Powering Wisconsin’s Future While Protecting Birds and Wildlife

(November 24, 2025) Clean energy and conservation can go hand in hand. This is exemplified by Audubon Great Lakes’ work to move the Vista Sands Solar Project forward—poised to become Wisconsin’s largest solar farm and one of the biggest in the nation. This groundbreaking project not only advances renewable energy but also invests heavily to restore critical habitat for the Greater Prairie-Chicken. 

Across the Great Lakes region, birds are experiencing the effects of a warming climate—mistimed migrations, shifts in the geographic ranges they occupy, and more frequent extreme weather events. Expanding renewable energy generation is needed to protect birds, here in the Great Lakes region and beyond. By working collaboratively with communities and industry, we can ensure that clean energy projects are planned with birds and people in mind.  

Audubon worked closely with the developer of this 1.3 megawatt (MW) project to ensure that significant commitments were made to protect the threatened Greater Prairie-Chicken and other grassland species, including more than $2 million dollars toward Wisconsin’s Greater Prairie-Chicken Management Plan, the state’s blueprint on how to manage land to ensure the best conservation outcomes for the species. The solar project is located on private land near the Buena Vista Grasslands State Wildlife Area. As the largest continuous grassland in Wisconsin, this wildlife area is a globally significant Audubon Important Bird Area (IBA) that provides core habitat for many Wisconsin grassland bird species that it supports, including the majority of the state’s Greater Prairie-Chicken population.

Chunky and brown, the Greater Prairie-Chicken is perhaps best known for the spectacular spring courtship ritual where males gather on open grasslands to perform a “booming” display, inflating bright orange air sacs and stamping their feet in a dramatic dance.  The Greater Prairie-Chicken is both striking and specialized. They need vast, open landscapes with a mix of tall and short grasses. Females nest in thick, tall grass, lining shallow ground depressions with leaves and feathers, while thin-leaved grassland plant species provide space for raising chicks and foraging.

The Greater Prairie-Chicken is listed as “State Threatened” in Wisconsin and only exists in small populations in three counties the center of the state. Conservation efforts by Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and other conservation groups have helped to ensure its survival in this small area of central Wisconsin, but threats remain. 

As the Vista Sands project went through the approval process, Audubon Great Lakes played a pivotal role in informing the conservation outcomes. Our team submitted science-based recommendations during multiple public comment periods, ensuring that sensitive habitats were avoided and robust conservation strategies were implemented to offset impacts that were unavoidable. This work helped to ensure that the project will have meaningful conservation outcomes.

The Greater Prairie-Chicken isn’t just an iconic bird it is also an indicator of robust grassland that combines suitable types of habitat. Grassland species across North America have declined more than 50 percent since 1966. By increasing conservation investments toward the Greater Prairie-Chicken Restoration Plan, Vista Sands can restore large, connected prairie landscapes that benefit not only Greater Prairie-Chickens but also Bobolinks, Meadowlarks, Upland Sandpipers and other grassland birds in steep decline. 

With careful planning, robust community input and science-based conservation strategies, renewable energy development can minimize habitat loss and fragmentation, and when paired with targeted restoration investments, they can actually strengthen regional conservation outcomes. This is the balance Audubon advocates for: advancing clean energy infrastructure that addresses climate change while delivering tangible, measurable benefits for birds and wildlife. 

The path ahead requires collaboration:  developers that are willing to design projects responsibly, communities that are willing to embrace clean power and conservation organizations, like Audubon, ensuring that birds remain a part of the conversation. When these pieces come together, we can build a cleaner energy future, healthier ecosystems, and a more resilient landscape where birds and people thrive together.