Accent on Natural Landscaping

Donna VanBuecken

Leopold Week March 5-14, 2021

March signals the return of geese, the flow of maple sap, and the squawking of cranes. Every March, people celebrate Leopold Week with events that depict the land ethic. This year Leopold Week is March 5-14, 2021. There are several virtual programs being offered by the Aldo Leopold … [Read more...]

It’s Time to Reauthorize Wisconsin’s Stewardship Program

In 1989, Governor Tommy Thompson and the Wisconsin legislature created the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program to preserve valuable natural areas and wildlife habitat, protect water quality and fisheries, and expand the opportunities for outdoor recreation. Normally, the Stewardship Program is on a … [Read more...]

Bird/Pollinator-Friendly Garden

As cold as it has been, the birds have nowhere to go other than to hunker down in the bushes and leaf piles. Just sparrows – this was a result of my bird count. In general, bird are nature's messengers. As populations of birds change, those fluctuations may indicate shifts in pollution levels, … [Read more...]

Warranted but Precluded

Recently, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) announced that the Endangered Species Act Listing for the monarch butterfly was "warranted, but precluded" by work on higher-priority listing actions. With this decision, the monarch becomes a candidate for listing, and its status will be … [Read more...]

Western Monarchs Closer to Extinction

Today is a sad day. Across 261 overwintering sites, volunteers counted only 1,914 monarch butterflies for the Western monarch population of California. How does this year compare to previous years? When the Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count was started in 1997, over 1.2 million monarchs were … [Read more...]

Whitebark Pine to Be Listed Under Federal Endangered Species Act

On December 2, 2019, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed listing the Whitebark Pine (Pinus albicaulis) as a threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act. The tree's range covers more than 80.5 million acres in seven western states (Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, … [Read more...]