Speakers: Laura Wyatt and Adam Gundlach, Facilities Planning & Management

Description: The Lakeshore Nature Preserve encompasses 300+ acres of the 936-acre UW-Madison campus, protecting a complex matrix of forests, prairies, wetlands, and former savanna ecosystems as an urban ecology field station. Situated on ancestral lands of the Ho-Chunk Nation, the land has been part of the four lakes region known as Teejop (day Jope) since time immemorial. The Preserve includes 4.3 miles of Lake Mendota’s shoreline from Muir Woods on the east, along University Bay to the Class of 1918 Marsh, and out to the tip of Picnic Point; from Biocore prairie and Frautschi Point to Eagle Heights Woods at the west boundary of campus.

Located steps away from lecture halls on the UW-Madison Campus, the Preserve provides hands-on-experiential learning opportunities for students, faculty, and citizen scientists.

Our presentation will provide a glimpse of the Preserve’s past and share how the Preserve currently shelters natural environments and cultural resources while facilitating its use as a living classroom for teaching and research needs as well as serving as a place of respite and well-being. We will close with a glimpse into future planning in the Wisconsin forward tradition.