A Gift to Your Land
By Denise Thornton This holiday season, have you considered adding a present under the tree for your land? If your woodland, wetland or grassland had…
Category Wildlife
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Rights-of-Way: Navigating Infrastructure Development and Habitat Preservation
Like many landowners who are working to create wildlife habitat or a refuge for insects like monarch butterflies, the maintenance practices that power companies employ beneath their lines can feel frustrating — even painful. However, the interface of power company rights-of-way and potential native habitat is a national issue with exciting possibilities for land management with ecological goals in place.
Invertebrates – Our Most Important Wildlife
By Denise Thornton Many landowners want to encourage wildlife on their property, but perhaps the most overlooked and yet crucial types of wildlife are…
Discovering Wildlife and Forest Management: The Wisconsin Coverts Project Workshop
By Denise Thornton For land owners looking to jumpstart their understanding and explore more options on how to manage their woodlands, the Wisconsin Coverts Project…
Time to Test Your Knowledge: Wisconsin Woodlands and Wildlife Quiz
As a Wisconsin woodland owner, it’s important to have a good understanding of the trees and wildlife that inhabit your land. Whether you’re interested in…
Are YOU a Scientist?
By Denise Thornton Many Wisconsin landowners—the concerned and the curious—are joining the growing ranks of citizen scientists (CS) who collect information about their property to…
Is Light Pollution Affecting the Wildlife in My Woods?
By Emily Oyos Star-gazing has been a favorite pastime for millennia, but these days, it often seems like stars are growing dimmer and decreasing in…
Getting Used to Changes Lately
September 18— Like last year, the summer is still lingering in the Kickapoo Valley and the garden flowers are showing their last blossoms. There’s still…
Our Favorite Bird ID Apps
“It’s a bird…it’s a plane…it’s…well, shoot, now it’s gone. That was a neat bird! I wonder what it was.” It seems like we’ve all had…
Muralt, Mississippi, and This Waning Summer
The new normal for me is getting comfortable with the expanding unpredictability of this region’s weather. I had convinced myself that the spring drought would…
Spring in the Kickapoo Valley
It’s been a beautiful spring—strange yet beautiful as springtime always is. It was strange that March and April seemed to trade places on the calendar.…
Departures and Happy Spring Returns
It’s become almost impossible to predict what spring will bring or when it will come in earnest. February’s sub-zero temperatures gave little hope for an…
Messengers Matter
By Steve Swenson, Program Director As a teenager, Peggy Timmerman would have characterized her mother’s interest in nature as over-enthusiastic. Plants individually labelled…
Winter Raptors Signal Spring
These January days are cold and the nights even colder, but the promise of spring is in the air, in spite of the frigid temperatures.…
Improve Wildlife Habitat on Your Land with the Wisconsin Young Forest Partnership
A few years after cutting aspen (aka popple), it is impossible to tell that this spot had a timber harvest. Aspen and other young forest…
Leave it to the Beavers?
Beavers are big-time engineers and their dams help curb erosion and slow flood waters. Usually, they are more beneficial than harmful, but occasionally their tree-cutting…
QUIZ: Can you ID these Tracks?
Hikes on freshly fallen snow reveal the non-human dwellers of your woods. But can you identify who has hiked your path before you? Can you…
Interested in Improving Deer Habitat on Your Land?
This workshop has been cancelled until further notice. We are asking landowners interested in attending to let us know if they would prefer a fall…
Deer Management Program a Resource for Landowners
If you are managing land in Wisconsin, then you’re already dealing with the impacts that white-tailed deer have on your landscape. The Wisconsin DNR Deer…
Host a Trail Cam for Snapshot Wisconsin
Snapshot Wisconsin is a volunteer-based wildlife monitoring project utilizing a network of trail cameras. The project recently launched statewide and is looking for additional volunteers.…
Polar Vortex Effects? Spring Will Soon Tell
Area landowners have shepherded their properties through two distinct winters this year, the first almost too mild to deserve the title, abruptly pivoting on January…
Snapshot Wisconsin: Candid Camera for Critters
Doug and I have been taking care of our 44 acres since 2003, and I still find myself getting a chill to realize that I…
Is Winter Bird Feeding Good for Birds?
Many people feed birds during winter, believing they’re engaging in an activity that is good for them as well as for the birds. Yet, while…
Attract the Right Bird, Build the Right House.
Winter is coming to an end, which means the return of migratory birds is not far away. As thousands of birds make their way back…
Opossum, Raccoon and Skunk, Oh My!
Do you know the track marks of the animals on your land? Take our quiz to find out. Each year, after the midwinter blizzards, there…
Building Bat Houses Builds a Better Life for Bats
Putting up bat houses this summer can help bats that survived white-nose syndrome raise their young, according to Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Conservation Biologists.…
Quiz: Hairy Versus Downy Woodpeckers?
You’ve likely spied a couple of different woodpeckers visiting your feeder this winter. But can you tell the species apart? The colors and patterning of…
How Do Small Birds Survive a Long Winter?
By Stan Temple Ever wonder how the black-capped chickadee and other small birds survive a long winter? Small birds are at a particular disadvantage during…
Wisconsin Breeding Bird Atlas Releases Latest Findings
Wisconsin’s volunteer-based, five-year survey to understand which birds nest here and how bird populations are changing released its second season of findings at the end…
Bold Moves, Oak, and Deer – Nice Deer
“I can’t believe you destroyed your woods.” Rick’s neighbor just couldn’t contain his opinion. Recalling the exchange about the harvest, Rick’s shallow smile belied the…