Sanctuaries

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Join us this fall at Faville Grove!

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Join us this fall at Faville Grove!

It’s been a hectic summer at Faville Grove with lots of neat wildlife sightings and tons of brilliant wildflowers, as always. Canadian wildfire haze and drought have settled in from time to time, but plants keep blooming and birds keep moving; asters, goldenrods, and goldfinches are making their mark as summer fades.

Join us for weekly seed collecting beginning September 8th through the end of October. Our meeting point is the kiosk on Prairie Lane every Wednesday from 9:30-noon, and for two separate work parties every Saturday from 9:30-noon and 1:30-4pm. We need all of the help we can get!

Photo by Drew Harry

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Fire Science and the Art of the Burn

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I attended my first “burn” in 1992 while a graduate student at UW-Madison.  I was hooked.  The sights, sounds, smell and the skill exhibited by the burn team made me want to learn more.  Then life got in the way.

Fast forward to 2010.

In 2010 I retired from a career in Landscape Architecture and embarked on a new career path in Photography.  I began an ongoing project documenting the activity of local burn teams throughout the area.

The pandemic put a hold on burn activity for 2020, which gave me the opportunity to review my work and go forward when the world started opening up again.

Last year 2020 (fall) and this year 2021 (spring) I worked with Graham Steinhauer and the team creating imagery from several burns at the Goose Pond Sanctuary.

Photo by Carolyn Knorr

Photo by Carolyn Knorr

The question I get asked the most is “why”.

My reason for making these images is two-fold.  First, I want to document and bring awareness to the public of the importance of the science of burning.  Wisconsin is fortunate to have remnants of prairie, oak savanna and wetlands that are on conservation lands and are managed through burning.  These tracts provide shelter to a rich variety of plants and animals.  Habitats that would otherwise be overtaken by invasive species, if not for the burning.

The second reason I make these images is for the beauty and artistic nature of the burns themselves.  They are a metaphor for so many human emotions.  Life, death, rebirth, renewal to name a few.

My goal with this project is to heighten awareness of the importance of land management through burning and to ultimately present this project in book form and a traveling photography exhibit.

Written by Carolyn S. Knorr, fine art photographer and Goose Pond Sanctuary volunteer

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Faville Grove Sanctuary at your fingertips

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Faville Grove Sanctuary at your fingertips

Explore the diverse landscapes of -- and plan your next adventure to -- Faville Grove Sanctuary through our new Faville Grove Storymap. This new, interactive resource describes the sanctuary through written descriptions, photos, trails, points of interest, and more. This storymap brings Faville Grove to you, wherever you are, through your smartphone or computer.

If you've never been to Faville Grove, or aren't sure where to start your hike, or just want to learn more about this lovely Madison Audubon property, the Faville Grove Storymap was created for you.

Photo by David Musolf

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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