Photo by Monica Hall
Great news: Together, we did it!
Thanks to your generosity and love of native landscapes, you have helped Madison Audubon complete the picture of this beautiful landscape! With over 75 donations ranging from $20 to $50,000, donors helped piece together the funding that makes land acquisition projects like that at Otsego Marsh possible for Madison Audubon. Thank you so much! You have helped permanently protect ecologically valuable land.
Updated November 24, 2020
Your Piece of the Puzzle
Our beautiful Otsego Marsh natural area just got even more amazing! On June 1, 2020, Madison Audubon purchased land adjacent to Otsego Marsh in Rio, WI.
This purchase was essential for protecting the water quality of Hawkos Pond, offering greater opportunities for waterfowl and grassland birds to nest, and providing high quality habitat for a variety of birds, insects, mammals, herps, and crustaceans (like the prairie crawfish) to live, reproduce, and thrive. Learn more about the importance of the purchase here.
And of course, this new property creates a new opportunity for donors and nature lovers like you to connect with nature and see a true re-transformation back to native habitat.
Brimming with wildlife. Buzzing with activity. Bountiful in beauty.
You did it! Together, we completed the picture of the BEAUTIFUL new tract at Otsego Marsh. Thank you for your generosity! Updated November 24, 2020. Wood duck photo: Mick Thompson | Scarlet tanager photo: Doug Greenberg | Pileated woodpecker: Jerry McFarland | Snapping turtle photo: Tom Murray | Swamp milkweed photo: Brenna Marsicek
Then, it was time to refill the land acquisition coffers.
The funding for purchase was pulled from our land acquisition pool, and in order to be able to work quickly and opportunistically for land purchases and protection in the future, we asked nature lovers to help with this effort. Jerry Martin, long-time member and donor of Madison Audubon, made a lead donation of $50,000 toward this effort, inspiring scores of other donors.
This spring’s COVID-19 lockdown brought a frenzied love for puzzles. Here, we offer you the best puzzle you may ever work on, and one in which you can purchase and donate your own piece of the puzzle. When nature lovers made a donation, a puzzle piece appeared in the image above. As more nature-lovers donated to this effort, more puzzle pieces filled in to reveal the beautiful landscape you are helping support.
Thank you to our Wonderful Donors!
Helen Rylee $100
John Shillinglaw $100
Faye Underdahl $100
John and Susan Wolf in memory of Nancy McCartney $100
Brian Alme $50
JD Arnston $50
Birgit Bach $50
Lisa Binkley $50
Nancy Connolly $50
Jean Frisch $50
Matthew Fortney in honor of Cora and Amelie Fortney $50
Lynne Gardner $50
Samantha Christian Haas in memory of Amber Levenhagen $50
Emily Hall $50
Ellen Hansen in memory of Frank Freese $50
Janice Johnson $50
Joanne Jones $50
Andrea Ladd $50
Lesleigh Luttrell in memory of Dave Schreiner $50
Ann Mader $50
Barbara and John Mitchell $50
Lisa Moreschi in honor of Earl Johnson $50
Barbara Park $50
Chuck and Linda Pils $50
Tesha Pittenger $50
Pheasants Forever, Columbia & Marquette County Chapter $50
Carrie Santulli Schudda & Dave Schudda in memory of Annette Geiser $50
Scott Semroc $50
Donna Sereda $50
John Shillinglaw in honor of his sister Susan $50
Jim and Kathy Shurts $50
Graham Steinhauer in memory of Jane Hockett $50
Rebecca Brockman-Schneider $25
Brenna and Jeremiah Marsicek in memory of Francis Jeno $25
Matthew Reetz $25
Jeannie Druckenmiller $20
Peter and Lynne Weil
Anonymous donors (6), one in memory of Shelly Gilbertson
Jerry Martin lead gift $50,000
Roma Lenehan $15,000 — Scarlet Tanager token
Dorothy Haines $10,000 — Wood Duck token
Levi and Janet Wood $10,000 — Pileated Woodpecker token
Anonymous — Snapping Turtle and Swamp Milkweed tokens
Roger Packard and David Musolf ih honor of past Madison Audubon summer interns $2000
Bob and Peggy Ridgely $1000
Janice Zawacki in memory of Professor Edmund Zawacki $1000
Marcia Mackenzie $750
Mark Martin and Susan Foote-Martin in honor of Tom Hawkos and his family $750
Jefren Olsen and Kathy Rasmussen in memory of Nancy Nohl $750
The Hawkos Family $650
Linda Candlin $500
Pat and Angel Clark $500
Mark, Jennifer, Ben, and Sam McGinley $500
David Rihn and Valerie Bailey-Rihn $500
Mary Sobol $500
Deb and Pat Turski $500
Mareda Weiss $500
Pat and Lloyd Eagan $250
Rose Meinholz and Larry Hochman $250
Topf Wells and Sally Probasco in honor of Mike Mehaffy $150
Annie Aaker $100
Becky Abel in memory of Arthur H. Abel $100
Janice Bennett $100
Susan Dorsch $100
Maddie and Aaron Dumas $100
Jeff Durbin in memory of Chris Durbin $100
Janet Flynn and Greg Tiedt in memory of Stan Druckenmiller $100
Johanna Fabke $100
Galen and Grace Hasler $100
Todd and Ann Kiefer $100
Sue and Terrill Knaack $100
Lisa Lepeak and Robin Wagner $100
Henny Regnier $100
Sue Reynard in honor of Marty Reynard $100
