Community Science

Dried out Ghost Pipes are always something interesting to find in the forest. During seed set and capsule formation, stem dries down to a twig-like stalk with an upturned seed capsule that can persist into the next growing season. What are Ghost Pipes? Ghost Pipes are a plant but they contain no chlorophyll and therefore…

We had a volunteer recognition luncheon on November 6th.  Thanks to the 397 volunteers who logged in 12,635 hours in the last year to support the Nature center and it’s programs. Jim Wroblewski, Deb McRae and Ted Bosch; all shown in the photo, were the three Friends who logged in the most hours last year…

Thank you to the nice human that thought they were doing something kind for wildlife by leaving a large pile of bread next to the trail in the woods.  Unfortunately, it is not a great thing for wildlife to eat. Think about that gluten intolerant friend or family member that can’t eat bread and what…

You may notice cutting of the vegetation on the perimeter of the prairie areas.  We are preparing fire breaks for a burn in the spring. Our goals of the burn is to set back woody species like: 1. Black Walnut (Juglans nigra) a species that contains a chemical called Juglone which controls competition and if…

Construction began on the replacement bird blind on November 3rd. The new bird blind will have a wall with openings at three heights for increased accessibility. There will be two benches and a pergola covering. The long term plan is to extend the boardwalk to the wall and onto the parking lot to complete our…

We thank all the participants, sponsors and, volunteers who made Cider Sunday a success this year. You can check out some of the activities at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrRSNQLPMgE

We thank the Hunger Task Force Farm for the pumpkins and thank Kohls, MAID and the Froedtert imaging department for the great effort in pumpkin carving this year. We completed the job in record time.

We had great weather and participation at Halloween Haunts this year. We had over 880 visitors and raised over $9400 for Wehr (which is a bunch for us!).  Survey feedback included these comments:  “Everything was perfect, will return! My kids loved it! The volunteers put in a lot of effort to make this a great…

There have been some questions about the little black bags along the trails. They are buckthorn baggies. We began using them last year in an effort to reduce our herbicide use. Before the baggies there were two ways to remove a buckthorn, we could pull it out or cut it down and apply a herbicide.…