We’re Teaming up with the Natural Resources Foundation!
We are excited to share that Snapshot Wisconsin is partnering with the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin! The Natural Resources Foundation is a 501c3 nonprofit organization whose mission is to connect generations to the wonders of Wisconsin’s lands, waters, and wildlife through conservation, education, engagement, and giving.
A Rich History of Conservation
The Natural Resources Foundation was founded in 1986 and has grown to fill an important and unique conservation funding niche that no other organization does. Beyond providing funding for our most imperiled species and ecosystems, the Natural Resources Foundation also strives to provide meaningful opportunities for Wisconsin’s residents to connect with our natural resources.
Bluff Creek State Natural Area restoration work funded by the Natural Resources Foundation’s Cherish Wisconsin Outdoors Fund in 2017. Photo by Bridget Rathman.
Connections With Our State’s Natural Resources
Currently the Natural Resources Foundation offers a variety of nature connections for their members and beyond. Grants are available to educators and conservationists across the state, ranging from supplying classrooms with binoculars to reconstructing the trails of our beloved State Natural Areas.
Thanks to a 2019 NRF Go Outside Fund grant, Caledonia Conservancy purchased new equipment for their 4th and 6th grader participants in the School to Nature Program. Photo credit: Julia Dreher.
The Foundation also operates their Field Trip program, providing an exciting variety of experiences to witness the wonders of our state’s wildlife and landscapes up close. Snapshot Wisconsin staff members have proudly served as past Field Trip leaders, educating participants about efforts to monitor the reintroduced elk populations.
Kayakers explore Coldwater Canyon of the Dells of the Wisconsin River as part of the Natural Resources Foundation’s Field Trip program. Photo by Patty Henry.
What does this mean for Snapshot Wisconsin?
Forming a partnership with the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin will allow the Snapshot Wisconsin team to collaborate outside of the box. We are excited to extend volunteer opportunities to the members of the Natural Resources Foundation, including hosting a series of trail cameras on properties that have received their priority funding. For our current Snapshot Wisconsin volunteers, we are looking forward to new and exciting opportunities for trail camera hosts, students, and educators involved in the project. More to come on that later!
Students classifying Snapshot Wisconsin trail camera photos. Photo by Skylar Primm.
Learn More about the Natural Resources Foundation
You can learn more about the Natural Resources Foundation, their programs and their impact at www.WisConservation.org. We look forward to this partnership and what it will mean for the Snapshot Wisconsin project!
September Travels
The end of September is a beautiful time to travel around Wisconsin. This fall we have had a lot of opportunity to get out and enjoy the fall colors as we travel around doing in person trainings across the state. Taylor and I traveled up to Crandon and Merrill for a few days for trainings and gave a talk about Snapshot to the Lincoln County Sports Club. We were fortunate to have Friday afternoon off so we took the opportunity to check out Council Grounds State Park just outside Merrill. We had a lovely walk along the lake shore and as usual found ourselves checking out animal sign along the way. We found bear sign but didn’t see any bears. We did see some late season harebell flowers, lots of fly mushrooms, a white throated sparrow and possibly a migrating magnolia warbler.
Whenever we travel we like to take the opportunity to try the locally owned restaurants. We were fortunate to have a really good Mexican restaurant, Los Mezcales right next door to our hotel in Merrill. We have been keeping a journal of our travels since we started the project back in 2016. It is fun to look back and remember our adventures over the past 2 plus years.
On Saturday, we left Merrill to head to Black River Falls where we met up with Joe to lead a Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin Field Trip out to a couple of our elk monitoring cameras. The fall colors around Black River Falls were even prettier than they were farther to the north. About a dozen attendees met us at the Black River Falls WDNR office parking lot for a preview of our trip and a brief introduction to the elk reintroduction and monitoring programs. There are about 200 or so cameras around the Jackson County Forest specifically for monitoring the elk herd that was reintroduced to the area in 2015. These cameras are all maintained by volunteers with the Snapshot Wisconsin Elk Monitoring project.
After our discussion about the elk we drove about 20 minutes outside of town to reach the camera locations. A short hike into the woods brought us to our first camera location. Taylor showed the attendees how to perform a camera check, which includes recording the date and time of the camera check, the number of photos recorded on the SD card in the camera and changing out the SD card and batteries. We took another hike to a camera nearby and one of the field trip attendees took over doing the camera check. One of the other attendees found some wolf sign in the area, and the camera did have a wolf proximity sensor associated with it. We will have to wait and see if any wolf pictures show up at this camera site.
We plan to host this field trip for NRFW again next year. Folks local to the Wisconsin area should check out the field trips offered by NRFW every year. Many are led by DNR employees or employees and volunteers of other conservation groups across the state. They are a great way to learn more about conservation and get an inside look at what is going on in Wisconsin. Curious to learn more about elk? Check out this page on the WDNR website: https://dnr.wi.gov/topic/wildlifehabitat/elk.html To signup to participate in the Snapshot Wisconsin elk monitoring project send an email to DNRSnapshotWisconsin@wisconsin.gov with the subject line “Elk Monitoring”.
Snapshot Wisconsin in the Prairie
Last week we traveled to western Iowa County to help lead a Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin field trip showcasing one of our very first camera sites. Most Snapshot Wisconsin cameras are located in wooded areas, but this one is in a restored prairie/wetland. Over the last year this site has captured some incredible photos of birds, including spotted sand piper, sand hill cranes and great blue heron. We were thrilled that the landowner was willing to host and help lead the field trip, and it was a wonderful treat to spend the afternoon outside in such beautiful surroundings.
According to the landowner, the property was used for conventional agricultural up until 8 years ago when he began converting it to prairie. There is also a trout stream running through the property which has benefited from funding and restoration work by Trout Unlimited.
We were fortunate to have Darcy Kind along to help lead the trip. Darcy works for WDNR as a Conservation Biologist for the Landowner Incentive Program, which helps private landowners create and manage habitat for rare or declining species. Darcy has extensive knowledge of native plants and worked with this landowner on restoration projects throughout the 240 acre property.
Prescribed fire has played a key role in clearing brush and encouraging the growth of native plants on the property. Most of the native plant species we saw were not planted, but emerged from the existing seed bank that remained in the soil through decades of agriculture! During the trip we saw rare Hill’s thistle, four species of milkweed, Goat’s rue, lead plant, and many more native forbs and grasses. We also saw red and white oaks thriving in a restored oak savanna, and red headed woodpeckers which nest in at least two places on the property.
Thanks to Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin for providing the opportunity for us to share this beautiful property and promote Snapshot Wisconsin! Anyone who lives in or near Wisconsin should check out their upcoming field trips.
We hope to lead this trip or a similar trip next year. Subscribe to our e-newsletter to receive this announcement and other updates from Snapshot Wisconsin.
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