Sanctuaries

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Scenes from a Faville Grove Winter

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Scenes from a Faville Grove Winter

With the fluttery busy-ness of spring, summer, and fall absent, it can seem remarkably quiet at the sanctuaries. And true enough, plants are dormant and many animals have migrated away, hibernated, or found another way to quietly survive winter in Wisconsin.

And yet, the crews at our sanctuaries are as busy as ever. Winter is a time to focus on clearing invasive and “weedy” brush and trees. This is labor-intensive work, well suited for winter because the frozen ground makes it easier to get equipment in and out without damaging the soil, and there isn’t wild parsnip and garlic mustard to compete for attention!

Photo by David Musolf

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Let the Scraping Begin!

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Let the Scraping Begin!

In June 2020, Madison Audubon purchased a 36 acre parcel across the road from our Otsego Marsh property. The new parcel didn’t come pre-loaded with increidble diversity and beautiful vistas. It was mostly soybean fields, a woodlot chocked full of big oaks and invasive underbrush, and a small wetland with great potential. One needed a creative imagination to envision what it could be — and fortunately our visionary staff, board members, volunteers, and donors had a vision!

The resident managers and land steward at Goose Pond Sanctuary coordinate the restoration work at Otsego Marsh, and began getting the new parcel into shape by removing a bunch of the brushy, invasive buckthorn in the woodlot’s understory that was choking out the good native species. And beginning on January 6, 2021, we began installing wetland scrapes!

Photo by Brenna Marsicek / Madison Audubon

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'Tis the Season to be Burning

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'Tis the Season to be Burning

Spring is prescribed burn season here at Faville Grove, and across southern Wisconsin. There's a lot that goes into a prescribed burn: We take into account the relative humidity, soil moisture, wind speed and direction, temperature, and sky cover. We also need to notify neighbors, the county sheriff, and round up a crew of volunteers on days of a burn. Setting fire to the landscape can be a thrilling experience, but the best burns are those that are boring--excitement means something unplanned has occurred and unplanned events with fire are not a good thing!

You can see in these photos that we only burn when conditions are ideal for what we're trying to accomplish; in both photos with the road, you'll see that the wind is sending the smoke billowing away from the driving lanes, which is necessary for us to conduct a burn along these areas.

Photo by Drew Harry

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How do you Goose Pond?

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Share your Goose Pond memories

Goose Pond Sanctuary is a cornerstone of Madison Audubon, an exceptional bird-watching site in south-central Wisconsin, and a symbol of Wisconsin's strong conservation legacy. It has grown from 60 acres that included much of the west pond-with-potential into a flourishing 660-acre sanctuary for native habitats, birds, mammals, insects, and amphibians, and the people who love them.

For some of us, Goose Pond has been a frequent destination for decades; for others, Goose Pond is a new-found gem. Regardless, if you have a favorite memory of Goose Pond Sanctuary, help us celebrate it's 50th year of conservation, research, and education by sharing it below. We will showcase these stories at the various celebrations throughout the year.

Robert Lerch (left) lived at Goose Pond for 20 years before selling to Madison Audubon in 1968. He reminisces with Mark Martin, Sanctuary resident co-manager. Image from MAS December 1994 newsletter

Robert Lerch (left) lived at Goose Pond for 20 years before selling to Madison Audubon in 1968. He reminisces with Mark Martin, Sanctuary resident co-manager. Image from MAS December 1994 newsletter

Thank you for your love for Goose Pond Sanctuary and the many hands that have helped shape it.

We'd love to see your photos too!

Please your Goose Pond Sanctuary photographs to Brenna Marsicek (bmarsicek@madisonaudubon.org) with a short explanation. By submitting photos, you give Madison Audubon permission to use them in education and outreach materials. Thank you!

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Reflections of a Goose Pond Sanctuary Land Steward

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I’ve had so many wonderful experiences as the Goose Pond Sanctuary Land Steward. Some memories stand out and seem to define my time here, while others lose all their sharpness and instead coalesce into something like background music, except that this background music is made up of whistling swans and rustling prairie grasses. I’ve attempted to share a bit of both of these types of memory here. I hope that these reflections will add something to your own savored memories of nature and conservation.

Photo by Maddie Dumas