Happy holidays!  With the days officially getting longer and the New Year waiting for us just around the corner, there is a lot to celebrate and look forward to.  Regardless of what you choose to celebrate this time of year, I think it’s safe to say that nature ranks pretty high up there.  For the last week, I spent the holidays in Buffalo, NY with family and was able to witness just how beautiful (and terrifying) nature can be.

There’s this special place in Buffalo that my wife Carolyn has gone to since she was a kid to feed local birds by hand.  At any moment, you could be up close and personal with a black-capped chickadee, tufted titmouse, or a white-breasted nuthatch.  It’s truly magical and every time we take a trip out east, we make it a priority to visit.  This year was the first time my son was able to experience it and we’re already looking forward to our next visit.

It’s these special connections with nature that make me feel especially thankful.  Public green spaces like this exist all over the place, and you don’t need to feed a bird by hand to experience the wonder.

The day after we visited the chickadee park, Buffalo was hit with one of its worst blizzards recorded (I felt a little extra happy that we fattened up a few of those birds before the storm!)  The blizzard was incredible to watch from the safety of a house, but it was terrifying to see just how powerful nature can be.  There were 30-40mph sustained winds with gusts 70mph+ and near zero visibility.  By the end of the storm, Buffalo had about 43″ of snow with drifts topping over 10′.

As I watched my black lab Tucker leap out of the house and over the snow mound that had piled up against the back door, I immediately thought of the wildlife that were enduring the blizzard outside.  From the voles and mice buried several feet under the snow to the great-horned owls hunkered down in a cavity of a tree, it’s amazing to think about how well-adapted our local critters are to the environment.

Seeing what sort of conditions they have to deal with reminded me of how lucky I am to work for an organization that protects local habitat for wildlife.  They have a difficult enough time surviving out there.  Protecting land for them is the least we can do!

We were lucky enough to have power throughout the entire blizzard and only suffered sore backs from endless shoveling.  All in all, it was a pretty great trip that helped me realize there’s a lot to be thankful for.

While you’re celebrating the holidays and ringing in the New Year, don’t forget to keep nature in mind.  Get outside, breathe in the fresh air, and think about all of the possibilities that the New Year will bring.  Cheers!

*Did you miss an article?  Check out my collection of past monthly Nature Now articles on our website HERE.  Just click the dropdown menu ‘Any Type of News’ and change to ‘Nature Now’ to filter the articles.

See you next month!

As 2022 comes to a close, we’re reflecting on another year of connecting people to nature. This year, we had the pleasure of connecting people to nature through the written word.

We collaborated with two local poets as part of the Writing the Land project to honor local land through poetry. They wrote poems inspired by two of the special places we protect – Westport Prairie and Patrick Marsh.

Poet Lisa Marie Brimmer wrote poems inspired by Westport Prairie.

Angie Trudell Vasquez, City of Madison Poet Laureate, wrote poems inspired by Patrick Marsh.

Read the poems by clicking the links above. And check out the videos below of Lisa Marie and Angie reading their poems.

Through the Writing the Land project, Lisa Marie and Angie emphasized the importance of individual connection to land and place. We hope these poems inspire you to visit these special places and think about their protection in a new way.

A huge thank you to Lisa Marie and Angie for sharing their time, talent, and commitment to conservation with us. They’ve both been a pleasure to work with and we’re honored to have them bring a fresh perspective to our protected lands.

If you have any questions, comments, or reactions to this project, please feel free to reach out to Liz at liz@groundswellconservancy.org.

We’re excited to share the good news that Groundswell recently helped the Town of Westport purchase 105 acres once proposed for a large bakery.

The property at the corner of County M and Woodland Drive was owned by the principals of Bagels Forever and zoned for a bagel factory for many years but was recently put on the market.  A mix of grassland, wetlands and oak woods, the land is bordered by the Westport Town Hall on one side and the DNR’s Six Mile Creek Fishery Area on the other.

“For the 30 years I’ve been associated with the town, I’ve often looked out the window of the Board Room and thought how wonderful if we could protect that land,” said Dean Grosskopf, Westport Administrator/Clerk-Treasurer and former town chair. “Now, to see everything fall in place in just nine months, has been nothing short of a miracle.”

With the open space addition, there’s now an almost unbroken corridor of protected public land around the north side of Lake Mendota, stretching from Governor Nelson State Park to Wisconsin 113.

Groundswell supported the purchase by helping to negotiate a large cash donation for the property from Steve and Marianne Schlecht. We are so grateful to the Schlechts for making this important land purchase possible!

To ensure the property is never developed, the Town of Westport granted a conservation easement to Groundswell Conservancy.  The easement will maintain the conservation values and access for public recreation and enjoyment.

