​While many outdoor enthusiasts enjoy the sights and smells of native Wisconsin, Eve Emshwiller experiences Wisconsin flora with her sense of taste too! On a fine Sunday afternoon, 16 eager novice foragers joined Eve to learn about the flavors that lie within the grasses and thickets of the Preserve. 
 
With a bucket of plant samples in tow, Eve highlighted many species of plants including lambs quarter, American black nightshade, wild ginger, creeping charlie, anise root, and wild sumac which could be relished in the forms of fresh greens for a salad, juicy berries, candied rhizomes, teas, licorice-tasting seeds, and lemonades respectively. 
 
A main takeaway was the importance of timing! While some plants were harmless to savor throughout their growth stages, other plants were only recommended to consume in the early growth stages (e.g. you should only eat the early solomon seal plants, when the stem and leaves are knee high and leaves are still curled) or only when fruit was completely ripe (e.g. this is true for elderberry and mayapple fruit). 
 
Eve also guided the group through the Preserve to point out plant species to wholly avoid eating. Some of these poisonous members included white snakeroot-- the culprit famously responsible for Abe Lincoln’s mother’s death (the toxins were ingested by cows, transferred into their milk, and lethal to the consumers) --, poison ivy, and the European high bush cranberry. 
 
Overall, the trip was truly a… treat! Eve provided some…  food for thought: a unique perspective and route for members to reimagine Wisconsin landscapes! Friends host and photos Olympia Mathiaparanam.

The hours passed quickly!  In this bird-banding session, we saw a number of common yellow throat warblers (several of them very young!), several types of sparrows, a fly catcher, chickadees, three species of wren (marsh wren, sedge wren, house wren). I was glad our 13 visitors got to experience this process and I hope this description entices others to attend future bird-banding “field trips”. I highly recommend this to people of all ages, but particularly to parents with young children. I was told, however, that the mist nets don’t always catch as many birds. We were lucky today with 22 birds- last week they banded 48, but sometimes there are only a few. The 7 volunteer bird banders are an impressive group, and Jackie is a wonderful leader and educator!  ​Report by Friends Host Lillian Tong. Photos by Lillian Tong and Arlene Koziol.

On this beautiful cool Sunday morning, UW Arboretum naturalist Susan Carpenter met the group of 7 Friends who gathered for her Pollinator Tour at the entrance to Picnic Point. She prepared us for our observations of these important pollinators by reviewing the life cycle of a bumble bee colony.  I was fascinated by her description of the hardworking queen bumblebee, who emerges in the spring from her solitary underground hibernation, collects nectar from flowers and sets up a nest nearby. Working alone, she lays her first batch of eggs, fertilized in the previous summer, and sits on them to warm them. The queen has to leave the nest to gather more nectar and pollen to feed the hatched larvae which mature into adult female worker bees. As the season progresses, the queen lays unfertilized eggs which develop into haploid males that leave the nest in search of other queens to fertilize. Susan gave each of us a laminated copy of the Bumble Bee Brigade Field Guide to Females and Males of 21 bumblebee species. She also gave us a Rusty Patched Bumble Bee Midwest Plant Guide to native plants that will attract most of the other bumblebee species, too.  

Susan encouraged us to take our own photos of bees and submit them to the Wisconsin DNR’s Bumble Bee Brigade, wiatri.net/inventory/bbb.  As the insects' territory is squeezed by climate change, and they face threats from pesticide use, loss of habitat and disease, the DNR and the Xerces Society can use our observations to guide their bumblebee conservation efforts.  
Bumblebees sighted today:
Bombus auricomus       black and gold
Bombus bimaculatus    twospotted
Bombus griseocollis      brownbelted
Bombus impatiens        common eastern
Bombus vagans            half-black
The federally-listed-as-endangered bee that we were hoping to see, but did not:
Bombus affinis        rusty patched
​
​Many thanks to Susan for her very engaging and informative tour. Report by Doris Dubielzig and Friends host Steve Sentoff, Photos by Glenda Denniston, Doris Dubielzig, Seth McGee, Steve Sentoff

​On a beautiful Saturday afternoon, Professor Glen Stanosz shared his knowledge of trees with five enthusiastic guests. As attendees strolled through the shaded paths near Picnic Point, Glen identified ash, oak, red pine, and white pine trees among other woody species. 
Each tree species was paired with a remarkable tale of conquest by fungal or insectivore invaders… occasionally intertwined with hopeful twists of perseverance as researchers discover some tree species are beginning to develop resistance against their pesky assailants:

