Landscape Agriculture

Landscape Agriculture

We might consider our prairies like those old growth oak trees–an ancient grassland. With tremendous investment in roots, the prairie grasses are able to be burned off and cut most years unlike the oaks, but the critters who live in the old growth grassland aren’t so lucky; when the mower comes, if they aren’t able to move out of the way then the inhabitants are toast. Through the first half of the 1900’s, the mowers came about once per year and most species were able to work with this arrangement. Since then the ancient grass has been replaced with alfalfa, and the mowers visit five, six, seven, eight times per growing season, causing enough destruction for most species to abandon these fields entirely.

Photo by Arlene Koziol

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Tell Me a Story!

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Tell Me a Story!

Swapping nature stories with kids is one of my favorite parts of each education program lesson. It’s a fun, loose, easy part of class that can be silly or serious. But the real reason I love it so much is because it gives me a little window into each kid’s relationship with nature. I can learn about what they’re noticing, what’s important enough to them to remember, and what they think is interesting enough to tell me. We learn how they feel about a sighting based on how they tell it: was the snake they saw scary or cool? Did they feel bad for the mouse, or happy that the hawk got to eat? Maybe both.

This article is part of Madison Audubon’s Spring/Summer 2022 Newsletter. Read the full newsletter here!

Photo by Carolyn Byers / Madison Audubon

Raptors Phone Home

Raptors Phone Home

New technology has led to many innovations in the field of raptor ecology. With the aid of solar- powered cell phone transmitters, we can track a number of individual birds that Madison Audubon and its members have been involved with through volunteer work or financial support. We are delighted to share updates from the project coordinators about some of these special birds that have recently reported in.

This article is part of Madison Audubon’s Spring/Summer 2022 Newsletter. Read the full newsletter here!

Photo by Arlene Koziol

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Teacher, Teacher, Teach Me Love

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Teacher, Teacher, Teach Me Love

One of the underestimated joys of human existence is watching great teachers at work and today I saw two of the best: Josie Guiney, a 4th grade teacher at Madison's Lincoln School and MAS's very own Carolyn Byers. The occasion was "the-worst-of-COVID-might-be-beyond-us" renewal of the annual field trip for those 4th graders to Dane County's Basco Unit of the Sugar River Wildlife Area. The kids spend a couple of hours learning about prairies and rivers and then accomplished some good conservation deeds.

Photo by Carolyn Byers / Madison Audubon