Bridges Spring 2018

SPRING 2018

BRIDGES

Madison Audubon society

Connecting people to conservation in Wisconsin

SHaping the future of conservation

25 years of field trips

family fishing traditions

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BRIDGES • Spring 2018

FROM THE DIRECTOR BOARD OF DIRECTORS Martin Henert, Board Chair Kristine Krause, Vice Chair Linda Bochert, Secretary Mark LaBarbera, Treasurer Dave Adam James P. Bennett Bruce Braun Tom Dott Tim Eisele Kristine Euclide Rebecca Haefner Jim Hubing Diane Humphrey Lueck William Lunney Jim Matras Tom Olson Ron Semmann Bill Smith Jane Wiley Michael Williamson FOUNDATION STAFF Ruth Oppedahl, Executive Director Hibah Ansari, Communications and Programs Assistant Makayla Dehne, Office Assistant Will Dougherty, Field Trip Program Assistant Lauren Koshere, Donor Relations Coordinator John Kraniak, Membership Director Erin Manlick, Office Manager Michelle Milford, Outreach Coordinator Diane Packett, Birdathon Coordinator Nora Simmons, Communications Director Christine Tanzer, Field Trip Coordinator Caitlin Williamson, Director of Conservation Programs Camille Zanoni, Development Director OUR MISSION Connecting generations to the wonders of Wisconsin’s lands, waters, and wildlife through conservation, education, engagement, and giving.

WisConservation.org

Ruth Oppedahl In 2014 we asked a question in a membership survey: “How can NRF be more effective in the future?”

We received 120 responses (almost one third of all respondents) suggesting we support more education and outreach programs. This was an astonishing departure from input received in the past.

Some of the ideas included: • Get the public schools involved with courses in natural resources; • Try to reach people in urban areas and those who don’t know much about the state’s resources; • Expand educational programming for young people—our stewards of the future.

As we started to focus our attention on this, our members and donors rallied to the cause. A couple met with us about setting up a bequest in their will dedicated to education. Other donors augmented the grants made from the Teachers’ Outdoor Environmental Education Fund created by Pete Ostlind. These additional contributions effectively doubled the amount sent out to classroom teachers to pay for buses, substitute teachers, tools, and water test kits, helping more children get outside to learn about Wisconsin’s natural resources. With your support, we became involved in the FIELD Corps program that pairs a biologist facilitating

weekly field experiences with classrooms in urban Milwaukee, rural Poynette, and other parts of Wisconsin. We became supporters of the Wisconsin Association for Environmental Education and attended and sponsored their conferences for educators.

Then in 2017, we had the opportunity to integrate the mission and resources of the Wisconsin Environmental Education Foundation (WEEF) into NRF. This includes the GO (Get Outside) Fund that makes quarterly grants to Wisconsin educators and a new Wisconsin Environmental Education Fund set up by WEEF. Thanks to hard work by Janet Brandt, Randy Champeau, Kathy Kuntz and all the people who founded WEEF, we stepped up our involvement in environmental education and haven’t looked back.

Environmental education is a vibrant movement fueled by youth whose excitement to learn about the world around them inspires adults who truly love nature and see our children as the hope for our future.

In this edition of Bridges, you will hear some of the stories of what we have done together. Thank you for the inspiration, and thank you for your continued support of our education programs.

Ruth Oppedahl, Executive Director

A Moment of Clarity

By Peter and Connie Roop

We looked at each other as the deadly fer de lance, one of the most venomous snakes on Earth, slithered between us while on a Foundation trip to Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula.

“Time to make our will,” we agreed.

In our will, we created the Connie and Peter Roop Fund to help preserve rainforest land in the Osa Peninsula, a place connected to Wisconsin through our migratory birds. The Fund will also provide opportunities for children and adults to participate in environmental field experiences at home in Wisconsin through the Foundation’s Field Trip Program.

Thanks to the fearsome fer de lance we have begun an endowment we

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never dreamed of creating before our time in the Osa and find great joy in the everlasting difference our fund will make.

