With funding nearly support from Wilderness Louisville, Inc. a nature playground will soon be a reality in the southwest corner of Chickasaw Park. This will be a fantastic space where children can explore, play, and be creative in a natural play space. The play area will feature an accessible covered overlook of the Ohio River and will include areas where parents and caregivers may sit and observe under the shade of mature trees. This new amenity was first presented conceptually in the Metro Parks’ 2016 West Louisville Outdoor Recreation Initiative master plan. Final design was developed as a ..read more

Are you looking for an opportunity to lend your energy and expertise in support of natural areas in an metropolitan area?  Look no further! According to the Trust for Public Lands, Louisville ranks 53rd out of the 100 most populous U.S. cities in terms of park acreage. The Natural Areas Division is responsible for managing and engaging the community within nearly 7,500 acres of Louisville’s approximately 17,000 acres of public parkland. We routinely have employment opportunities within the Division and we just launched a new page on our website to promote them.  A recent reorganizati ..read more

ECHO is so excited to have the new temporary program office up and running in Shawnee Park. This location, in the northeast part of the park near the boat ramp, will provide a hub in West Louisville for outdoor programming with the ECHOmobile nature play as well as out-of-school time programming with local youth. As we finish out our fall season of programming we will be spending the winter months getting the office ready, organized, and programs planned. The spring will offer lots of recreation opportunities so stay tuned for the 2022 calendar! ECHO has welcomed new staff members to the team ..read more

It is with much excitement that we recognize Brandon Hill, Natural Areas Outreach Specialist, for being accepted as a Rethink Outside Fellow for 2021/2022.  Brandon joins 20 other leaders and story tellers from across the country for this inaugural cohort sponsored by the Blue Sky Funders Forum. The Rethink Outside fellowship was launched in 2019 to “unify voices to express the benefits of time spent outdoors”.  In this work, Rethink Outside has engaged with hundreds of communities and organizations around the United States who are “committed to changing the prevailing public narrati ..read more

The Board of Wilderness Louisville Inc, and Natural Areas Division staff are thrilled to launch this new website and provide the public with a single location to discover and support natural areas and Jefferson Memorial Forest.  We would like to thank U of L Department of Computer Information Systems Professors, Dr. Robert Barker and Dr. Haleh Karimi, and their students who made this  possible. Special thanks goes to recent graduate Cameron Abell for all his effort ..read more

We’ve had a busy few months here at the Forest and we’ve moved to having quarterly newsletters instead of monthly ones. We’ve added new sections, more content and we hope you’ll love it! View Newsletter ..read more

We’ve had a busy few months here at the Forest and we’ve moved to having quarterly newsletters instead of monthly ones. We’ve added new sections, more content and we hope you’ll love it! View Newsletter   ..read more

ASHTO grantees working to promote health equity within their communities Wilderness Louisville, the nonprofit partner supporting the West Louisville Outdoor Recreation Initiative (WLORI), has received a $50,000 award to evaluate program strategies implemented through the Louisville is Engaging Children Outdoors (ECHO) program. The award comes from the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) through their “Improving Social Determinants of Health: Getting Further Faster” program, which supports community partnerships in collecting information on effective strategies for ad ..read more

Wilderness Louisville has been awarded a micro-grant by the Louisville Sustainability Council to fund the installment and purchase of an electric vehicle charging station in partnership with Evolve KY. We’re excited to be one step closer to installation! If you want to support the first EV charger in South Louisville you can donate using the button below.  Check out the LSC’s Press Release!   Donate   ..read more

Our ECHO staff got the amazing opportunity to talk about creating opportunities for underserved youth with the National Recreation and Parks Association (NRPA)! ECHO has been working for over a decade to create equitable access to fun, clean and safe outdoor areas and activities and it is an honor to be able to bring those ideas to a larger platform. If you want to give it a listen you can listen to the podcast here! You can also support the Louisville ECHO program by clicking the button below! Donate ..read more