• Ash trees face adversity from two fronts: emerald ash borer (EAB) insects and the Candidatus fraxinii bacteria which can harm ash trees’ ability to store and transfer water and nutrients, respectively. Glen noted that most ash trees in the Preserve have succumbed to the forces of Candidatus fraxinii, displaying the characteristics of Ash Yellow disease (a sparse crown, with leaves that exhibit a “cupped” shape as you look at higher branches of the tree, and a “witches broom” in newer branches) which reflect the consequences of a failing root system. However, the future of ash trees is not necessarily bleak according to Glen, as new research indicates that ash trees are developing resistance to both EAB and Candidatus fraxinii. 

 

• Oak trees commonly fall victim the coordinated acts of the Bretziella fagacearum fungus and their sap beetle accomplishes. The Bretziella fagacearum fungus can colonize in wounds of oak trees and create a mat of sweet-smelling spores under the oak bark to attract sap beetles. Fresh oak tree wounds also release a sweet smell and attract sap beetles— so sap beetles can effectively spread the Bretziella fagacearum fungus from oak tree to oak tree if as they alternate visits to alluring sweet-smelling fungal pads and equally appealing oak wounds. Researchers have discovered that sap beetles can detect oak wounds just 15 minutes after a wound is created— an impressive skill, but extremely problematic in the eyes of scientists who want to mitigate spread of oak wilt disease. Once established in the oak tree, Bretziella fagacearum spreads through the root system of the tree until it ultimately kills the oak.

While trees face incredible feats against fungal and insect invaders alike, Glen described how this harassment is a result of trees’ tempting design. Trees are made of two main components: cellulose and lignin… in other words, trees are made of sugar and glue! So, if trees have the audacity to grow tall and advertise their sweet composition to the decomposers in their ecosystems, that must mean trees have some secret defenses of their own. Indeed, Glen skillfully pointed out trees using their defensive ability to compartmentalize their trunks; these trees created a seal that trapped an invading fungus on the interior of the trunk, allowing the living outer region of the trunk to service the tree unharmed. 
 
Finally, Glen referenced a non-fungal threat to forests: climate change. With observed warming trends in Wisconsin, Glen said it is possible that the composition of forests may change over time. Glen hypothesizes that Wisconsin may lose its maple and conifer trees, but retain hickory trees as hickory trees can be found in southern/warmer regions of the US. ​​Report and Photos by the Friends' host Olympia Mathiaparanam.

My first day…as a water quality monitor—Doris Dubielzig reports:
"In our first year as a Lake Forecasting Steward with Clean Lakes Alliance, the Friends recruited a team of volunteers, each of whom committed to collect near-shore data twice a week for a month. Our site is the floating pier at the boat launch on University Bay across from parking lot 60. Steve Sentoff was the first to make observations, beginning shortly after Luke Wynn, Watershed specialist for CLA, trained our 7 member team in late April.  Nicole Miller and Genevieve Murtaugh continued in June. I had signed up for July. On Monday night, I drove to Nicole’s home, where she handed me the Instruction Book, the digital thermometer and the turbidity tube.

​John Magnuson explained how the marsh water and ecology are challenged by road salt runoff, primarily from 

• Snow plowed from campus roads and walks and stored in a massive pile next to the Marsh
• Storm water drainage from the UW Hospital complex, and overflow from the parking lot and Highland Avenue storm sewer to the south of those buildings. 

John gave participants copies of photographs from his recent submission to Wetlands Journal. The article is focused on salt input to the Marsh.  He then led the group to those sites.