The Foundation is your connection to creating your own legacy. Whether you leave a gift through your estate plans or create a permanent conservation endowment for a cause close to your heart, the Foundation is here to help make your vision a reality.

Contact Camille Zanoni, development director, at (866) 264-4096 or email Info@WisConservation.org.

Foundation members Peter and Connie Roop visiting their seventh continent on a journey to Antarctica.

Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin

NEWS

Children in Costa Rica learn about birds

Our partners at Osa Conservation in Costa Rica dedicate their work not only to conservation of habitat for migratory birds, but also to environmental education and community engagement.

Like us, they understand that the longterm success of their work depends on the buy-in of their community and, particularly, younger generations.

The Foundation helps support these efforts through grants made from the Bird Protection Fund. Recent funding helped support a program at Aula Verde in which young people were taught to identify and log migratory birds. In December of 2017 these youth participated in the first Junior Christmas Bird Count in Osa. The program reached 165 students from 16 schools who

OSA CONSERVATION

THE Good

Costa Rican students participate in the first Junior Christmas Bird Count.

learned about migratory and local birds and helped record their sightings.

Together they identified 93 difference species and 595 individual birds.

Funding for projects like this is raised largely through the Great Wisconsin

Honorary & memorial gifts

October 31, 2017 through February 14, 2018

The Foundation recognizes gifts made in honor or memory of the following people: In Memory of Bruce Besadny Carne J. Andrews

Barbara Besadny

Sarah Besadny

James and Esther Huntoon

Mark and Erica Peterson In Honor of Discovery Center Bird Club John Heusinkveld In Honor of Janet Brandt

Joyce and Rolland Kiel In Memory of Paul Brandt

Merle and Nancy Biggin In Memory of Bill Brooks

Jane A. Dennis In Honor of Lynn and Dan Bubolz Thomas and Kira Dott In Honor of Lisa Charron

Elizabeth and Joseph Charron In Honor of Joyce Cielecki

Mike Pelech In Honor of Brody, Taylor, and Zack Dion

Nancy Clinton In Honor of Anthony S. Earl Lynn and Tom Hirsch In Memory of Laurie Entringer

Mary Butts In Honor of the Garlock Family

Darren Garlock In Memory of Jack Fischer

James and Sue Meyer In Honor of My Grandkids Larry Newby In Memory of Ruby Grilley

Ms. Cory A. Masiak In Memory of Bronson Haase

Neal and Carla Butenhoff

Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin

In Memory of Leslie Hamilton

Wayne Block In Honor of Devon Hugdahl and Family

Mary B. Sobol In Honor of Mary Korkor The Windhover Foundation In Honor of Michael LaPorte

John Sanchez In Memory of Jackie Macaulay

Stewart Macaulay In Memory of Peg Mallery Cynthia Aucutt

David and Diane Bautsch

John and Barbara Benson Linda Bochert

Scott Brainard

Margaret A. Cargill Foundation

William and Judith Cousineau

Jim and Nancy Curtes

Envision Eyecare LLC

Barbara and Gregory Godbout

Megan Goggin

Robert and Elke Hagge, Jr.

James and Sharel Hubing

Barbara Jondahl

Cathryn Laughlin

Randall and Catherine Lawton Lux Foundation, Inc.

Kathleen Mader

Ryan Mallery Tess Mallery Tuck Mallery

Mallery and Zimmerman SC The Manger Scout Fund

Bob and Betsy Manger Lamar Newburn

William Nietart Tom and Barbara Olson

Susan Payne

Mr. and Mrs. Arthur L. Rice, III

Birdathon—a walk-a-thon-style fundraiser that engages individuals and organizations to raise support and awareness for bird conservation.

Donate or join a team online at WIBirdathon.org.