“The days of acquiring such a large property so close to Lake Mendota are quickly passing,” said Mike Foy, our Land Protection Specialist. “This acquisition by Westport — with support from Groundswell Conservancy and our generous supporters — will benefit wildlife, wetlands, water quality, and public recreation for generations to come.”

The land will be added to the Westport park system and provide additional space for organized recreation next to the existing soccer fields. The town will also maintain a large conservation area to provide wildlife and pollinator habitat, protect wetlands and reduce storm water runoff to improve Lake Mendota water quality.

Moving forward, Groundswell will assist the town in financing the purchase via available local, county, state, and federal funding sources. Depending upon grants received, the town will need to raise between $1 million and $2 million in private funds.

You can support the purchase of this important parkland addition by making a tax-deductible gift to the Town of Westport. Checks should be made out to the Town of Westport, attention Dean Grosskopf, Treasurer, noting it is a Parkland donation. Donors will receive a donation acknowledgement for their gift.

Thank you again to Steve and Marianne Schlecht, the Town of Westport, and our Groundswell supporters for making this important conservation project possible. We could not have done it without you!

Groundswell is growing and we have two exciting career opportunities to share! We’re hiring a full-time Easement Stewardship Manager and a full-time Technical Assistance & Outreach Manager. These roles are great chances to join a successful nonprofit and help protect special places forever where diverse people and communities can thrive.

The Easement Stewardship Manager plays an important role in stewarding Groundswell’s 79 conservation easements. This position is responsible for annual conservation easement monitoring and resolving easement issues and approvals.

The Technical Assistance and Outreach Manager plays an important role in supporting HMoob farmers in Wisconsin. This person will work closely with Groundswell’s Community Director and grant partners to provide technical assistance and outreach to HMoob farmers.

As with all staff at Groundswell, theses employees will help build lasting relationships with people and partners that enable us to create a world where everyone can enjoy nature and equitable access to land.

Both positions are salaried with paid benefits including health and dental insurance, annual and sick leave, and retirement.

Check out the full job descriptions to learn more and for directions on how to apply. Applications for the Easement Stewardship Manager position are due by January 9,  2023. Applications for the Technical Assistance and Outreach Manager position are due by January 15, 2023.

Good news! Today we protected 180 acres of prairie and oak savanna habitat in the Town of New Glarus. This was made possible by the generous donation of a private conservation easement by landowners Kris and Penny Kubly.

The Four Oaks Farm Conservation Easement protects remnant prairie and oak savanna habitat, extensive restored prairie, and approximately 2,350 feet of streambank on Legler School Branch. Quality sedge meadows, emergent marsh, and oak woodlands are also now protected forever. Together, these habitats host numerous rare, threatened, and endangered plant and animal species.

The Kublys have been active and attentive in caring for this land for many years. That’s why they took the extra step to ensure their hard work restoring and managing this landscape lasts forever. Kris and Penny established a land management endowment which will help fund land management and restoration of the property in perpetuity. Groundswell will work with the landowners (and all future landowners) to ensure the property continues to be managed with the care and attention that the Kublys have shown.

We thank Kris and Penny Kubly for their dedication to protecting this land. We also thank Groundswell supporters like you.

Groundswell continues to improve access to Westport Prairie and to restore the prairie landscape for plants and wildlife. To care for our restored prairies and to mow our new trails, we are raising funds for our first tractor (~$25,000) and pull-behind mower (~$2,500), including insurance and maintenance.

We’re planning to buy these items used, so the kind of tractor and mower will depend on what we find available on the market. Here’s an example of a tractor and mower we’re interested in purchasing.

Give today in support of a tractor and mower! You can give online (indicate in the gift notes: for tractor) or mail a check to Groundswell at 303 S. Paterson St, suite 6, Madison, WI 53703. Indicate in the check memo: for tractor.

To date, we’ve raised $13,529 for the tractor and mower thanks to these generous donors:

• Phyllis Davis
• Green Bay Packers Foundation
• Stan Kanter
• Cathy Schmitz
• Cathy Schmitz’s Facebook fundraiser

The tractor and mower will be instrumental in our efforts to restore and care for Westport Prairie.

Of the original 64,000-acre Empire Prairie that historically covered much of Dane and Columbia Counties, there are only 202 acres left that are protected. This huge loss of prairie habitat has led to dwindling populations of native plants, insects, and animals.

Westport Prairie is a 227-acre wildlife area in Waunakee, WI managed by Groundswell. It is open to the public for recreation with 1.5 miles of hiking trails. It is also part of the Empire Prairie State Natural Area that preserves approximately 100 native plant species—some endangered—and many types of grassland birds. Each year, Groundswell converts more and more agricultural land to prairie at this special place for the benefit of people and the biodiversity Dane County.

