by Katie Cervenka | Feb 16, 2026 | Conservation, Staff Updates
People who care deeply for the Driftless Area often find their way here through different paths, but share a common commitment to stewardship, community, and the land itself. Rickey Chernik, Kathy Moody-Cefalu, and Gene Schriefer each bring unique experiences and perspectives shaped by their personal and professional lives, and by a shared belief in caring for this landscape.
Rickey Chernik grew up in southern Wisconsin and formed a deep connection to the Driftless Area through his family ties and life in Iowa County. As a trail runner and owner of Driftless Endurance, he creates events that highlight the region’s terrain and help people experience it firsthand. With a background in events, marketing, and operations, he is passionate about building trails, supporting the Driftless Trail, and connecting people to the outdoors. He lives in Middleton with his family and is grateful to be part of a community that cares for this place.
Kathy Moody-Cefalu brings a lifelong connection to the Driftless Area, where her family roots run deep and where she now helps care for prairie, woodland, and wildlife habitat alongside her husband and parents. She spent her career with TDS Telecom, retiring as Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, and holds degrees from the University of Wisconsin–Platteville and Edgewood College. Kathy and her husband live on Lake Wisconsin, enjoying time with their children and grandchildren and continuing their commitment to caring for the land.
Gene Schreifer’s passion for farming began on his grandmother’s small New Jersey farm and led him to the Midwest, where he and his family purchased land in Iowa County in 1984. Guided by a philosophy of improving the land while making a living, he restored the farm’s health, increasing soil resilience, wildlife, and productivity. Gene spent much of his career with University of Wisconsin Extension and as a grazing specialist, later serving as Executive Director of the Farm Service Agency. Today, he and his wife continue to raise sheep and grass-finished beef on their restored Driftless farm.
Together, these three new board members reflect the diverse experiences and shared dedication that sustain the Driftless Area. Through recreation, professional leadership, and agricultural stewardship, each contributes to a future where the land remains healthy, productive, and deeply connected to the people who call it home.
by Katie Cervenka | Feb 15, 2026 | Conservation, Land Management, Staff Updates
February Notes from the Field: Written by Stephanie Judge, Conservation Director
While I know February can be a tough month for many, I love the winter, and I love it most when we have snow! Of course I appreciate snow for many of the traditional reasons – it’s fun for kids to play outside, it’s easier to enjoy winter sports, and it brightens what are otherwise some of our darkest days of the year. But, I also love snow (and cold) because it helps us accomplish important land restoration work!
As climate change brings warmer, less predictable winters, we’re increasingly challenged to conduct timber harvests on frozen ground or to burn piles of invasive shrubs. Happily, the winter of 2025/2026 has provided excellent conditions for many of these important activities.
Winter is also a time for site reconnaissance and planning. Frozen ground helps us walk across wetlands without sinking knee deep in muck, scout distances across sites when no leaves block our views, and get out to see land without bugs seeing us.
At Wild Oaks Preserve in Dane County, which will open to the public later this year, DALC and our site partners, the BadgerLand Foundation, removed over 500 black walnut trees where we’re restoring savanna and prairies. Income from the harvest will help fund ongoing work at the site, including a pending hydrological restoration that will re-meander a stream and fill ditches in a previously drained wetland.
Black Walnut harvest at Wild Oaks Preserve.
Photo by Stephanie Judge.
At Erickson Conservation Area in Argyle, where an old plantation of swamp white oaks and tamarack trees was planted back in the ‘90s, we thinned 7 acres into what will eventually become a more naturalized swamp white oak savanna.
Erickson Conservation Area BEFORE thinning.
Photo by Stephanie Judge.
Erickson Conservation Area AFTER thinning.
Photo by Stephanie Judge.
And, elsewhere at Erickson, we gathered with volunteers to burn brush piles collected in past years. On this day – the last of January’s intense cold – we enjoyed the sunny 15 degree conditions along with chili heated to boiling in a cast iron pot on the coals.
DALC staff & volunteers warm up by a fire with chili.
Photo by Stephanie Judge.
Thank you to my colleague Shannon for that wonderful treat, and trick, that she learned while stewarding York Prairie State Natural Area near her New Glarus home!
Whether you’re “a winter person” or not, we know this season has been difficult for all of us as individuals, for our communities and for our country. We also know that “hope springs eternal,” and by this late date in February, the days are getting longer, the natural world is waking up, and we can all feel a little more energy to keep going and keep working toward brighter days and a better future. Thank you for all you do to support your neighbors and communities, including this Driftless community. We SO appreciate you!
Written by Stephanie Judge
DALC Conservation Director
by Katie Cervenka | Feb 5, 2026 | Conservation, Land Management, Staff Updates
We are excited to welcome Kevin Mason to the Driftless Area Land Conservancy team as our new Preserves Manager!
Kevins first came to Wisconsin to attend Lawrence University, and aside from a brief chapter in the Pacific Northwest, the state has been home ever since. Over the years, he has built a career centered on restoring landscapes and helping people connect to them in meaningful ways. Most recently, Kevin spent nearly eight years working with Quercus Land Stewardship Services, where he partnered with private landowners, municipalities, and public agencies to design and carry out ecological restoration projects across southern Wisconsin.
At DALC, Kevin oversees the management and monitoring of our nature preserves and Driftless Trail segments. His work helps guide these lands towards long term ecological health through practices such as prescribed fire, grazing, and other restoration tools. Just as important, Kevin works closely with partners and staff to ensure stewardship efforts are collaborative, thoughtful, and grounding in care for both the land and the people who experience it.
Kevin is especially drawn to stewarding publicly accessible lands and to the many ways people form connections with natural places. He believes those relationships strengthen individual and community wellbeing, and a perspective that aligns closely with DALC’s mission.