Rice Family Foundation Lyssa and Andrew Schmidt

Charitable Fund

Dan and Joey Seehafer

William and Elaine Siverling

Robert and Terrie Whitman In Honor of Thomas E. Masson II Thomas Masson In Memory of David Middleton

Wendy Hill In Memory of Barry Mitchell

Colleen Marsden In Memory of Charmaine Mohr

Jodie and Nancy Behnke Theodore A. Bergstrom

Bill and Donna Borzyskowski

Robert and Jean Braun

Bryan and Susan Casper

Don and Ruth Draayers

E.A. Fuerst

Wilma Gorter

Francha and Jack Grandlic

Greater Sheboygan Area

Chapter AHSGR

Keith and Donna Herbst

Carl and Connie Hilbelink

Joe and Angie Hullin

Norman and Barbara Justus

Ray and Sue Kramer Lisa Lehmann

Edwin and Kathleen Livermore

Mary Lutzke

Donald and Jane Lydolph August Margenau

James and Sue Meyer

James Mohr

Michael and Carolyn Morgen

Bob and Beverly Mulder

Jan and Dave Primus

Kathleen Schultz

Crawford and Pat Smith

Emma Thieme

Ken and Alice Walter

Penny Weber

Carol Zoran In Honor of Thomas Mowbray

Charles and Carolyn Mowbray In Honor of Wisconsin’s Natural Wetlands

Ms. Lynn Persson In Honor of The Natural World

Kathleen Henning

In Honor of the Susan Ollech Family

Robert and Janet Ollech In Honor of Harriet and Fred Pfeiffer

Martin and Virginia Pfeiffer In Honor of the Scobey-Polacheck Family

Kathleen Haase In Honor of Janet and Andrew Raddatz

Bette Bachhuber In Memory of Richard Reddy

Melissa Cook In Memory of Dave Redell

June E. Goglio

Kris and Thomas Kesselhon In Memory of Judith C. Reuter Association of Retired Conservationists In Memory of Richard J. Ring

Mary Kay Ring In Honor of Barbara Roeber Linda Olson

Kathy and Joel Schittone

Nancy Welch In Honor of Beverly Schwabe

MaryJo and John Schwabe

Dr. Michael and Edie Schwabe

Susan Schwabe Thomas D. Schwabe In Honor of Ron and Ann Semmann Timothy and Lisa Semmann In Memory of Peg Carol Shwichtenberg Svaldi

Carol Svaldi In Honor of Aleesha Splinter

Bradley Shober In Memory of Willard and Jason TeStrake

Kate Dike In Memory of Darwin Gene Thielman

Shannon Thielman In Honor of Joan Wiegand Todd and Kris Wiegand In Honor of Pockets of Wilderness in Western Wisconsin Vera M. Wong In Memory of Darryl Will

Renee and Dean Thelen In Honor of Camille Zanoni Larry J. Zanoni

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Winners

of the 2017

Field Trip

Photo

Contest

“Connecting generations to the wonders of Wisconsin’s lands, waters, and wildlife.” That’s an important part of our mission. And when you look at our Field Trip program—growing strong for the last 25 years—it might be one of our most successful initiatives.

It’s hard to put into words the impact our Field Trip program has on our members. That’s part of why every year we ask you to send us your best photographs from our Field Trips. Through your lens, and in your words, we learn so much —not only about our impact, but also about the impact Wisconsin’s natural beauty has on you and your family.

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Although my husband and I have traveled a few different rivers around the state we had never paddled through the Wisconsin Dells, so we jumped at the chance to participate in the NRF “Paddle the Dells” Field Trip. On a beautiful September day we learned about the natural and cultural history of the Dells from a DNR expert as we glided along the river. As we emerged from Coldwater Canyon I was struck by how the light from the autumn sun reached down into the canyon to highlight the sandstone cliffs and colorful kayaks. – Patty Henry

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Dan Goltz, DNR Taken on NRF Field Trip “Eagle banding & Voyager Canoe on the Lower Wisconsin River”.

Be sure to bring your camera on Field Trips this year. Your photograph may be the winner of the 2018 contest!

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Patty Henry

Charity Hohlstein

The Field Trip was to the Tiffany Bottoms near Durand. My son, Lars was (by far) the youngest attendant. It was memorable on many levels. We went with my in laws, so our ages ranged from 3-75 in our train car.

