Dear Landowners,

Since 1993, Washington County Land Conservation has encouraged local planting of native woodland and prairie species through our native Tree & Prairie Seed Program. More than 1,000,000 trees have been purchased over the past 25+ years! We order bare root stock in large quantities, allowing us to receive a substantial discount off retail prices; then package the trees for individual orders, passing the savings on to you!

2026 Program Information!  Orders Due Friday, March 6th.

Tree Specie List (pdf)
Trees Only Brochure (pdf)
Order Form (pdf)

Prairie Seed Packages
pdf-new window Full Brochure with Prairie (pdf)   

ORDER AND PAY ONLINE! www.washcoparks.com

(or mail your order form, along with payment, payable to: Washington County)
Washington County
Land Resources Division
333 E. Washington St. Suite 2300
West Bend, WI 53095

Program Guidelines (pdf)

Interested in renting a no-till seed drill for native prairie grass and forbs (5-10 acre minimum).
Contact Angie Rusch, DNR-Pike Lake at 414.303.0111
Also available...electric ATV broadcast seed slinger for native prairie grass and forbs.                                             

NEW-Urban Tree Key (pdf)
Planting Instructions (pdf)

Soil Classification

Five prairie seed packages (pdf)are available year round: Prairie Grass & Forbs Mix, Standard Prairie Mix, Medium-Dry Tall Prairie Mix, Wet Site Prairie Mix and Monarch Butterfly Prairie Mix. Each have been designed to reintroduce a variety of native plants that use to dominate the open landscape in southern Wisconsin before modern times. These plants are not only colorful, but also offer habitat for a variety of wildlife. Many species, including songbirds and butterflies, thrive in the food and cover offered by a native prairie.

Each package contains a well-balanced blend of the seed species listed. Growers are recommended to follow the detailed planting instructions that are provided with each order.

Mixes are sold in quantities for 1/2 an acre.
Planting site must be free of live vegetation.
Detailed planting and maintenance instructions are available below.
A no-till seed drill is available for rent from the DNR Pike Lake Station. Call Angie Rusch @ 414.303.0111 for details.

Establishing A Prairie (pdf)

The following items are available throughout the year.

Bluebird House
The beautiful Eastern Bluebird population has experienced a rebound due to the efforts of many people who have provided nesting boxes on their private property. This uniquely designed bluebird house is a favored house for bluebirds. It has easy entry and good ventilation. For the bluebirder it is easy to monitor and to open for cleaning. Stain or paint the handmade bluebird house to your liking – (made with pine and hardboard wood). No assembly required.

Monitoring Bluebird Nest Boxes (pdf)

Background Information On Bats (pdf)

Butterfly House
Butterflies are nature's gift to the garden! Not only do they pollinate flowers, but they add their unique and colorful beauty to the yard. This attractive rich wood hibernation house will protect them from predators, provide night & over-wintering shelter and encourage increased butterfly population. The house hangs on a post or tree in light shade. No assembly is required.

Butterfly Gardening (pdf)
Butterfly Hibernation Box (pdf)

The soils in Washington County range from loamy to sandy, from shallow to deep, and from very poorly drained to excessively drained. Glaciation is chiefly responsible for the many kinds of soil that formed. It affected the formation of the soils by depositing several kinds of parent material and by sculpturing a wide variety of landforms.

What Soils are on My Property?
Washington County's publicly accessible interactive website includes mapped soils. Here are a few tips on how to find this data:

Scroll down the Layers and open the Soils Folder. Click on the empty box next to the folder you just opened. At this point the SSURGO soils will be turned on. This will be a visible layer...but not at this scale. Zoom in to the area you'd like to view and the layers should then automatically be viewable. GIS Interactive Mapping TIP: Click Off The Auto Refresh Button.

List of Soils
The Land Conservation Office has put together a chart telling you more about Washington County's soils. Each soil symbol, soil name, drainage class, map unit description and suitable prairie seed mixes are found below.

Soil Classification Chart (pdf)

For further explanations of map unit descriptions...refer to the Washington County Soil Survey Book written by the United States Department of Agriculture-Soil Conservation Service.