Outside of work, Kevin enjoys spending time outdoors hiking, camping, paddling, skiing, and biking, often alongside his family. He is also a musician and songwriter who finds inspiration in the natural world, and on clear nights, he can sometimes be found in his backyard gazing at distant galaxies through a telescope.
“I love that the Driftless Area can surprise even lifelong Midwesterners. It is an utterly unique ecological and cultural landscape with many nooks and crannies and hidden surprises. I love watching a half frozen stream gurgle through a valley in the winter, or a bluff prairie bursting with color in July.”
We are grateful to welcome Kevin to DALC, and look forward to the care, curiosity, and leadership he will bring to our preserves and trails across the Driftless Area!
by Katie Cervenka | Jan 20, 2026 | Connect with Nature, Monthly Updates, Staff Updates
January Notes from the Field: Written by Katie Cervenka, Communications & Development Associate
Recently, the DALC team found ourselves in a conversation during a staff meeting: Do we believe in New Year’s resolutions? Did anyone make one? Has anyone actually kept one?
The answers were honest and a little funny. Some of us love lists, writing things down, mapping out goals, checking boxes as the year unfolds. Others admitted that the moment they tell themselves they have to do something, they immediately want to do it less. A few people discussed choosing a word for the year, creating a bingo card of hopes, or setting intentions rather than making strict resolutions.
What we all agreed on was this. We don’t really make resolutions, but we do believe in reflection, setting our sights forward, and growth.
That conversation stuck with me.
Because it is January. I am still the same Katie. I work the same job. I drink the same coffee when I come into the DALC office. I love the same things. By all outward measures, nothing has changed.
But this time of year still invites me to pause, to name what I hope for, and to set intentions for how I want to move through the months ahead. And alongside those goals, I find myself turning to the land we protect.
Here in the Driftless Area, we are all reminded that change does not arrive all at once. It happens slowly and quietly, season by season. Even what looks like an ending, last year’s grasses burned to ash, becomes the beginning of something new as nutrients return to the soil and make room for fresh growth.
At DALC, we may not all write down New Year’s resolutions, but we do share a commitment that guides everything we do. A commitment to conservation, to permanently protect the land, water, and wildlife that make this place so special. A commitment to care, to steward these special places so they remain healthy, diverse, and resilient for generations to come. And a commitment to connection, to bring people into a relationship with the Driftless and with one another.
Like the land itself, our work is not about quick fixes or flashy promises. It is about tending something meaningful over time, sometimes beginning in the ashes of what came before. As we move together this year, we will keep doing what we have always done. Protecting places, restoring habitats, and building a community rooted in Southwest Wisconsin. No resolutions required.
Written by Katie Cervenka
DALC Communications & Development Associate
katiec@driftlessconservancy.org
by Katie Cervenka | Nov 3, 2025 | 25th Anniversary, Staff Updates
Welcome to Our New Website!
We’re so excited to welcome you to our new online home!
This redesign has been a labor of love, and we’re beyond grateful to Sarah Shumaker at Minocha Design Co. for her incredible work and generous teachings throughout this process. Sarah brought not only her creative brilliance but also a deep understanding of how to build a site that feels true to who we are. We could not have done this without her.
We also want to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone who graciously reviewed the site during its development. Your thoughtful feedback and honest insights helped shape this space into something we’re truly proud of. It means the world to have a community that shows up with care and intention.
We invite you to explore this new site! Check out what’s new, revisit what you love, and find fresh ways to get involved. Whether you’re here to learn more, connect, or contribute, we hope this space feels welcoming and inspiring.
Thanks for being part of this journey. We are so glad you’re here.
by DALC Staff | Jun 23, 2025 | Staff Updates
This farm boy from southeast Wisconsin grew up surrounded by the gently rolling hills of the Kettle Moraine landscape. That viewshed, along with the ubiquitous rounded fieldstones and smooth, “polished” gravel, is unmistakable evidence of the tremendous power of the glaciers that shaped that land. To me, this was the Wisconsin countryside.
But life moves on. As a young man studying at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, my trusty Honda 305 Scrambler and I ventured west of campus into a new, enthralling landscape of high bluffs, deep coulees, and striking road cuts featuring sharply angular limestone. This biosphere – untouched by glaciers – enchanted me. Now, our home nestled in the Driftless continues to be a decades-long blessing, made even sweeter by my unexpected second career with Driftless Area Land Conservancy.
After almost nine years, it is now time for me to hang up my DALC cap. It’s truly been a privilege to contribute my small part as a team member of folks I’ve always described as smarter and more talented than me. (Somehow, they have kept me around nevertheless!) Through this work, I’ve met hundreds of hard-working conservation-minded folks and have worked directly with many of you. I’m deeply appreciative of your thoughtful and dedicated efforts to protect this special place.
Conservation work, of course, is driven by the need to protect and enhance our environment for generations to come. Some of my most rewarding work has been in connecting with that upcoming generation in all five Iowa County high schools. The energy and enthusiasm of these young folks is an inspiration and a reassurance that we can indeed be successful in building a bright future. I’m grateful that DALC will continue engaging with students; and I’ll be tagging along as a volunteer.
We often state that the Driftless Area is a unique treasure. Need evidence? Just take a walk anywhere in the driftless landscape and open your eyes. Almost for certain, you will find a sight that comforts the soul. With your help, the Driftless Area Land Conservancy will continue building a legacy of environmental stewardship that will help sustain this treasure for generations to come.
Thank you. We are so grateful to have you as a partner in this important work. Carry on!
Written by Chuck Tennessen, Climate & Energy Coordinator