My son has become a birder like his mom, dad and grandparents.

We had tallied 76 species of birds identified either by sight or call. It was a birder and train enthusiast’s dream! I would recommend this trip to anyone that loves the outdoors and trains in a heartbeat. I was even able to cross a few birds off my life list! – Charity, Alex, and Lars Hohlstein

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Moya Mowbray

We look forward to the Monarch Tagging Field Trip every year.

My daughter, Paige (age 6 in this photo), has learned so much about monarch migration and about how to tell a male vs. a female. She even did a large report on Monarchs for her Kindergarten Science Fair! We’ve taken our tags (received from the Field Trip) and gone out Tagging on our own. What a fun way to enjoy the beautiful summer/ fall weather and spend time together! – Kelly Lehnerer

Honorable Mention: Bruce Bartel The Whooping Crane Reintroduction trip was a perfect Field Trip. We saw Whooping Cranes up close and also saw other interesting critters, such as this frog. The highlight of the trip was seeing and hearing a whooper calling to its mate from the top of a muskrat house. It was only about 100 feet from us when it called. It then flew to its mate, who was sitting on eggs, to take his turn to sit. I have heard sandhill cranes call many times, but this is the first time I had heard a whooping crane “whoop”.

It was a real treat. – Bruce Bartel

Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin

WISCONSERVATION SPOTLIGHT: Your Support at Work

The Foundation invests in programs and projects that have a strong ripple effect—where a modest amount of support can generate deep and lasting improvements. Over the years, protecting, maintaining, and sharing our beautiful lands has remained a top Foundation priority and with your help we continue to do more every year.

Group of WIsconsin Master Naturalists.

Maple sugaring class at the MacKenzie Center.

Helping The MacKenzie Center with

big renovations

The MacKenzie Center in Poynette, WI is one of Wisconsin’s most beloved and unique education centers, providing wonderful learning experiences for more than 35,000 people each year. For many children, a visit to MacKenzie’s wildlife exhibit provides their first opportunity to observe native, Wisconsin wildlife in person such as lynx, wolves, foxes, bald eagles, badgers, and bison. A grant from the Natural Resources Foundation will help the Friends of MacKenzie update the wildlife exhibit by enhancing and making accessible visitor trails and wildlife viewing areas, updating on-site education space and signs, and improving the living enclosures for wolves, coyotes, and foxes.

Green Lake students canoeing.

G reen Lake School District Thanks to funding through NRF’s Teachers’ Outdoor Environmental Education Fund, Green Lake School District students will be able to explore Wisconsin’s natural wonders through hands-on, outdoor excursions including camping, hiking, and canoeing. Funds were used to purchase camping equipment for the school district, including tents, sleeping bags, and camp cooking utensils, which have already been broken in on a camping trip to the Willow Flowage in northern Wisconsin.

Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin

Wisconsin Master Naturalist NRF is a proud founder and supporter of the Wisconsin Master Naturalist Program (WIMN). Since its founding WIMN has trained 663 volunteers who have contributed nearly 55,000 volunteer hours to stewardship, citizen science, and education projects across the state. Wisconsin Master Naturalist is a growing network of well-informed citizens dedicated to conservation education and service within their communities. The WIMN training provides coursework in natural history, interpretation, and conservation stewardship both in the classroom and in the field. Learn more at WIMasterNaturalist.org.

E DUCATOR Spotlight:

Victoria Rydberg

Victoria Rydberg is the Environmental Education Consultant for the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI), and co-founder of the Wisconsin Green Schools Network. Victoria plays a key role for environmental education in Wisconsin by supporting educators across the state, connecting them to resources and building capacity for meaningful environmental education.

“My goal for environmental education is to help people understand the big picture,” explained Victoria. “You can’t separate humans and the environment—you need to look at them together through real-world, broad-based learning experiences.”

