Tag Conservation
Conservation, community, and a love for big monkeys: Karen Strier celebrates 40-year study of Northern muriqui
Since 1982, University of Wisconsin–Madison professor Karen Strier has worked to study the muriqui monkeys of Brazil and protect their habitat, along with an ever-growing community of researchers and conservationists. Read More
UW–Madison Arboretum designated a National Historic Landmark
The designation is based on the Arboretum’s pioneering work in restoration ecology, its place in the history of conservation, and its commitment to Aldo Leopold’s land ethic. Read More
Grassland conservation crucial to success of bioenergy
Protecting these natural lands right here in the U.S. offers an opportunity to make meaningful strides toward climate change mitigation while also improving wildlife habitat, water quality, and the delivery of many other ecosystem services. Read More
UW Arboretum added to National Register of Historic Places
The Arboretum is recognized because of its restored habitats, landscape architecture, education and research, architectural elements, and its hosting of a Civilian Conservation Corps camp in the 1930s. Read More
Madison Reads Leopold returns to UW Arboretum March 1–3
Public figures and community readers will give voice to Aldo Leopold’s keen observations and eloquent philosophy as written in "A Sand County Almanac" and other works of the noted conservationist, a former UW–Madison faculty member. Read More
Government transparency limited when it comes to America’s conserved private lands
“It’s difficult or impossible to advance planning, monitoring and evaluation without good information about where private land conservation is happening,” says UW researcher Adena Rissman. Read More
Aldo Leopold’s words once again broadcast to the state
In celebration of Earth Day, one of his successors will read portions of conservationist and former UW professor Aldo Leopold’s radio addresses that originally aired more than 80 years ago. Read More
Hugh Iltis, UW’s ‘battling botanist,’ dies at 91
Passionate, articulate and informed, Iltis was opinionated, sometimes argumentative, but always a fearless defender of the natural world he revered. Read More
UW botanist leads petition to give Venus flytrap endangered species protection
The plant faces multiple threats: habitat loss, diminished genetic diversity, predators and outbreaks of disease. Read More
Arboretum review seeks to strengthen iconic research program
The Arboretum was dedicated in 1934 and has served as a laboratory for generations of field ecologists, including the iconic conservationist Aldo Leopold. Read More
Bird habitat changing quickly as climate change proceeds
The climatic conditions needed by 285 species of land birds in the United States have moved rapidly between 1950 and 2011 as a result of… Read More
Study finds people transformed how species associated after 300 million years
The researchers found a surprising and very recent shift away from the steady relationship among species. Read More
Deadly fish virus still present in Wisconsin lake
In May 2007, hundreds of freshwater drum - also known as sheepshead - turned up dead in Lake Winnebago and nearby Little Lake Butte des Morts, both inland lakes near Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The fish were splotched with red and their eyes were swollen and bulging. Read More
Wisconsin’s fish – all of them – star in new poster series
Fully grown, the least darter is one inch long — Wisconsin’s smallest fish. The lake sturgeon, which can grow to more than 6 feet in length, is Wisconsin’s biggest. In between are 181 other species, and each and every one of them will soon have its moment in the spotlight, thanks to scientific illustrator Kandis Elliot. Read More
Bigger bang for your buck: Restoring fish habitat by removing barriers
A few years ago, researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison Center for Limnology created the first map of all the road crossings and dams blocking the tributary rivers that feed the five Great Lakes. These tributaries serve as migratory highways, providing fish like walleye and lake sturgeon access to headwater breeding grounds. Read More
UW–Madison offers free Leopold’s land ethic online course and February event
The University of Wisconsin–Madison will offer its next round of six Massive Open Online Courses beginning Jan. 26 with “The Land Ethic Reclaimed: Perceptive Hunting, Aldo Leopold and Conservation.” MOOCs are free online, noncredit learning experiences that allow people from around the globe to participate. Participants watch educational videos, engage in discussion forums, read articles and often take quizzes or complete educational activities. More than 135,000 registrants from approximately 140 countries and all 50 states signed up for UW–Madison’s previous phase one pilot of four courses. Read More
Pecatonica without the ‘P’: Project cuts phosphorus levels in river
Conservation experts and farmers alike are rather pleased with the news out of southwestern Wisconsin. A seven-year pilot project in the 12,000-acre Pleasant Valley subwatershed of the Pecatonica River has helped to reduce the amount of phosphorus and sediment entering the river after major storms by more than a third. Read More
Grasshoppers signal slow recovery of post-agricultural woodlands, study finds
New research by Philip Hahn and John Orrock at the University of Wisconsin–Madison on the recovery of South Carolina longleaf pine woodlands once used for cropland shows just how long lasting the legacy of agriculture can be in the recovery of natural places. By comparing grasshoppers found at woodland sites once used for agriculture to similar sites never disturbed by farming, Hahn and Orrock show that despite decades of recovery, the numbers and types of species found in each differ. Read More
New master’s program in energy conservation is first of its kind
A new professional master's program will launch at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in fall 2015 and become the first in the world specifically designed to train analytically minded students to evaluate energy efficiency and other resource-conservation initiatives. Read More
Climate change alters cast of winter birds
Over the past two decades, the resident communities of birds that attend eastern North America’s backyard bird feeders in winter have quietly been remade, most likely as a result of a warming climate. Writing this week in the journal Global Change Biology, University of Wisconsin–Madison wildlife biologists Benjamin Zuckerberg and Karine Princé document that once rare wintering bird species are now commonplace in the American Northeast. Read More