April-August Lakeshore Preserve 2009

By Cathie Bruner, Field Manager

Photo from Picnic Point by Abishek Muralimohan

 Plants come back!

Lot 34, Tent Colony Woods, Frautschi Point shoreline:

Resurgence of desirable species

Spring ephemerals emerged from suppression to blossom forth handsomely in the project areas where students and Audubon interns removed invasive understory in 2007 (top) from the woods below Lot 34 and (middle) from Tent Colony Woods.

Frautschi Point: suppressed oaks begin to thrive in the new light after removal of buckthorn, box elder, ash trees.

  Another big year of volunteering where it is needed

“Love Madison” (and love dandelions): This young man was part of a garlic mustard pull and clean up of Picnic Point on May 3 as part of a “Love Madison” volunteer day by Blackhawk Church.

Garlic mustard work parties advertised on the website, through Friends publications, and local media brought new people to the Preserve. The majority of May and early June labor by volunteers and staff in the Preserve is dedicated to garlic mustard control.

Roma Lenehan and Marcia Schmidt led the Friends organizational effort for another successful Garlic Mustard pull a thon. The generosity of pledgers to support ongoing invasive control made the hard work of the pullers even more worthwhile.

The Garlic mustard pull- a- thon topped off another bumper year of accomplishment led by volunteers of the Friends of the Lakeshore Nature Preserve to control this species and raise money for the Preserve. See the upcoming Preserve newsletter for details!

 Earth Day Volunteer EventsThe student organization and Stewards of the Preserve implemented the first Earth Day Events in the Preserve, with planting days at Willow Creek Woods and Tent Colony Woods.

Honey Bees to Increase Pollination in the Preserve:FHKing Students for Sustainable Agriculture obtained a Preserve permit to install a beehive in “East Savanna”. The location was selected by its distance from routine family activity areas, proximity to water, and the flying distance for pollination of plants in Eagle Heights Gardens, College of Agriculture plots (include the FHKing gardens), and Biocore Prairie. FHKing Student CSA for Eagle Heights: FH King Students for Sustainable agriculture also created a CSA (community supported agriculture program) for Eagle Heights residents.

Very local sustainability for walkers “Back Country” bench:  designed by Daniel Einstein of black locust cut by Grounds staff, milled in the Preserve by Kris Ackerbauer, Bob Falk, Daniel Einstein, finished by UW Carpenters, installed by UWGrounds and Masonry staff on a pedestal of pavers rescued by volunteers under leadership of Steward Tom Helgeson from the Preserve. Three of these benches were made possible by generous donors for the. limited number of bench sites selected for their special views and reflection locations along the Lakeshore Path of the Preserve.

Biocore Prescription burn: May 5 Burn Boss William Muehl and Biocore Lab Manager Seth McGee with the assistance of Grounds and Preserve staff and volunteers carried out prescription burning to accomplish what was desired for Prairie experiments. Left: Emeritus Biocore Director Ann Burgess runs a torch line.

 Fire Expert Volunteers: Seasoned burn managers available to volunteer after the fire season`s end elsewhere facilitated our success. Above: William Mann Below: Gary Gates and Jon Sundby.

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Tree Island Improvements: Eagle Heights Gardens in partnership with the Preserve cleared the honeysuckle and buckthorn from tree islands. Children from the gardens instantly took advantage of the natural play area opened to explore

We replanted sections of the tree groves with bird thicket shrubs and young oaks donated from the Carter Denniston Fund of the Friends of the Lakeshore Nature Preserve.

Oaks and increase of diversity

More oaks and diversity in the Preserve

• We planted two swamp white oaks at the entrance to Picnic Point through donations from the Friends of the Lakeshore Nature Preserve Carter Denniston fund.
• Glenda Denniston successfully fledged new oaks in the Walnut Street Greenhouse (top photo) from acorns collected from the great oaks at the Willow Creek Woods savanna project.
• David Fisher (above planting with Glenda) obtained bare root burr oaks for the Preserve that we planted in areas designated for savanna on the master plan, such as the old field, “East Savanna”.
• Volunteer oaks made headway from the wooded edges of the field and increasingly have the company (below) of savanna species encouraged by Glenda.
• Replacement of Canada and other invasive thistles with native species: Glenda Denniston has added native thistles, in several places, from seed grown in the green house . Field Thistle (Cirsium discolor), Wood thistle (Cirsium altissimum) and Swamp Thistle (Cirsium muticum) all come from seeds from the Brocks' Pleasant Valley Conservancy in Black Earth. We continue to reduce Canada thistle through contracted herbicide applications and by physical methods.

Toad migration: road and gravel areas west of Picnic Point Marsh were covered with thousands of toads the week of June 21. The toads were the so small one thought at first they were crickets, so dense you could barely tiptoe between them. We do not yet know the corridors and patterns of the critters who breed along the shores and in the waters of the Preserve.

Photo by Abishek Muralimohan

Friends of the Lakeshore Nature Preserve

Check out the Friends of the Preserve website and upcoming Preserve! newsletter for more information and for photos on these topics:

Garlic mustard program

Invader Crusader Award

Bills Woods spring bloomers

Frautschi Point

The Wisconsin Council on Invasive Species awarded the 2009 Invader Crusader Award to Roma Lenehan and Glenda Denniston.

 Spring blooming wildflowers made a great displayin the Friends project area of Bills Woods.

Mara McDonald started another year bird banding at Biocore.  

 Sand hill Cranes wander Eagle Heights Gardens eating strawberries as well as foraging in the CALS plots and Biocore Prairie

Photo Glenda Denniston

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