Bird & Nature Blog
A clutch of the latest stories from Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance
As a teenager, I was charged with speaking on the virtue of faith at a Catholic retreat for some schoolmates. I read my draft to the group organizing the gathering, which included a kind, elderly priest. He spoke after I finished saying, "Topf, that was not a good presentation on faith but quite excellent on hope." That about sums up my spirituality and outlook on life then and now, short on faith but long on hope.
Photo by Mandy Martin
The striped (or “common”) skunk doesn't have a great reputation. It’s hard to get past the smell. They’re unpopular for sometimes stealing eggs, honey, and vegetables. If you Google skunks, you’ll finds ads and advice for how to get rid of them. They've entered common parlance; no one wants to be the skunk at the party or the dead skunk on the side of the road.
Photo by Márcio Cabral de Moura FCC
Gathering Waters, SoWBA, numerous statewide and local conservation organizations, and thousands (yes, thousands) of citizens have lobbied legislators for four years to save this program. It's politically popular with the public across partisan lines and is wildly successful. We celebrate STEW’s big successes like SoWBA's purchase of the 300+ acre Hillside Prairie Sanctuary, but it helped fund all sorts of impactful projects around the state, which benefit communities and folks.
Photo by Brenna Marsicek/SoWBA
What to do? Our only chance to save Stewardship is to join hands and send messages of Stewardship support to Governor Evers (so he'll insist on Stewardship being included in any version of the budget he'll sign) and legislators, especially Republicans, to support Stewardship. The arguments: it's good for the environment, animals, plants, people, outdoor recreation, the tourist economy and the overwhelmingly vast majority of Wisconsin voters and residents support it.**
Photo by Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren
All of us in SoWBA enjoyed the recent newsletter about Citizen Science, with Mickenzee's account of the Lincoln Elementary School's citizen scientists my favorite.
SoWBA and the Southern Wisconsin Chapter of Trout Unlimited recently hosted those 4th graders on their and our annual end of the year field trip. For many it's their first chance to see and hold a fish.
Photo by Carolyn Byers
