Schlitz Audubon Nature Center is an Audubon environmental education center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which was founded in 1971. John Flicker, the current president of the National Audubon Society, calls it "a jewel among National Audubon Centers."

Ours is an interesting history. In the 1800's the Center’s 185 acres of property had been farmland. In 1885, it was purchased by the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company to use as a place to rest the brewery’s draft horses. With the obsolescence of horse-drawn carriages, the site became a recreational area for the brewery owners’ families. The property, with its woods, meadows, ravines, bluffs, and Lake Michigan shoreline, was a special place used and loved by a young girl, Dorothy Vallier, who would eventually become the Center’s founder.

In the 1950’s, the land was conveyed to the Schlitz Foundation, and it began to consider various proposals to develop this prime piece of lakeshore property. These proposals included an ambitious high-rise housing development and a men-only golf course.

Milwaukee Journal, Feb 20, 1970.

Another proposal came from Dorothy Vallier, who asked that the land remain undeveloped and be used as a nature center. She wanted it under the auspices of the National Audubon Society because, at that time, Audubon was known for its expertise in the relatively new nature center movement.

However, the Foundation rejected her proposal. Undaunted, Ms. Vallier continued to pursue her idea and brought her proposal to the Foundation each year for several years. In the meantime, Dorothy and many local residents of the area banded together and were able to quash the other proposals for the land.

Finally, in 1971, nine years after Dorothy’s initial rejection, the Schlitz Foundation approved the project. National Audubon agreed to accept the proposed center, provided local funding could be secured to cover the costs of operation and development. This was quickly taken care of, with Dorothy Vallier offering to provide $1 million for an endowment and Joseph Uihlein, Jr. and John Cleaver underwriting the costs for development of the Center.

After the building and roads were completed, the Center was open for business in 1974. Another 40 acres on the Milwaukee River were added a few years later.

Now, more than 30 years later, the Center offers classes and programs for all ages and annually teaches 35,000 schoolchildren about nature, using its land as a huge outdoor classroom. The Center teaches more children than any other nature center in the state of Wisconsin and more than any other National Audubon Society center in the United States. Its value as a resource to residents of metropolitan Milwaukee is immense.

In 2003, our new Dorothy K. Vallier Environmental Learning Center opened to the public, named in honor of our dear founder and long-term patron. This award-winning sustainable building features recycled materials and systems that support energy efficiency, water conservation and sustainability.

The Center’s new building provides much needed space for more classrooms, an enlarged auditorium, new exhibits, a nature-focused preschool, the first of its kind in Wisconsin, a nature store and improved accessibility for persons with disabilities. Tucked just 40 feet away from the surrounding natural landscape, the building will serve as a portal to the Center’s sanctuary, bringing the outside in, with space for visitors to enjoy learning, places to talk with experts and room for exhibits.

In addition, the building will serve as a teaching tool and will increase the awareness of the use of sustainable building materials.

Dory Vallier, May 2003, hears the "big surprise"  --SANC’s new building is being named in her honor.

And Dorothy Vallier, at age 95, is still on the Center’s Board of Directors with the title of Director Active Emeritus. On a recent visit to the building named in her honor, Dorothy Vallier remarked,
"Each time I come here, I marvel at the children’s faces and their excitement. This is the magic of Schlitz Audubon Nature Center – being able to touch the lives of so many young people. Through nature, we are nurturing tomorrow’s conservationists. It is my dream come true."