DALC's Summer-Fall Newsletter is Here!
The days feel like summer, the nights feel like fall, and DALC's newsletter is here to celebrate it all! This edition features stories of great collaborations that resulted in amazing work - from the fledging of baby bluebirds, to a huge legal victory for land protection, to the creation of a brand-new Ambassador Property - and much more! Hard copies will be hitting mailboxes soon, but in the meantime, you can read the digital version here. If you don't currently receive a print copy but would like to, please contact Angie.
Prescribed Fire Career Opportunity in the Driftless
Pheasants Forever in Wisconsin is seeking a Prescribed Burn Coordinator to promote, coordinate, and support the safe and effective use of prescribed fire on private and public lands across southwest Wisconsin. This position will work in close collaboration with the Southern Driftless Grasslands partnership. Find more information and details on how to apply here!
Don't Miss the Savanna Institute's Perennial Farm Gathering
The Savanna Institute will host its Perennial Farm Gathering in-person this year from Sunday, October 6th to Tuesday, October 8th in Madison. Free farm tours will be offered at its farm campus in Spring Green on Saturday, October 5th, where you can visit DALC at a table we'll be hosting!
In its 12th consecutive year, this event is a vital opportunity for farmers, foresters, chefs, Indigenous leaders, activists, researchers, policymakers, and investors to network and learn about the resources needed to perennialize our food system. Learn more and get tickets today!
Just Published: "A Creek Runs Through This Driftless Land"
Dick Cates, sustainable grass-fed beef farmer and former DALC board member, has just published a book! "A Creek Runs Through This Driftless Land" is described as "the remarkable journey of the Cates Family Farm and the people who have learned through the lessons of experience to live in harmony with their landscape." The book is available at Little Creek Press, or you can reach out to Dick directly for a signed copy. He will also be doing a signing with Arcadia Books in Spring Green this Sunday, September 29 from 3:00-4:30 pm.
Evenings Afield: Preserving and Enjoying Dark Skies
This is the final Evenings Afield of 2024! Experience dark, starry skies and discover simple steps we can all take to conserve them for future generations, like installing smart downward facing lighting. We will see a full Hunter's Moon, Saturn, and many constellations. This free event is from 6-8p.m. on Thursday, October 17, at the Savanna Institute South Farm near Spring Green. Register now!
Volunteer Opportunities
Head outside and make a difference! Join our outdoor workdays:
Weekends at Wild Oaks: 1st and 3rd Saturdays of the month. Upcoming dates: 10/5, 10/19
Sundays at Sardeson: 3rd Sundays of the month. Upcoming dates: 10/10
Wednesdays at the Wetland: 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of the month. Upcoming dates: 10/2, 10/16
Driftless Trail Workdays: 1st Sundays of the month. Upcoming dates: 10/6
Find more details and let us know you're coming at our Volunteer page.
Notes From the Field
Our land protection team has been busy with conservation easement monitoring and have some awesome reflections to share from their experiences - so this month we've lucked out with TWO Notes from the Field!
From Hannah Ornelles:
We've officially made it to the tail end of our easement monitoring season, a wonderful and chaotic time when I visit every corner of our operating region in pursuit of monitoring our portfolio of over 50 conservation easements! It is also one of my favorite times of the year, allowing me to connect with the land in ways I can't from behind a desk, and I'd like to use this edition of Notes from the Field to thank our conservation easement landowners. You welcome me into your homes, let me love on your pets and farm animals, and show me over and over that I have the world's best job!
Thank you for driving me around in your UTVs, accompanying me on hikes, and providing conversation on topics as meandering as the trails themselves. I SO appreciate your patience and willingness to share your knowledge of plants, animals, and land management. As a newcomer to the Driftless, I still have much to learn but I can tell your knowledge is rubbing off on me! On weekend dog walks and bike rides, I suddenly find myself pointing out plant species, naming habitat types, and commenting on how prescribed fire "could really transform that landscape" to anyone who listens. Luckily, my husband is a good sport about it!
Your commitment to conservation and work on this land never ceases to amaze me, especially during a year of unpredictable weather. It's a special joy to marvel at your prairies in full bloom, hear epic stories of cicada swarms and monstrous storms, and see those 200 tiny new oaks you planted thriving. I revel in your management successes and learn alongside you in your mistakes.
Thank you for sharing the delicious parts of your land with me. You show me how to forage mushrooms in your woods, let me munch berries fresh off your vines, and load me down with pounds of vegetables from your gardens. I promise these treasures never go to waste!
Most of all, thank you for lending me your land for the day. I learn more from it, and you, than words can express and I leave every monitoring visit more inspired to protect this incredibly special corner of the world!
Happy Trails,
Hannah
Conservation Coordinator
~
From Stephanie Judge:
Recently I took a sauntering stroll in the woods. Now mind you, I don’t typically saunter or stroll. I speed walk through each site visit, each task, almost never taking time to slow down or really look around. This day was different. It was magical. And I had the joy of sharing this time with Chris Anding, who in 2009 donated a conservation easement on 113 acres in the Town of Arena, Iowa County.
Though this was my first annual easement monitoring visit to Chris’ special spot, I’d known it was renowned for its spring wildflowers. But what a treat we had this late summer day! On the cusp of the autumnal equinox, the sky was clear, the sun was shining, the mosquitos had eased and it was such a privilege to walk with Chris, to look at the plants, listen to the birds and the frogs, and to simply enjoy the day and the conversation.
While spring is such a special time for seeing our natural world wake up again and burst in to bloom, I love the colors of autumn. And I don’t even mean the leaves changing color! We saw asters and goldenrod and lobelia and jewelweed flowering in their late season glory. We saw splashes of red from the berries of Solomon’s plume, jack-in-the pulpits and winterberry shrubs.
Autumn is such an interesting mix of plants finishing this year’s cycle, slowing down, senescing and sending energy back into their roots ahead of going to sleep for winter, even as animals are so busy, never stopping during these shortening days. Racing to get ready for the impending cold, they’re lining nesting cavities with grass, they’re digging new burrows and they’re storing food. And in September, so many baby turtles labor to emerge from the sand where their mothers laid eggs months ago in the heat of July. Now these turtles put all their effort into finding the light, and then finding the nearby water.
Thanks to our sauntering stroll, Chris and I noticed where baby turtles had just hatched out of a sand pile at the base of the cliff along Mill Creek. We noticed the spring peeper frogs and American toads hopping across our paths. We admired the maidenhair ferns and the nettles, the Joe pye weed gone to seed, and the wild ginger and hepatica still looking lovely, months after their bloom. I’m usually scurrying around just like so many of the animals we saw, but sometimes I think I need to cycle my life like these plants, finding sometime throughout the year to pause, to rest, to renew.
In this season of change when so much is inevitably going on around us, I hope you too can take a few moments, or better yet a few hours, to pause, to look, and to listen. Oh yes, and to stroll!
Stephanie Judge
Conservation Director
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