The Audubon Center of the North Woods is a private, non-profit residential environmental learning center (RELC), a wildlife rehabilitation facility, and conference & retreat center nestled on the shores of Grindstone Lake near Sandstone, MN in east-central Minnesota. Our diverse 535-acre sanctuary includes a variety of habitats, including old-growth red and white pines, hardwood forests, restored wetlands and prairies. Our unique center features a mixture of historic as well as newly constructed facilities that can provide lodging and meals for up to 150 participants. Our participants have the opportunity to experience a wide range of learning environments including our wildlife barn, yurt, log cabin, formal science classroom, and of course, the great outdoors!



We offer a great variety of environmental learning experiences for people of all ages, with programming in natural history and science, team-building, adventure programming, and outdoor/environmental education.



We strive to provide the best environmental experiences for the thousands of K-12 students who come to our center from across the state. Our highest quality environmental education programs along with our optimal location, makes us not only the best choice for environmental programming reasons, but for lower travel cost reasons as well-something we all can appreciate!



We also serve as a field campus for many teacher training opportunities through Hamline University's Center for Global Environmental Education and offer graduate courses tailored to educators seeking either a Certificate or Master's Degree in Environmental Education. In addition, we are also a field campus for Northland College, Inver Hills Community College and other post-secondary institutions.