Prior to working with DPI, Victoria founded River Crossing Environmental Charter School in Portage, WI. During that time, she taught 7th and 8th grade, and began partnering with local conservation organizations to engage students in hands-on, project-based learning opportunities. “Once I started using the environment to teach, I saw how engaged the kids were, and how learning all of a sudden became relevant and exciting.”

This experience led to the creation of Fostering Inquiry and Empowering Learners through Discovery, or FIELD Corps, which is an innovative environmental education program supported in part by the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin.

Learn more about the FIELD Corps program and other environmental education initiatives by visiting WisConservation.org/education.

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Teach Your Children Well Environmental education and the future of conservation

By Caitlin Williamson and Camille Zanoni

Research shows that children who engage in environmental education gain unequivocal cognitive, academic, physical, and emotional benefits. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Public Health Association, and the Centers for Disease Control, children who engage in outdoor learning show significant and measurable improvements in everything from test results and critical thinking to selfawareness and cardiovascular health.

Additionally, we know that first-hand experiences in nature give science and conservation a very real and tangible context. Environmental education brings students and life-long learners outside into places and situations in which science has very real meaning and tangible consequences.

In this way, environmental education can transform our perceptions of the possible or valuable. This means that conservation of Wisconsin’s prairies, forests, rivers, and lakes, is inextricably linked with environmental education (EE) through our ability to nurture an understanding of, and i nspire love for, these natural wonders.

The need for EE in Wisconsin

The need for environmental education in Wisconsin grows every day. Today’s children spend less than one percent of their time outdoors, leading to a growing disconnect between their daily lives and the natural world. Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods and The Nature Principle, named this growing issue “nature deficit disorder”.

Children today have less knowledge about and appreciation for the natural world—two requisites in order to adequately care for our natural resources in the future.

Meanwhile, state cuts to funding compromise Wisconsin’s existing capacity to deliver the training and resources educators need to provide meaningful environmental education for their students.

Expanding our efforts to meet growing need

Last year, the Natural Resources Foundation took a big leap forward for environmental education. Now that the Wisconsin Environmental Education Foundation (WEEF) has dissolved as an

Benefits of Outdoor Learning According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Public Health Association, and the Centers for Disease Control, children who engage in outdoor learning experiences:

Perform significantly better on standardized tests

Show increased academic performance

Are better able to concentrate

Have reduced discipline problems

Have improved creativity, problem solving sills, and critical thinking abilities

Discover increased cooperation, self-discipline, confidence, and self-awareness

See a reduction of stress and mental illnesses

Develop improved immune systems, cardiovascular health, and lower rates of obesity

To support our environmental education efforts, make a donation today.

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Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin

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$1.1M

*Special thanks to the SeaChange-Lodestar Fund for Nonprofit Collaboration for supporting WEEF’s integration with the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin.

Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin

Often when we think of environmental education we picture students tromping around in a remote forest. But the natural world doesn’t end at our city limits, so why should environmental education begin and end at the edges of human civilization?

Part of what makes FIELD (Fostering Inquiry and Empowering Learners through Discovery) Corps so successful is its flexibility, particularly when applied in an urban environment.

In the spring of 2017, a group of innercity high school students at Escuela Verde in Milwaukee broke ground on a project that had been months in the making. As part of a weeklong service learning project the students partnered with college students working with Milwaukee-based Cream City Conservation.

Together, and with funding support from the Foundation, they planned and then built a backyard garden for the school with raised beds, native plants, and a greenhouse.

The flexibility of the FIELD Corps model “allowed us to be culturally responsive in our approach to having a relevant project and instructors who reflected the population we serve,” said Joey Zocher, an advisor at Escuela Verde and the point person for the project. By working with college students from Cream City Conservation, the high school students got a “Some of our typically chance to connect with peer mentors. “They rambunctious students who really bonded and you could see them having have difficulty focusing rose to the top of the crew for these ‘I could do that’ moments,” said Joey, this project. … It allowed remembering how her students seemed to find for these students to shine in the idea of college and career just a little more front of their peers, and that real and accessible. is something that can totally If you listen to the stories of any shift classroom dynamics to environmental educator you’ll start to hear a an empathetic space where common theme emerge; they see the greatest everyone recognizes different change in the students who don’t normally assets.” – Joey Zocher excel in the classroom. “You could tell they were proud as the project came together,” remembered Joey. “You see students who aren’t normally really proud of the work they do because it’s often in subjects that are challenging to them, get a chance to be proud of themselves for making such a difference.”