We are in year 4 of an ambitious 14-year plan to convert a total of 170 acres of land to native prairie using local-genotype prairie seed. This type of seed is well adapted to the region and has a high chance of seeding success. As we continue to plant more prairies, we need proper equipment to manage the land and ensure that the prairie habitats we’ve planted continue to thrive well into the future. Groundswell would like to purchase a tractor to help us with the long-term land management at Westport Prairie.

If you have questions about the tractor/mower, please contact BJ at bj@groundswellconservancy.org.

We’re in the midst of the holiday season and I couldn’t think of a better reason to get out and explore nature.  Whether you’re finally finishing up the turkey leftovers in the fridge or getting ready to start decorating your yard with lights and snowmen, you should take a short break and go for a hike.  You probably won’t see any flowers blooming or warblers singing, but there’s still a world of beauty waiting for you out there, so let’s check it out!

One of the more peculiar flowers to set seed in the fall is thimbleweed.  Its cotton or cloud-like fluff contains dozens of seeds nestled within.  If you hold the fluff up to the sun, you can even see the individual seeds inside.  It’s one of my favorite plant species to collect seed from in the fall because of how soft it is and it can remain on the plant all winter!

If you have spent just about any amount of time outside lately, you probably have noticed the chatty squirrels.  Red squirrels in particular can be very vocal and are often seen chasing off other species of squirrel that are twice their size.  They are extremely territorial which makes sense if you think about how much of their time is spent storing nuts and seeds so they have a food source to survive the winter.

Most of the colors that you experience towards the end of fall tend to be a little less vibrant than when fall is just beginning, so when you come across a patch of plants that are clementine orange and cherry red, your jaw just drops.  That’s what happened to me last week while out on a hike with my family.  I actually stopped in my tracks to investigate what was going on.

It turns out, the plant is a twining vine called American bittersweet and it is in fact sweet!  I have a bad habit of tasting things that I find in nature and after tasting these sweet berries my wife Carolyn informed me that they are in fact poisonous.  That’s why I keep her around!  So if you find some American bittersweet on your next hike, it’s best to simply admire the colors rather than the taste.

Lastly, I’ll leave you with something to look forward to when spring rolls around.  Did you know that now is one of the best times of year to plant a prairie?  In fact, we just planted 5.5 acres out at Westport Prairie this week.  Many prairie plant species require a process called stratification.  Simply put, this process involves sowing seeds in the late fall or winter so that they are exposed to the cold for several months.  Once the seeds have gone through this cold period, they are ready to germinate come spring.

Well, I hope you enjoyed my virtual tour of nature as it’s happening.  However you experience the outdoors or nature, be it physical, virtual, spiritual, or anything in between, I encourage you to do it!

*Did you miss an article?  Check out my collection of past monthly Nature Now articles on our website HERE.  Just click the dropdown menu ‘Any Type of News’ and change to ‘Nature Now’ to filter the articles.

See you next month!

We cannot thank you enough for making #GivingTuesday such a big success!

You were part of a huge outpouring of support. Thank you for showing how much you care about local conservation.

You helped raise $26,682 to support conservation where you live. An anonymous donor matched your generosity dollar-for-dollar, bringing our total to $53,365! (As of 11/30/22)

Your gift will help protect special places in our community, connect kids with nature, provide equitable access to land, restore wildlife habitat, act on the climate crisis, and so much more.

Thank you again for being part of this special day of giving.

#GivingTuesday is your chance to honor local land with a gift to Groundswell.

Every gift made on #GivingTuesday will be DOUBLED thanks to an anonymous donor! Your donation of $50 becomes $100, $100 becomes $200, $200 becomes $400, and so on.

Click here to DOUBLE YOUR GIFT!

#GivingTuesday is the perfect time to support conservation where you live. By donating today, you’re helping conserve wildlife habitat, connect people to nature, provide equitable access to land, and much more.

You can also give by phone by calling 608-258-9797. Or you can mail a check to 303 S. Paterson St., Suite 6, Madison, WI 53703. Please include a note indicating your gift is part of #GivingTuesday.

Thank you for caring about special places!

Hiking at Patrick Marsh just got more accessible (and less muddy) thanks to local Boy Scout Nick Parks! Nick, of Boy Scout Troop 47, recently extended a boardwalk by ~35 feet for his Eagle Scout Project. The boardwalk covers a muddy section of trail near the south entrance of Patrick Marsh. Thanks to the hard work of Nick and a crew of volunteers, visitors will have an easier time traversing this section of path.

Check out more photos from the boardwalk build here.

Thank you to Groundswell supporters Ann and Ron Semmann and Rex Owens (who gave in memory of his late wife Lynette Owens) for funding this project.

Learn more about how this project happened in this video from Sun Prairie News.