News

February 2021 – Gardening, Culture, and Community Resilience

February 2021 – Gardening, Culture, and Community Resilience

Posted on , updated on by Intern
When you think of gardening and growing your own food, do you also think of your cultural heritage, and the deep history attached to using plants to feed one’s family? Maybe today I can convince you that gardening (and foraging!) can be a cultural practice that connects people together through time and space, evoking cultural roots and a deep sense of community belonging that has tied people together for centuries. Maybe I can also show you how urban agriculture and ...Continue Reading →
January 2021 – Greenhouses

January 2021 – Greenhouses

Posted on , updated on by Intern
In temperate areas, the growing season is only so long, and the plants that can be grown are limited by their hardiness in local soils and climates. Enter the greenhouse: using temperature and humidity controls, we can grow nearly any type of plant year-round within glass walls! Greenhouses have been essential in increasing food production as well as in maintaining collections of rare plants from around the world. In the cold of winter, it's amazing to think that plants that ...Continue Reading →
December 2020 – Biodiversity

December 2020 – Biodiversity

Posted on , updated on by Intern
Many biologists believe we are in the midst of a sixth mass extinction on our planet. Pretty scary to think about - but it's not all bad news for the future. Many organizations and individuals are working hard in conservation efforts to support biodiversity and the diverse ecosystems of this planet, and there have been successes! One of the first major biodiversity conservation successes in the United States was the recovery of bald eagle populations after being decimated by DDT. ...Continue Reading →
May 2020 – Four Ways to Encourage the Next Generation of Environmentalists

May 2020 – Four Ways to Encourage the Next Generation of Environmentalists

Posted on , updated on by Intern
Some of the Nature Net readership might know that I've spent the last couple months as a part time graduate student at the University of Wisconsin's School of Human Ecology. The program, Civil Society & Community Research, is designed to encourage scholars to look at communities as human-centered yet ecological. That is, our civil societies, just like ecological systems, are rich in diversity, interconnections, and interdependencies. Just as you pull on one strand of the web in an ecological system ...Continue Reading →
March 2020 – World Water Day

March 2020 – World Water Day

Posted on , updated on by admin
It’s hard to ignore the swelling in-box and urgent news reports regarding Covid-19 and the current pandemic. Nor should we ignore them. We at Nature Net hope that you and your family are safe and healthy. We wish peace and well-being for our global community, too, as we navigate these unprecedented times.  I have found that my worries subside as I carry on with (virtual) meetings, plans for the future (the draft version on the 2020 Nature Passport is in ...Continue Reading →
February 2020 – Citizen Science

February 2020 – Citizen Science

Posted on , updated on by admin
While I and others in this wintry clime await the days of parka-free hikes and skies filled with bird-song, I enjoy attending the UW Arboretum's weekly Winter Enrichment lecture series. The lecture series was originally designed to connect Arboretum educators with UW research and ecological experts over the quiet days of winter. The program has since evolved to offer weekly education and fellowship to over 100 attendees from across the community. A recent lecture focused on the breadth of work ...Continue Reading →
January 2020 – Urban Trees

January 2020 – Urban Trees

Posted on , updated on by Intern
When my kids were little, we had a paper map of all the trees growing around the Wisconsin capitol square. As I remember, it was produced by the Madison Children's Museum. I did a quick search online and couldn't find it - a paper version of anything these days is simply a relic. But hope was not lost! This past year, at an Environmental Education Conference, I had the pleasure of meeting Nicole Filizetti from the LEAF Program (read more ...Continue Reading →
November/December 2019 Nature Net News – Hunting

November/December 2019 Nature Net News – Hunting

Posted on , updated on by admin
Growing up in an urban area and without a robust hunting tradition among my family members, I didn't realize until later in life just how strong the hunting culture is throughout most of Wisconsin. My aunt and uncle were both school teachers in Lake Mills (pop. 5,000). They tell me that deer hunting season rendered the classrooms half empty as families took to the fields starting in mid-November. I also didn't realize people could legally hunt black bears. Until I ...Continue Reading →
October 2019 Nature Net News – Constellations

October 2019 Nature Net News – Constellations

Posted on , updated on by admin
October Constellations   Now that the sun sets around 7pm (and with daylight saving ending soon) there's plenty of time for pre-bedtime star-gazing with your kids. And, with the new moon (Oct 27, 2019) and a couple clear nights in the forecast (before the snow!), now is a perfect opportunity to brush up on fall constellations in view in the Northern hemisphere. A few of my favorites are viewable around 7pm this time of year: Draco the Dragon, Cygnus the ...Continue Reading →
September 2019 Nature Net News – Climate Conferences

September 2019 Nature Net News – Climate Conferences

Posted on , updated on by Intern
September Climate Conferences You would be hard pressed to turn on the news this week and not see a story about Greta Thunberg and her appearance at the United Nations Climate Action Summit. And so it was, when my middle-school son breezed by my home-office, that I was watching a clip of the 16-year-old activist speaking to an audience of roughly 250,000 protesters in New York city. "Wait, what was that?" he asked. I hit replay and we watched it ...Continue Reading →

Upcoming Events

View Calendar