This tour of cultural landscapes on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison was led by Aaron Bird Bear, Assistant Dean for Student Diversity Programs in the School of Education. Aaron Bird Bear has ancestry among the Diné and is an enrolled citizen of the three affiliated tribes (Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara).
The walk began at the Memorial Union, at the second floor foyer of the main lounge, the original main entrance to the building. Fourteen of us listened as Aaron Bird Bear began with an introduction to the over 12,000 years of human occupation of the lands of UW-Madison, which is located on the traditional homelands of the Ho-Chunk Nation. At the entrance to the Memorial Union we learned about a part of UW-Madison history that is still little known even to long-term members of the community: the “pipe of peace” rituals that accompanied graduation ceremonies from l89l to l940. In these peace pipe events, large groups of European-American students pretended to be Native Americans, using stereotypes of rituals, regalia, and dialect. The Memorial Union was built in the middle of the early 20THCentury period of dominance of these ceremonies, and the peace pipe was featured in the official seal of the Union. In addition to hearing about these strange and nearly forgotten peace pipe rituals we also looked up at the ceiling of the foyer at the paintings of a dozen Indian warriors with feather headdresses, yet another stereotypical example of how Indigenous peoples were depicted at the time the Memorial Union was built. 
We learned that Picnic Point includes the oldest evidence of human occupation in the local area (Dejope, name meaning “four lakes” in the Ho-Chunk language). Picnic Point includes evidence of human occupation at least l2,000 years ago, when the four lakes were a connected into one larger lake.
We made stops at two of the historical markers on campus, beside North Hall and Social Sciences. At each of these we discussed how these markers depict local and regional history through the point of view of white settlers, not of Indigenous peoples. The emphasis of these plaques is on the settlers’ "hard experience of colonizing the rugged west" and that Black Hawk “retreated” while being “pursued” by militia through the area in 1832, both plaques ignoring the long occupation of the area by the Ho-Chunk nation.
Aaron summarized the history of the forced treaties from 1829 to 1837 that were intended to remove the Ho-Chunk people from Wisconsin. White settlers first wanted the lead mines of the Ho-Chunk, and later their agricultural land as well. Despite several forced marches of Ho-Chunk people to different areas west of the Mississippi, many of them kept resisting by coming back to their ancestral homelands in Wisconsin, where Ho-Chunk people continue to live today.
Overlooking Lake Mendota on Observatory Hill, we learned that the current forested areas along the shore are a recent change. Previously the area was much more open, as it was maintained by Indigenous people as a bur oak savanna by fire ecology. A number of bur oaks exist on campus that are old enough to have begun their lives while the Ho-Chunk were maintaining the land as savanna.
We ended the tour at the effigy mounds at the western end of Observatory hill. These are a couple of the extant mounds on the lands of UW-Madison; many of the mounds having been destroyed in the construction of campus buildings. Although marred by sidewalks, the two effigy mounds can easily be seen on observatory hill, a large bird effigy and a unique two-tailed water spirit (previously labeled a two-tailed turtle in some sources). Here we learned more about the history of mound building over more than 2000 years in Wisconsin, and the destruction of most of the mounds in the few centuries since the arrival of European Americans in the area. We came away with a much better understanding of the history of campus lands.  
Images of the Observatory Hill mound group, including historical images of the two-tailed water spirit can be found here: http://www.wisconsinmounds.com/ObservatoryHillMounds.html. More information about >12,000 years of Indigenous history at the preserve can be found here: https://lakeshorepreserve.wisc.edu/native-americans-and-the-preserve/. Summary prepared by the Friends host Eve Emshwiller.

Dave Harring, aka Captain Dave, helped lead the not-quite-three-hour tour with emeritus professor John Magnuson, former director of the UW Center for Limnology, using two boats for the group of twelve.  Both were tremendous hosts with an outpouring of joy and sharing their love of the lake with us. As in previous years, they surveyed the entire lake edge of the Preserve. Magnuson discussed the history, geology, flora and fauna observed along the shore, as well as writings about Lake Mendota, research and many more subjects.

• Main stops: about 100 yards offshore from the Limnology building, Wally Bauman Woods, Frautschi Point, north shore of picnic point, south shore of picnic point, and back at the Limnology building for a quick dissection microscope session to get a closer look at the Daphnia

• Sampling activities: a small dredging from the former sandy beaches (the 'ring of gold'), macro-invertebrate (video of very active Daphnia), macroflora raking (Eurasian watermilfoil and zebra mussel captured in photo)

The group of participants was lucky enough to see pelicans and also one adult Bald eagle flying over the lake. Bank swallows were nesting in one of the cliffs. It was a privilege and of great interest to view the Preserve from the perspective of the water. We are fortunate that John, Dave and the Center for Limnology are sharing expertise and resources so generously with the public. Tom Bryan, Friends, host, and Glenda Denniston of the Friends provided the report and the photos.