This is the magic of environmental education and you’ll hear it again and again from educators. Students who perhaps don’t rise to the top in a classroom setting have a chance to find their voice, discover leadership skills, and make something positive happen in the world.

These are our future conservation leaders and innovative programs like FIELD Corps are helping these young people understand that conservation doesn’t just happen in some idyllic forest or prairie. It happens wherever caring people invest a little time and effort.

– Nora Simmons BRIDGES/SPRING 2018

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Escuela Verde

Making EE accessible for all

Escuela Verde

organization, the Natural Resources Foundation has stepped up to formally become a key resource for environmental education funding and support in Wisconsin.* Assuming this role as a capacity-building resource is an honor and a responsibility we take very seriously.

We look forward to working with our partners such as the Wisconsin Association for Environmental Education, the Wisconsin Green Schools Network, the Wisconsin Center for Environmental Education, and dozens of other local and statewide environmental education organizations.

We aim not only to support our partners in connecting children, adults, families, and communities to nature, but also to expand our own programs for environmental education.

We have taken over management of the Go Outside Fund (started by WEEF) and plan to expand grant opportunities to help teachers integrate outdoor field experiences into their Our impact existing curricula. This initiative complements and on education expands upon our existing funding opportunities for hands-on, outdoor learning through the Teachers’ Outdoor Environmental Schools have Education Fund, the received funds to CD Besadny Conservation get kids outside Grant Program, and our support of the FIELD Corps Program.

We are creating the new Environmental Education Master Naturalists Advisory Committee that trained will include important leaders in environmental education. This group will help advise our Foundation on funding, programming, Field Trips have and other needs related to engaged nearly supporting environmental 50,000 participants education in Wisconsin. in 25 years!

We now hold the Wisconsin Environmental Education Fund, a permanent endowment fund created by WEEF to grow and sustain in grants made for Wisconsin’s investment in environmental education environmental education for since 1986 generations to come.

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BARB BARZEN

In 1993, we piloted the Field Trip Program with just three trips: Rush Creek State Natural Area with Mark Martin (still a Field Trip leader!), Trumpeter Swan Recovery with Becky Abel, and Wolf Howling with Adrian Wydeven (which is again in our line-up this year).

Those trips went so well that the following year we offered 41 trips.

Today, 25 years and 2,604 trips later, the Field Trip Program remains at the heart of our mission to connect generations to the wonders of Wisconsin’s lands, waters, and wildlife. Over the years the program has raised $103,000 for various conservation efforts across the state. And so many lasting memories have been made, though a few stand out as we reflect on this past quarter century.

Longest Running Field Trip Our longest running Field Trip has been Phil Fauble’s “Baraboo Hills Geology” trip, which has run every year since 1995. Phil expertly guides participants through the Baraboo Hills Region explaining how specific geologic forces shaped the landscape. When asked if he would lead this trip again in 2018, Phil replied, “I guess I’ll keep doing this trip until I can’t get my wheelchair up the Balanced Rock Trail!”

Longtime Field Trip Leaders Our longest continuous Field Trip leader has been Mark Martin. Mark started with us that first year in 1993 leading our first exploration of Rush Creek State Natural Area. Since then he has been in the field every year with us teaching us about the wonders of Door County and countless amazing places across the state.

Beth Goeppinger started her tenure as a Field Trip leader in 1995.

Every year since she has shown us the wonders of Bong Recreation Area, teaching us about monarchs, reptiles, amphibians, and turtles.

