Two years ago, while striding up through the woods to the top of our land, my eye fell on some delicate white-petaled flowers growing in the shelter of our biggest oak. I hadn’t noticed them before so I leaned over and looked closer. Then I swore. Garlic mustard! The first […]
We call it The Pond, but that term probably evokes a much grander water body than it actually is. The previous owner built a little dam across the end of a ravine and lined the basin with clay from the neighboring field. He never actually found the spring he expected, […]
Let’s here it for Volunteer Environmental Monitoring! Volunteers are our eyes and ears into what is happening in the natural world. With dramatic cuts in government-funded monitoring programs, volunteers have stepped up to the plate. Grassroots environmental groups continue the monitoring that would have to be abandoned if it depended […]
Everyone has heard about the dark cloud over bee hives. In 2006-07 beekeeping operations lost 45% of their hives, and 2008-09 was no better. Everyone has also heard about the birds and the bees. Pay more attention to the bees. 70 percent of the plants in the world need help […]
It’s not a great time to be a grassland bird. Their numbers are diving faster than a hawk after a ground squirrel. Yesterday I learned more precisely how grassland birds are doing in my neighborhood (Southwestern Wisconsin). Mike Guzy did his Wildlife Ecology Ph.D. research just a few miles from […]
Last summer some friends gave us a bluebird house. At that point, I knew one thing about bluebirds – they are featured in a song that includes the words zippety doo dah. Not surprisingly, zip was exactly how many bluebirds we interested in our spiffy, new birdhouse. Now I am […]
Grassroots — Is there any more forceful way to get things done? One engine that has driven the University of Wisconsin for more than 100 years and made it a great (Go Badgers!) institution is the Wisconsin Idea –that education should never be dry or abstract but that it should […]
Geography is destiny, and I got both my geography and my destiny defined a little more clearly yesterday at the University of Wisconsin-Arboretum’s Winter Enrichment Lecture Series. Naturalist extraordinaire Rich Henderson shared his insights about the past, present and future ecology of prairies in Wisconsin. He was speaking from 34 […]
guest post by Doug Hansmann Our architect gave us his shopping list for 73 joists, rafters, posts and beams for our new house today. He could supply everything from his woods, but we hope to find most of them on our own 44 acres. Here’s what it will take: Trees […]
We reach Thanksgiving from a winding road through autumn and exit into winter. The time available to work outside on our land is truncated more with each passing day. Sunset comes earlier. Night lasts longer. And longer. That’s why of all the Christmas/Solstice traditions, I love trees the best. Our […]
Digging in the Driftless 