Dear Friend,
Spring is here, and it’s an exciting time of year! An important part of WCLC’s mission is to protect and care for environmentally significant water, because without clean water, life cannot exist.
In this newsletter, you’ll learn about why our region’s wetlands matter, and why we monitor frogs and other amphibians. You’ll also enjoy a recap of our 2019 annual meeting, which was a celebration to remember.
Please save the date for the Earth Day event at Good Harvest Market on Saturday, April 22. Good Harvest will donate 5% of proceeds to WCLC.
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Thank you,

Cheryl White
Executive Director
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A night of celebration, inspiration, and impact
Our legacy and future of conservation
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Thank you to all our annual meeting sponsors and everyone who joined us at our 2019 annual meeting. We celebrated the legacies of Ellen Gennrich, Susan Marguet, and Phil Hinman, who are stepping down from the WCLC board after years of impact.
If you weren’t there, you can click the
year-in-review presentation
. The night was capped off by featured speaker, Geoffrey Bishop, who spoke on the importance of connecting young people with nature.
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Why wetlands?
The importance small-wetland restoration
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Eighty percent of all wildlife species depend on wetlands at some point in their lifecycles. For example, migratory water birds require wetlands for stopover habitat, breeding, and brood-rearing, all of which are essential to their survival.
You've likely heard of our region’s largest wetlands such as Horicon Marsh, but our smaller wetlands have a tremendous collective impact on flooding, wildlife-population sustainability, water quality, and other factors that impact our landscape.
It's important that we steward these smaller wetlands with the same care that we do their larger relatives. In fact, smaller wetlands offer us a unique advantage; when we collect and slow water from smaller wetlands in the upper reaches of a watershed—where water volume is often less—we protect the larger, lower wetlands from becoming overwhelmed.
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For more information,
read the full article
by Peter Ziegler, Wisconsin Waterfowl Association project manager and check out
My Healthy Wetland
,
a handbook for wetland-owners from another great nonprofit, the Wisconsin Wetland Association (WWA).
Did you know there are two WWAs that conserve wetlands in Wisconsin?
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Fun with frogs
Build your citizen-scientist skills
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Many ecologists consider frogs to be valuable indicators of environmental change because they play critical roles in wetland food webs. Frogs provide necessary nourishment for fish, reptiles, birds, mammals, and other amphibians. Because they spend part of their lives in water and part on land, frogs can be monitored to measure the effects of water, air, and land pollution.
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Our new Community Conservation Partnership (CCP) Program
Engaging all people with nature
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The CCP program centers on providing our citizens with increased nature access and environmental education opportunities, especially people from our underserved communities and youth. The program will expand local citizen-science and experiential learning programs and enable us to better protect our globally imperiled oak ecosystems.
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In the words of
David Attenborough, “No one will protect what they don’t care about, and no one will care about what they have never experienced.”
We received a generous lead gift from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation that enables us to hire an education and outreach manager to lead the CCP program. You can support this important program by
becoming a member
.
If you or someone you know might be interested in applying to lead this exciting new program, you can read the education and outreach manager job description and application instructions, below.
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Spring and summer preserve tours and workdays
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Sign up to take tours of our preserves this summer and spring and join our ranks of wonderful volunteers!
All workdays go from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Visit our Facebook page for instructions on how to get to our properties.
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Broken Hill (Pewaukee):
Saturday, June 1
Saturday, June 15
Thursday, June 20
Thursday, June 27
Tuesday, July 9
Saturday, July 13
Hartland Marsh (Hartland):
Saturday, May 18 (tour date)
Thursday, June 6
Tuesday, June 18
Saturday, June 29
Tuesday, July 2
Thursday, July 11
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Meyer Preserve (Between Eagle and Mukwonago):
Saturday, June 8 (tour date)
Tuesday, June 25
Martin’s Woods (near Big Bend):
Saturday, May 11 (tour date)
Tuesday, June 4
Thursday, June 13
Saturday, June 22 (tour date)
Saturday, July 6
Tuesday, July 16
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Thank you to our "Oaktober" fest and annual meeting sponsors
Making a difference in our community
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Shawn Graff & Cheryl White
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Scrima, Kabitzke & Co., S.C.
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We encourage you to support businesses that support land, water, and wildlife conservation in our community. Click on the logos, above, to visit their websites.
By becoming an "Oaktober" Fest sponsor, you, too, can demonstrate to your customers that you believe in
the “power of green and gold”
—
that what’s good for the environment is good for business. Click the button, below, to learn more about our tremendous sponsorship packages.
We hope that you and your family will join us at “Oaktober” Fest 2019, which will be held on
Saturday, October 5, 2019
at Stone Fences Farm in Dousman, Wisconsin. We will gather in the company of some of Wisconsin’s remarkable trees, including Tizza and Glen Meyers’ 311-year old champion burr oak, to celebrate our beloved oak ecosystems.
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Get Involved with WCLC Today
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Volunteer:
In addition to workday volunteers, we need skilled professionals to help us. If you have knowledge in human resources, training, marketing, or sales—or if you are a CPA or IT professional—WCLC needs your help! Email Cheryl White at
wclc@wi.rr.com
if you want to join
Wisconsin's 2018 Land Trust of the Year.
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Become a monthly donor on Facebook:
When you give to WCLC via our Facebook page, we don't incur credit card fees,
so your entire donation reaches us. Consider becoming a $5.00, $10.00, $15.00, or more monthly donor and make a difference throughout the year
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Use Amazon Smile to give while you shop:
Consider connecting your Amazon account to AmazonSmile. At no additional cost to you, Amazon will donate a percentage of your eligible purchases to the organization of your choice. Sign in to your account at
smile.amazon.com
,
click “
change charity,” and search for "Waukesha County Land Conservancy."
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#HaveFunOutside
Save the Date
"Oaktober" Fest
| Sat., Oct. 5, 2019
Workdays | Spring schedule announced
Click the icon on the left to visit our website for more information about upcoming events!
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