Righteous… not a word one encounters as much today as several decades ago when it popped up to express sincere, heartfelt approbation. If you said or did something that elicited that response from your friends, you felt you were on the right track.
Some wonderful folks are acting righteously these days and better yet we can join them.
Check out this link to the Upper Sugar River Watershed Association (USRWA) and their Sugar Flow Newsletter. You'll read a full report on their activities to improve the Upper Sugar River Watershed, which occupies a fair chunk of southern Dane County, and their effort to identify and control invasive plant species in large portions of the southern Driftless Area. They seek volunteers to help, especially with regard to aquatic and streamside plants.
A related enterprise might interest you if you are looking for some opportunities to get outside and behave righteously this winter and spring. USRWA has scheduled work days in late February, March, and April to combat invasive vegetation and restore natives in the Sugar River Wetlands and the Olson Oak Woods. Both are State Natural Areas in need of some tender loving care.
Sugar River Wetlands in full bloom… not in February! Photo by Joshua Mayer
Thousands of folks see the Sugar River Wetlands every day without recognizing them. That SNA is the large wetland, grassland, savanna complex right across US 18/151 from Epic. With the amount and speed of traffic on that highway, slowing down or turning your head to view the Wetlands is a bad idea. But you'll get a closer, safer look and help them recover their health if you join the USRWA at a work day. I have a couple of times and you'll work with really nice people. They'll be careful to work safely too in these days of COVID. In fact, the mask I got when I joined the Association this year is one of the nicest in my growing collection-- lightweight, double fabric, comfortable, adjustable ear loops, and a lovely robin egg blue.
Helping bald eagles is always righteous and fun. A big help is to find and keep a careful, distanced eye on their nests. That gives us a good sense of their population trend and a chance to keep folks from disturbing (often inadvertently) their nests. Use this link to find what two organizations have organized and trained volunteers to find, report, and monitor eagle nests. Drum roll, please—the Wisconsin DNR and MADISON AUDUBON. As the confetti floats down from the ceiling and the cheers die down, please join me in thanking Brenna Marsicek, who helps organize the Bald Eagle Nest Watch program for Madison Audubon. How she finds the time to do this and all the other tasks she undertakes as Madison Audubon’s Director of Communication & Outreach is beyond me.
Bald eagle egg incubation, photo by Mike Morris
The link also provides a highly schematized map of eagle nests and shows how healthy our eagle population is. Now is the perfect time of year to slowly cruise the back roads of this area and watch for those huge nests in those trees conveniently bare of leaves. A couple of years ago I came across one in the middle of a very rural area in Green County. An eagle nest is always an amazing sight. For now we probably have enough volunteers monitoring the identified nests. But I don't know that all the eagle nests have been found.
As eagles continue to recover from near-collapse in the 60’s and 70’s, their growing population means new nests and we still have some very remote areas in much of Madison Audubon's territory. Good places to look would be streams near woodlots that contain some big trees. If you see a nest, keep in mind that the federal Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act requires people stay back 300 feet from the nest to avoid disturbance. Especially this time of year, eagles are very sensitive to human activity and could abandon their nests if visitors get too close.
Fuzz ball eaglets. Photo by USFWS Midwest
And please be careful on even the back roads. One sad effect of COVID that I can't quite explain is the increase in reckless driving and speeding.
Thank you for your support of Madison Audubon. Without it, we can't keep great staff like Brenna. And, Brenna, you are righteous.
Topf Wells, Madison Audubon board member and advocacy committee chair
Cover photo by Gail Smith
