Pleasant Valley Conservancy State Natural Area No. 551 is a 140-acre Preserve in western Dane County, Wisconsin. It consists of extensively restored oak savannas, dry, mesic, and wet prairies, wetlands, and oak woods. Scenic views and wildlife viewing are excellent, and several trails provide ready access to the Preserve. Especially noteworthy at Pleasant Valley are the finely restored oak savannas, once common in the Midwest but now very rare. The Preserve has many large open-grown white and bur oaks, which can be viewed from Pleasant Valley Road, and seen close up from the trails. The herbaceous layer in the savanna is highly diverse.

The Preserve provides excellent habitat for cavity-nesting birds, including red-headed woodpeckers, a characteristic bird of oak savannas. Red-heads breed in the Preserve and can frequently be seen from the upper ridge trail. Breeding bird surveys have found around 70 species, including a number of rare and/or interesting species.

Over 300 species of flowering plants have been recorded, including several rare ones.

Purple milkweed, a species endangered in Wisconsin, is found extensively in the savanna areas and is thriving{Link to rare species}. Other plant species found here that are threatened or of special concern include upland boneset, cream gentian, glade mallow, yellow giant hyssop, prairie turnip, and sweet Indian plantain.

Pleasant Valley Conservancy is a site of The Prairie Enthusiasts (TPE), an organization active in the upper Midwest. Part of the Conservancy is owned by TPE and the rest is permanently protected by a conservation easement donated to TPE by Kathie and Tom Brock.

Tom and Kathie Brock are site managers of Pleasant Valley Conservancy.
Photo by Cathie Bruner