BARB BARZEN

Field Trips

NRF ARCHIVES

CELEBRATING 25 Years of

Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin

BRUCE BARTEL

NRF ARCHIVES

Most Impactful Trip One of the most impactful trips over the years has been “Osprey/Eagle Banding and Pontoon Tour on the Turtle Flambeau Flowage”. Since it started in 1998 this special fundraiser trip has raised $23,500 for osprey monitoring and brought 420 people closer to the beauty of the Turtle Flambeau Flowage. Today we band eagles as they’ve encroached on osprey territory, but the funding still goes to osprey monitoring. (Pictured: Field Trip Coordinator Christine Tanzer holding an osprey in 1998.)

MARY ROCKSTAD

NRF ARCHIVES

Member Favorite Trip While every member has a favorite Field Trip, the most popular over the years has consistently been Thomas Meyer’s “Dells Power Hike”. Thomas sets a strenuous pace on this power-hike exploring parts of the Dells of the Wisconsin River SNA not normally accessible to the public. Thomas has quite the following as another long-running Field Trip leader. His expertise coupled with the spectacular gorges, mossy glens, spring flowers, and scenic river views makes for one of our fastest-filling trips year after year.

Most Participants Over Time It’s not always the most popular trips that reach the most people, but this trip is both popular and accessible to many. By offering numerous sessions each year and by virtue of having one of the most adorable of nature’s creations, “Saw Whet Owl Banding” at Linwood Springs Research Station has engaged more participants than any other trip. Gene and Lorraine Jacobs have taught more than 1,900 people about Wisconsin’s smallest owl since they started their trip in 2008.

Attended the Most Field Trips Our dedicated member Dean Rockstad has hiked, learned, and adventured with us on Field Trips since his first trip to Patrick Marsh in 1995. Last year he logged his 100th Field Trip! A self-described “big city person,” Dean’s curiosity about Wisconsin’s natural resources seems to be unquenchable.

Enjoy more photos, highlights, and stories from our 25-year history of the Field Trip Program at WisConservation.org/FieldTrips.

Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin

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Cherish Wisconsin: Tradition and family

By Mark LaBarbera

As the days get longer and the sun begins to melt the ice once and for all on Long Lake in the Northern Kettle Moraine State Forest, my 88-year-old mother begins her spring ritual.

She tries on her Cabela’s rain gear, checks the line on her Zebco rod/reel combo and starts reminiscing about her cherished childhood memories at her favorite place in Fond du Lac County. She smiles as she recalls riding horses with farmer Brown’s boys where the state park campground and hiking trails are now. She remembers rowing the wooden boat while trolling for perch and fishing from the old mill dam near where the Milwaukee River is born.

All of us grew up with her stories, and now our children have come to know what Grandma Betty, after more than 80 years on this earth, cherishes most. It’s this collection of memories from times spent at a special place with special people.

No matter what kind of outdoors enthusiast you are—hiker or biker, hunter or angler, kayaker or birder, skier or all of the above—Wisconsin provides endless opportunities for each of us to connect with nature in a profound way. These experiences instill in us an appreciation for our state’s woods, wildlife and waters, and a commitment to ensuring that the

legacy of enjoying our natural areas continues for generations to come.

The Cherish Wisconsin Outdoors Fund helps cover costs for critical habitat management, including important waters, throughout the state. Setting land aside so it won’t be developed is the first step in protecting it, but making sure those lands and waters stay healthy requires careful management, including controlled burns, invasive species control, trail maintenance, and biodiversity projects.

For my part, I give to the Cherish Fund because, in a way, it helps ensure that my mom can continue to look forward to her spring fishing tradition. And because Cherish is a permanent endowment, I know that someday when Grandma Betty and her stories are just happy memories for my own kids, Cherish will still be there, providing the resources to protect the legacy she left behind.

I’m not surprised that hunters and anglers are a generous bunch. We are proud of what this state offers, proud of what may be a family tradition of enjoying time together outdoors, and proud to protect what we cherish most in Wisconsin.

