I have had the privilege to work with professional staffs and volunteers on many projects and significant venues throughout Wisconsin. They include the majestic Baraboo Hills, the expansive Barneveld Prairies, the Hardwood Forests in our Northland and the ecologically significant Door Peninsula, the Upper Mukwanago River Watershed and of course our treasured spectacular State Parks, including Wyalusing, Devil's Lake and Whitefish Dunes to name a few.
While conservation of those resources is very important to me. I was always drawn back home to Dane County, our parks, our land, and water resources.
Dane County was particularly blessed by Mother Nature and from her children the glaciers. We have some of the finest natural resources and majestic views in the Midwest. We have beautiful rolling hills in the west, expansive majestic prairies in the east and an extraordinary chain of lakes in the middle.
Our area has been recognized by our native predecessors for thousands of years and still is today, as our county has over half a million population and is the fastest growing Wisconsin county.
Why do people love, our green spaces, parks and natural resources?
- Green Spaces enhance the quality of life because of easy access to the outdoors, recreation and its natural beauty.
- Parks, trails and natural resources boost local economies by drawing visitors, and tourists; our county parks receive over two and three quarter million visitors a year which help fuel the economy of our region.
- Good physical and mental health is promoted by Parks and Trails by offering readily available inexpensive facilities for people to use.
- Parks and Resource Areas help prevent flooding and keep our waterways cleaner through the wetland system.
- Programming in Parks serves public interests from natural resource education to providing venues for performing arts, cultural programming, and many forms of recreation.
- Most importantly, it's in our DNA, as hypothesized by the world renowned scientist and Pulitzer Prize winner EO Wilson, a man with whom I had the honor of spending an evening. He propounds that the human species has an instinctive bond with other living things and with the natural world around us. We gain our sustenance from that bond. Nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive and even spiritual satisfaction.
Spectacular Natural Resources:
Our County Parks and natural resource areas combine with other preserved lands like those held by the Natural Heritage Land Trust, we have over 30,000 acres in conservation. However, that is barely adequate. Still we have some of the most spectacular natural and cultural resources; whether it's Brigham County Park in the west with one of the best views of Blue Mounds, or whether its:
- Cam Rock County Park in the South East, with trails along Koshkonong Creek;
- Pheasant Branch Conservancy with its natural springs to Indian Lake and its majestic valley,
- The expansive 800 acre Donald Park or the small peaceful Jenni and Kyle Preserve
- The 12,000 year old Skare Archeological Site in the Town of Dunn,
- The Ice Age trail and the unique Westport Drumlin
- The Capital Springs Recreation Area, a Park that I believe will eventually become the Central Park of Dane County,
- Educational venues like Patrick Marsh a natural resource neighboring a middle school in Sun Prairie, which is a laboratory for educating our school children about the natural world.
I cannot tell you how lucky I am to have been a small part in preserving those gems and helping to craft the necklace of green connecting our county parks, natural resource and recreation areas.
Need for Community Support:
I want to highlight the importance of community support in accomplishing our mission. That support manifests itself in Friends groups and volunteer programs. What makes Dane County so special is the support we all, as volunteers, provide to our Parks and our natural resources. We are part of a "special army" of volunteers who breathe life into our natural lands.
That is why I am excited about a new partnership between the Natural Heritage Land Trust and the Madison Community Foundation. This project will increase our capacity to protect and manage land and help build personal connections with our local places and cultivate new conservation leaders, helping to sustain our work into the future.
However, we cannot just look back because we have much work to do. Our County's population is growing -- with that growth we need more land to be preserved to maintain our quality of life;
The Future:
We need to develop more trails and resource areas connecting our existing natural lands including the Georgia O'Keefe Trail near Sun Prairie, a Native American Heritage trail, and the Good Neighbor Trail, as well as the Westport-Cherokee Resource Area to name a few.
We need tasteful visual art in our County Parks. We only have to visit Jenni and Kyle Preserve to experience the extraordinary impact art can have on a Park. Our Parks have unique features and tasteful art can enhance people's experiences and make our Parks destinations.
We need to stay ahead of financial crises and possibly reduced government funding. Dane County has supported us well but In tight times, one of the first areas to be targeted can be funding for parks and Natural Resources. We only have to look at the State Parks and Milwaukee County for scary examples. That is why we have started the Friends of Dane County Parks Endowment as a private non-governmental fund to support the parks.
You may ask why do this when that's the government's job. I wrestled with that question but I decided that our parks and natural resources are too important to just trust politicians. (after all I was one of them once). With our County's growth will come more issues that can drain resources in the years to come. We aren't just planting trees for the present but trees for the future under whose shade we may not sit but for those who come after us will.
We need to empower our volunteers and Friends groups as they are our champions. They can assist us in our stewardship of our land and provide for amenities that government will not provide. For example, Friends groups can help provide Naturalists to breathe life into our parks, clear invasives, create internal trails and programming to enhance people's experience and knowledge.
Our natural resources provide a unique experience to our users and an invaluable asset for our future. Visiting and experiencing them gives each of us memories which we will carry with us forever. Those memories cement our bonds with our family, our friends, and our community and with Mother Nature.
