Driftless Area Restoration Effort

The Driftless Area is a 24,000 square-mile area spread across portions of southeast Minnesota, northeast Iowa, southwest Wisconsin and northwest Illinois that was bypassed by the last continental glacier. The lack of glacial drift — sediments carried and deposited by glaciers — has resulted in a unique landscape defined by steep hills, limestone bluffs, and a high concentration of spring-fed coldwater streams in an area recognized for its impressive diversity of plants, animals, and habitats.  

Although the Driftless escaped from the most recent continental glacier, the landscape has been carved by millions of years of other glacial processes, including tectonic activity, previous glaciations, and erosion.  

The original inhabitants of the Driftless Area were members of the Ho-Chunk Nation, and the region remains important to the Ho-Chunk people today.