Mark LaBarbera is a member of the Long Lake Fishing Club, founder of the Midwest Outdoor Heritage Education Expo and Treasurer of the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin.

Last year’s hunting, fishing, sports and conservation patron licenses have just expired and for the next few months, hunters and anglers renewing our licenses have a unique opportunity to help protect the special places we most enjoy. When we buy our licenses and renew our boat, ATV or other registrations, we’ll be asked whether we’d like to donate at least $2 to the Cherish Wisconsin Outdoors Fund. Friends and I have started answering, “Yes, but make it $4.” If you cherish Wisconsin’s outdoors and natural resources, I hope you’ll do the same.

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Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin

Featured Fund

good work. That’s where we come in.

For a small, relatively young organization like the Western Great Lakes Bird and Bat Observatory, the line between surviving and thriving often hinges on finding reliable operational support. That’s what brought them to the Foundation to discuss an endowment.

“Our organizational budget is modest and being able to cover even some of our operational expenses with the endowment would free up our time to focus on the work we’re here to do,” said William (Bill) Mueller, director of the Western Great Lakes Bird and Bat Observatory.

NRF is well known and commands respect and that carries over onto us.

If you’ve read any books about financial management, you know that while cash reserves and savings accounts are important, the key to sustainability and financial freedom is having assets that provide passive income. Why? Because passive income buys you time—your most valuable asset. Time you can invest in whatever matters to you most—your family, your hobbies, your business.

For mission-based organizations, time equals impact. Less time spent fundraising means more time spent fulfilling your mission.

Time = Impact An endowment fund is the most valuable asset any mission-based organization can have, because it provides steady, reliable, and growing funds.

Funding that doesn’t have to be asked for through an expensive mailing or timeconsuming campaign. Funding free of the strings attached to grants or corporate sponsorship. Funding that can be used Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin

to cover the vital, but unglamorous, costs of running a mission-based organization: Office space, toner and paper for the printer, computers, software, database systems, payroll and benefits to attract and keep qualified employees who are also working to keep the lights on in their own lives.

As a Foundation we think about sustainable funding a lot. But many nonprofit professionals don’t think about it nearly enough—they’re too busy doing

One of the most valuable outputs of the work done at the Western Great Lakes Bird and Bat Observatory (WGLBBO) is seasonal monitoring of bird migrations—routes, numbers, movements, everything. Over many years, these data will begin to reveal patterns and trends and it’s these longterm insights that are the most valuable.

For WGLBBO, the Foundation is more than an institution providing a service, though it is that as well. The Foundation also partners with WGLBBO to help fund projects through grants and works to spread the word about their work.

At the Foundation we see it as our mission to make sure WGLBBO, and organizations like it, not only survive, but thrive. If WGLBBO thrives, then Wisconsin’s birds and bats stand a better chance as well.

You can help WGLBBO build the assets that will ensure their future by making a gift to the Western Great Lakes Bird and Bat Observatory Fund. Mail a check to NRF or donate online at WisConservation.org/ make-a-donation.

BRIDGES/SPRING 2018

PHOTOS: Bill Mueller , WGLBBO

Western Great Lakes Bird and Bat Observatory Fund

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P.O. Box 2317 Madison, WI 53701 Toll-free (866) 264-4096

With appreciation to our supporters:

Associated Bank First Business Bank MGE Foundation

WisConservation.org

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April 15 – June 15 What is a Birdathon?

It’s a lot like a walk-a-thon, but instead of logging miles, you’re logging bird sightings.

The more birds you spot, the more money you raise.

How to Join • Grab some friends and family and make a team.

• Collect donations and pledges.

• T hen pick a day (anytime between April 15 and June 15) and get outside! You can bird anywhere — your neighborhood, county or state parks, or even your own backyard.

Where does the money go?

Funding supports projects including whooping crane reintroduction, Kirtland’s warbler monitoring, Bird City Wisconsin, and much more.

Find everything you need to get started at WIBirdathon.org.

Jeff Bahls

Jump at the chance to participate in the 2018 Great Wisconsin Birdathon!