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
