center from across the state. Our highest quality environmental education programs along with our optimal location, makes us not only the best choice for environmental programming reasons, but for lower travel cost reasons as well-something we all can appreciate!

We also serve as a field campus for many teacher training opportunities through Hamline University's Center for Global Environmental Education and offer graduate courses tailored to educators seeking either a Certificate or Master's Degree in Environmental Education. In addition, we are also a field campus for Northland College, Inver Hills Community College and other post-secondary institutions.

The Audubon Center also sponsors a number of Minnesota Charter Schools. Through these sponsorships we are able to work with the schools to provide the students with the best educational experience possible and deliver our mission on a more effective and progressive basis. For more information about charter school sponsorship or about the schools that the Center sponsors, please view our website www.auduboncharterschools.org.

The Audubon Center, in conjunction with Elderhostel, Inc., also offers Elderhostel Programs designed for people 55 and older including Intergenerational Elderhostels, creating the opportunity for grandchildren to have fun with their grandparents in the north woods.

BRIEF AUDUBON CENTER HISTORY

In the 1800's, the Audubon Center property was used by local Ojibwe families for hunting and gathering.

Portions of the forest were logged prior to the Hinckley Fire (1894), and the land was farmed under the Schwyzer family ownership for the first half of the twentieth century.

In 1968 this land was bequeathed to the National Audubon Society by Dr. Marguerite Schwyzer. The land was then transferred to the Audubon Center of the North Woods, a separate private, 501(c) non-profit organization. Since that time, the Audubon Center has served as a residential and day use education facility for small groups of international students, college students, adults, and school groups.

Howling to the wolves

Teaching Tree ID

Wetlands Group

Rope Walker

Elderhostelers

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Call or contact us with questions. Or better yet,
stop by for a visit and say HI to the "North Woods"
We are centrally, and conveniently, located only about
90 miles from Duluth, Brainerd, St. Cloud, and the Twin Cities.
The perfect distance from anywhere.
Close enough to home...yet far enough away.