Wild Reads

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Wild Reads is where we share stories about and from partners, landowners, and friends throughout the conservation community. Let us know if you have a story, book review, poem, or photos to share. We don't promise to publish everything we receive, but we'd love to know what you're reading, writing, and what you think is worth sharing.

Conservancy Stories
Hikes
Sightings
I delayed writing about the Trempealeau Lakes Trail for several months. I first hiked the three-fourths-mile trail in the late spring. The trail, located between Lake Road and the railroad…
Conservancy Stories
Sightings
While collecting water samples near the pond behind Stoney Creek Hotel, DNR Water Quality Specialist Jeremy King saw a bright orange fish and knew right away that it was a…
LA CROSSE, WI-November 18, 2020 – A pristine tract of Black River bottomland in La Crosse has been acquired by Mississippi Valley Conservancy through the bequest of Phyllis and Dean…
LA CROSSE, WI – October 23, 2020 – Gathering Waters, Wisconsin’s alliance for land trusts, presented the 2020 Land Conservation Leadership Land Legacy Award to the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual…
Climate Change
Conservancy Stories
Prairie strips provide diversity and erosion control for greater resilience to a wide variety of climatic events.
Climate Change
Conservancy Stories
Sightings
Data from a recent survey of reconstructed prairie habitat in La Crosse collected to help the declining population of monarch butterflies.
Passing the torch in land protection means enduring conservation value.
Conservancy Stories
Hikes
Sightings
Hiking at Tunnelville Cliffs southeast of Westby, Wisconsin, began with an email from Tom, a hiking buddy I have known for many years. He wrote, “It's been too long. We…
Climate Change
It is harvest time in the Coulee Region. Food is more than something we eat to survive. It is part of how we thrive. To break bread together, to harvest…
GAYS MILLS, WI—Ellen Brooks and Dave Hackett have lived a sheltered life for some 40 years – sheltered by the woods and east-facing hill that rises from the homesite on…
What’s Cooking?
I like this drink with lots of ginger so I use the larger amount indicated, but feel free to use either. If you think you'd like it less-sweet (although I…
While in the field with plant surveyors from the Monarch Joint Venture, the team reported seeing more rusty-patched bumble bees than monarch butterflies! Tom Rhorer photographed them (above). The location…
Book Reviews
I have lived with Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac for years, listening to his monthly ecological reflections on tape, read by former Secretary of the Interior, Stewart Udall. I…
Climate Change
Conservancy Stories
Sightings
Sometimes I find myself surprised by what a little attention to detail and taking a pretty picture can tell about the resiliency of the habitats Mississippi Valley Conservancy protects. On…
Conservancy Stories
Hikes
There are certain advantages of getting “lost” in Wisconsin's Driftless Area – you discover a lot of territory and sights you wouldn't ordinarily see – stately chapels in small hamlets…