 Warner is home to a wild population of threatened Blanding's Turtles.In part because of their presence, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has designated the land Warner sits on as important for species in greatest conservation need and a Regionally Significant Ecological Area with a level 3 designation, the highest possible,

WNC was the oldest private nature center in the state of Minnesota and served about 17,000 people per year, 9,000 of which were school children, with outdoor natural history programming.The first director, Bernie Fashingbauer began work in 1965 as construction began on the main building.