Access & Directions

Visitors should park in the small gravel parking lot off Beloit-Newark Road, a half-mile east of Nelson Road, in the Rock County town of Avon, which is west of Beloit and southeast of Brodhead.  Take Highway 81 out of Brodhead a few miles and turn south on Nelson Road, then east on Beloit-Newark.  The nearest fire number is 15347 W. Beloit-Newark Road for our neighbor to the west.  From the parking lot walk south along the fence line, up the hill and over the ridge to the south-facing one-acre prairie.   Foslin Bluff is the extension to the west. The original one-acre remnant is over the ridge. To the east is planted prairie, in a 10-year CRP federal contract we inherited from the previous owner. 

This property can be difficult to walk as there are no trails and the parking lot is quite far from the prairie.

Google Map

What Makes Avon Ridge Special

This remnant habitat (never having been plowed or grazed) features a spectacular show of rare native plants. One of the most striking features is the abundance of pale purple coneflowers (Echinacea pallida), which is a protected plant at the northern edge of its range in North America. Botanical range maps show this coneflower primarily in Rock, Green, Dane and Grant Counties while extending south and west. Authors Cochrane and Iltis is their Atlas of Wisconsin Prairie & Savanna Flora describe these confeflowers as a “southern Midwest prairie and plains species, once common and now rather rare.” Artists, photographers and nature-enthusiasts will enjoy this iconic plant’s blooms during June and July.

The area’s ridge is capped with limestone and underlain by sandstone that has eroded into sloping side hills. Limestone is a hard rock that resists erosion. Sandstone is a softer rock.

How was Avon Ridge Protected

Prairie Bluff Chapter Member and Past President Rob Baller first visited this site in the 1980s with neighbor Brad Paulson. The Chapter was interested in purchasing the remnant prairie land since the Chapter’s beginnings around 1987. The property consisted of parcels with three different owners. At that time, the land was sold to an Illinois couple and enrolled it in CRP. Again in 2004, the Prairie Bluff Chapter attempted to raise money to buy some of the prairie, but the agreement fell apart. In 2014, Chapter members noticed the land was once again for sale, and in 2015, The Prairie Enthusiasts were able to successfully purchase the land. The sale consisted of an acre of the remnant prairie, a CRP buffer and a strip of land to provide access to the site. 

The original purchase consisted of a 16.5-acre parcel. Five years later in 2020, The Prairie Enthusiasts were able to add another 5.9 acres with the purchase of Foslin Bluff,  creating a contiguous 22.4-acre site. Both the addition and the original parcel were purchased with funds from the Wisconsin Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund and support from members of The Prairie Enthusiasts. 

How You Can Help Avon Ridge

The Prairie Bluff Chapter is stewarding the site by removing a troublesome invasive plant, crown vetch, which is present in a small area of both the CRP and remnant prairie. However the entire property is remarkably free of weeds and brush. Periodic weed patrols are conducted in spring and summer, and seed collection is done in summer and fall. Prescribed burns are also conducted on the site to ensure the habitat maintains it’s health.

Check out our Events Calendar to see upcoming work parties or contact the site steward to get involved.

Previously, work crews from the Chapter removed most of the trees and brush from the western portion of the remnant prairie during the winter of 2015-16.  Sawyers took out cedars, mulberries, cherries, apples, sumac and buckthorn, and then hauled them to the burn pile with a skid steer.

Volunteers also took out 531 feet of old fence line, woven wire and three tangled and buried strands of barbed wire on the site, which were sold to a recycler.