From the Educators: Summer education programs wrap up

This year has been filled with adventure for kids and young adults in our Madison Audubon programs. Thanks to your support, we have been able to reach 2,259 youth since January – and have built long-term relationships with over 100 of them! Because of your support, local kids are spending more time exploring outside, asking questions, and making observations about nature...and they're unearthing their own special love and connection to our natural world as they explore.

Conservation Academy partcipants from Operation Fresh Start learn about water quality management. Photo by Carolyn Byers

What were we up to this summer?

Operation Fresh Start Conservation Academy participants celebrate the end of their summer season with Smokey the Bear! Photo by Carolyn Byers.

• Kids at Vera Court Neighborhood Center and Salvation Army Community Center adventured with insects, water critters, and tiny flowers in our Micro Explorers curriculum.

• Through our Conservation Academy program, Operation Fresh Start crews learned about career paths in habitat restoration, stream ecology, ornithology, wildlife biology, urban forestry, and water resource management. We celebrated their summer of learning with a retreat at the Mackenzie Environmental Education Center!

• A partnership with MSCR (Madison School & Community Recreation) allowed us to provide a week of Wildlife Immersion lessons for summer camp kids. Birds, binoculars, scat, tracks, and art projects were our highlights!

This fall, we plan to continue our partnerships with local schools and community centers, and hope to share the wonder of wildlife with as many kids as possible!

- Carolyn Byers
Director of Education
 

Help tag monarchs at Goose Pond Sanctuary

Releasing a freshly-tagged monarch butterfly. Photo by Arlene Koziol.

Bring your whole family and join us at Goose Pond Sanctuary to help with conservation efforts to track declining populations of monarch butterflies. 

Photo by Arlene Koziol

Madison Audubon works with monarchwatch.org to capture and tag butterflies at our Goose Pond Sanctuary for monitoring efforts throughout their migration route. You can help with this important citizen science effort!

According to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the recognizable orange-and-black butterfly species is in trouble. "Threats, including loss of milkweed habitat needed to lay their eggs and for their caterpillars to eat, are having a devastating impact on their populations and the migration phenomenon. Unless we act now to help the Monarch, this amazing animal could disappear in our lifetime. The state of Monarchs reflects the health of the American landscape and its pollinators. Monarch declines are symptomatic of environmental problems that also pose risks to food production, the spectacular natural places that help define our national identity, and our own health. Conserving and connecting habitat for monarchs will benefit many other plants and animals, including critical insect and avian pollinators, and future generations of Americans."

Attend a tagging event at Goose Pond on September 3rd or 10th to help with this important effort. Please register! We will be unable to support additional trip attendees due to limited materials and impact on the land. 

Volunteer and help restore Wisconsin's beautiful prairies

As the seasons change at our sanctuaries, so do our volunteer opportunities!

Canada wild rye. Photo by Carolyn Byers

Fall is one of the busiest times at Faville Grove and Goose Pond, as it's an ideal time to collect native prairie plant seeds from the hundreds of acres of restored habitat at each site. 

We're seeking volunteers all through the autumn season to help with prairie seed collection at both sites. See below for details.

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Madison Audubon's FAVILLE GROVE SANCTUARY (near Lake Mills) will host seed collecting parties on the following days, beginning Wednesday, Sept. 7:

• Wednesdays, 9:30 a.m. - 12 noon
• Saturdays, two shifts: 9:30 a.m. - 12 noon, and 1:30-4 p.m.

Madison Audubon's GOOSE POND SANCTUARY (near Arlington) will be collecting seed through the end of October, beginning Sept. 16:

• Fridays, 9:30 a.m. - 12 noon
• Saturdays, 9:30 a.m. - 12 noon

The seed our volunteers help to collect is used in future prairie restorations both in our own Sanctuaries and across our service area. The local-genotype seed we collect on site helps preserve genetic characteristics that thrive in our specific climate. Plus, it's incredible to see the full-circle restoration process: plant a prairie, collect seeds, and plant a new prairie! 

You don't need any experience to help us collect prairie seed! It is a great learning experience, a fantastic time of year to be outside, and its a fun way to connect with others in our community. 

If you have any questions about helping us collect prairie seed, email our Sanctuary land stewards!

Faville Grove land steward Drew Harry: faville@madisonaudubon.org
Goose Pond land steward Maddie Van Cleve: mvancleve@madisonaudubon.org

See you in the prairie!

Visit our Sunflower Field at Goose Pond Sanctuary

This spring, Madison Audubon Society planted four acres of sunflowers and two acres of sorghum for wildlife food at Goose Pond Sanctuary.

You are welcome to visit Goose Pond Sanctuary (one mile south of Arlington) to view an impressive display of sunflowers. The sunflowers began blooming on July 21st and should be at peak the last week of July into the first few days of August.  

The field contains over 60,000 sunflowers and will provide wildlife with over 6,000 pounds of seed. Goldfinches and mourning doves will find a feast beginning in September. There are mowed trails along the edge of the sunflowers and you are welcome to hike the trail and take photos.  With the recent rains the prairie should be ablaze in color and you are also welcome to hike our prairie trails.  One of the best prairie trails to hike is at Browne Prairie. The Browne prairie parking lot is about .5 miles west of the sunflower field on Kampen Road.

Goose Pond Sanctuary is one mile south of Arlington.  To find the sunflowers - from the intersection of Goose Pond Road and Kampen Road go west on Kampen Road for 200 yards.  

NOTE: There is also a Kampen Road intersection with Goose Pond Road where Kampen Road goes east about 200 yards north of the south Kampen Road intersection. Visitors can park along the south side of Kampen Road on the east side of the sunflowers where the trail begins. Dogs are not permitted.

Call Mark or Sue Martin, resident co-managers, at 608-333-9645 with questions.
Photos taken by Mark Martin in 2007 at Goose Pond Sanctuary.