Conservation Leadership Corps Travels to Wisconsin for Confluence of Young Conservation Leaders

On October 20th, eight of the Conservation Leadership Corps (CLC) students drove up to beautiful Poynette, Wisconsin for the third Confluence of Young Conservation Leaders (CYCL). Upon arrival, we settled into our rooms at the Mackenzie Environmental Education Center. Following the arrival of the other states and dinner, we listened to a welcome presentation by CYCL coordinator, Molly O’Grady. Then we met via zoom with the founder of Access Ability Wisconsin, Monica Spaeni. Access Ability Wisconsin is a nonprofit organization that rents all-terrain outdoor wheelchairs for the disabled so that they can enjoy the outdoors with loved ones for free. This program allows those with disabilities to be involved in outdoor activities such as hunting, fishing, and hiking. We hope to bring a program like this back to Missouri!

The next day we drove to the Aldo Leopold shack and foundation where we learned more about Aldo Leopold and his family. We were able to tour his property that his family would use as a retreat from their home in Madison. We were shown pictures of the kids growing up at the shack, restoration projects, and even got to sit in the shack!

After the tour, we were able to visit the gift shop, eat lunch, and then we headed off for the International Crane Foundation! Upon arrival at the International Crane Foundation (ICF) we were shown a video explaining current crane conservation efforts and how ICF was founded. Throughout our tour at ICF we were able to visit all 15 wild crane species in the world! We learned how endangered whooping cranes are and the progress made for their re-establishment in the wild. In addition, we learned how severely imprinting can impact a crane.

One of the Gray-crowned Cranes on site was imprinted on as a chick and now thinks she is a human, so she was not afraid of us at all. Following the ICF tour, we visited their gift shop and loaded on the buses to Devil’s Lake State Park.

Devil’s Lake receives thousands of visitors each year and is one of the most popular natural sites in Wisconsin. While at Devil’s Lake, we played on the beach of the lake, hiked, and explored, which was a great chance for us to get to know some of the other students from other states. Some hikes were rockier and involved more climbing while others were more scenic and had millions of tiny yellow sugar maple saplings just waiting to get a glimpse of sunlight to grow.

Also, while at Devil’s Lake, we had the opportunity to ride one of the all-terrain wheelchairs provided by Access Ability Wisconsin. After taking a quick photo, we loaded up the buses and departed for Mackenzie Environmental Education Center for dinner. For dinner, we got the opportunity to experience a Wisconsin fish fry and try Wisconsin cheese curds! Following dinner, we had free time which included exploring Mackenzie Environmental Education Center, playing cards, or getting to know one another around a bonfire!

The next morning, we departed for the Three Waters Reserve Ecological Restoration Site, where we heard from one of the founders, Steve Apfelbaum. Steve informed us that the site used to be a private country club golf course that now serves as a prairie, wetland, and savanna restoration site. The goal of the site is to return the land to its natural state before it became a golf course.

We discussed financial, ecological, and social issues that the restoration of the site has faced and how they have overcome those issues. We were able to walk around the site from the savanna to the prairie and onto the wetland section. While on our walk, we learned about some of the native flora and fauna of Wisconsin, including little bluestem, Kentucky wild rye, Canada wild rye, white oaks, bee balm, and many more!

Three Waters Reserve features venues for weddings and events, trails with overlooks, and culinary services. Before leaving Three Waters, we had the opportunity to eat lunch provided by Three Waters’s private chef. It was delicious!

That afternoon, we arrived at the University of Wisconsin’s Arboretum, where we spoke with Dr. Karen Oberhauser, who studies monarch butterfly recovery. We began our tour by having a brief discussion in the Visitor's Center about the history and mission of the Arboretum. Dr. Oberhauser informed us that the University of Wisconsin’s Arboretum is the birthplace of Ecological Restoration. The Arboretum hosts many restored land types, including tall grass prairies, savannas, wetlands, a variety of forest types, tree collections, and a lilac collection. We also discussed the issue of racial and cultural diversity in conservation and how to increase diversity in the Arboretum and other workplaces.

Following the discussion, we began our tour of the site by walking through the crab apple collection each with a tag attached to the tree’s binomial name, common name, and family. Then we started our hike into the woods, where we learned about the Arboretum’s many natural springs that connect to Lake Wingra. We also learned about the various sacred mounds on the site and how they are protected. Many of them have been there for hundreds of years!

After our hike through the woods, we walked through several more tree collections, including the conifers which were my personal favorite. We then got a tour through the tall grass prairie portion of the site where we learned about some of the land management taking place. After our tour we loaded the buses and headed back to Mackenzie Environmental Education Center.

After dinner that evening, we participated in a round table discussion where we talked about our takeaways from the weekend and overall thoughts about this year’s CYCL event. The rest of the evening we had free time, which included hiking the various trails of Mackenzie, star gazing, playing cards, or sitting around a bonfire. The following day, we cleaned up Mackenzie and packed up the vans.

But just before we left, we had the opportunity to visit some of the animals that the Mackenzie Environmental Education Center houses on-site including wolves, deer, bison, Ring-necked Pheasants, a Bald Eagle, Turkey Vultures, Barred Owls, Great Horned Owls, foxes, cottontails, Ravens, and Redtailed Hawks. Then we set off to go back home to Missouri.

Throughout our trip, we learned more about other state’s conservation practices, built a network of conservation connections, experienced the landscape, flora and fauna of Wisconsin, and built on leadership and career skills. I highly enjoyed going to CYCL this year and can’t wait to go the next CYCL event!