"Our parks are not just pieces of land. They are vibrant parts of a community; they are a source of pride, and places for people to reconnect with the natural beauty around us."
While conservation of those resources is very important to me. I was always drawn back home to Dane County, our parks, our land, and water resources.
Dane County was particularly blessed by Mother Nature and from her children the glaciers. We have some of the finest natural resources and majestic views in the Midwest. We have beautiful rolling hills in the west, expansive majestic prairies in the east and an extraordinary chain of lakes in the middle.
Our area has been recognized by our native predecessors for thousands of years and still is today, as our county has over half a million population and is the fastest growing Wisconsin county.
Why do people love, our green spaces, parks and natural resources?
- Green Spaces enhance the quality of life because of easy access to the outdoors, recreation and its natural beauty.
- Parks, trails and natural resources boost local economies by drawing visitors, and tourists; our county parks receive over two and three quarter million visitors a year which help fuel the economy of our region.
- Good physical and mental health is promoted by Parks and Trails by offering readily available inexpensive facilities for people to use.
- Parks and Resource Areas help prevent flooding and keep our waterways cleaner through the wetland system.
- Programming in Parks serves public interests from natural resource education to providing venues for performing arts, cultural programming, and many forms of recreation.
- Most importantly, it's in our DNA, as hypothesized by the world renowned scientist and Pulitzer Prize winner EO Wilson, a man with whom I had the honor of spending an evening. He propounds that the human species has an instinctive bond with other living things and with the natural world around us. We gain our sustenance from that bond. Nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive and even spiritual satisfaction.
Spectacular Natural Resources:
Our County Parks and natural resource areas combine with other preserved lands like those held by the Natural Heritage Land Trust, we have over 30,000 acres in conservation. However, that is barely adequate. Still we have some of the most spectacular natural and cultural resources; whether it's Brigham County Park in the west with one of the best views of Blue Mounds, or whether its:
- Cam Rock County Park in the South East, with trails along Koshkonong Creek;
- Pheasant Branch Conservancy with its natural springs to Indian Lake and its majestic valley,
- The expansive 800 acre Donald Park or the small peaceful Jenni and Kyle Preserve
- The 12,000 year old Skare Archeological Site in the Town of Dunn,
- The Ice Age trail and the unique Westport Drumlin
- The Capital Springs Recreation Area, a Park that I believe will eventually become the Central Park of Dane County,
- Educational venues like Patrick Marsh a natural resource neighboring a middle school in Sun Prairie, which is a laboratory for educating our school children about the natural world.
I cannot tell you how lucky I am to have been a small part in preserving those gems and helping to craft the necklace of green connecting our county parks, natural resource and recreation areas.
Need for Community Support:
I want to highlight the importance of community support in accomplishing our mission. That support manifests itself in Friends groups and volunteer programs. What makes Dane County so special is the support we all, as volunteers, provide to our Parks and our natural resources. We are part of a "special army" of volunteers who breathe life into our natural lands.
That is why I am excited about a new partnership between the Natural Heritage Land Trust and the Madison Community Foundation. This project will increase our capacity to protect and manage land and help build personal connections with our local places and cultivate new conservation leaders, helping to sustain our work into the future.
However, we cannot just look back because we have much work to do. Our County's population is growing -- with that growth we need more land to be preserved to maintain our quality of life;
The Future:
We need to develop more trails and resource areas connecting our existing natural lands including the Georgia O'Keefe Trail near Sun Prairie, a Native American Heritage trail, and the Good Neighbor Trail, as well as the Westport-Cherokee Resource Area to name a few.
We need tasteful visual art in our County Parks. We only have to visit Jenni and Kyle Preserve to experience the extraordinary impact art can have on a Park. Our Parks have unique features and tasteful art can enhance people's experiences and make our Parks destinations.
We need to stay ahead of financial crises and possibly reduced government funding. Dane County has supported us well but In tight times, one of the first areas to be targeted can be funding for parks and Natural Resources. We only have to look at the State Parks and Milwaukee County for scary examples. That is why we have started the Friends of Dane County Parks Endowment as a private non-governmental fund to support the parks.
You may ask why do this when that's the government's job. I wrestled with that question but I decided that our parks and natural resources are too important to just trust politicians. (after all I was one of them once). With our County's growth will come more issues that can drain resources in the years to come. We aren't just planting trees for the present but trees for the future under whose shade we may not sit but for those who come after us will.
We need to empower our volunteers and Friends groups as they are our champions. They can assist us in our stewardship of our land and provide for amenities that government will not provide. For example, Friends groups can help provide Naturalists to breathe life into our parks, clear invasives, create internal trails and programming to enhance people's experience and knowledge.
Our natural resources provide a unique experience to our users and an invaluable asset for our future. Visiting and experiencing them gives each of us memories which we will carry with us forever. Those memories cement our bonds with our family, our friends, and our community and with Mother Nature.
"Our parks are not just pieces of land. They are vibrant parts of a community; they are a source of pride, and places for people to reconnect with the natural beauty around us."
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