Happy Earth Month and Arbor Day!

April is Earth Month, April 22nd is Earth Day, and April 25th is Arbor Day!

It was a big year for seedling requests from Wisconsin's 4th grade classrooms! The Wisconsin DNR reports fulfilling over 1,000 requests totaling 55,700 seedlings! That's the most orders in the past couple of decades and means a lot of educators and students will be planting seedlings this year. Great job everybody!

Don't forget to check out LEAF's lesson Caring for the Future of Forests which provides step-by-step directions for planting both ball and burlap trees, as well as seedlings. Let us know how it goes, email us at leaf@uwsp.org.

Urban Forests: They've got it made in the shade!

It’s probably not too hard for most LEAFlet readers to find a memory of relaxing under a nice shady tree on a hot summer day. Most of us have experienced the relief that the tree canopy provides and understand instinctively that shade is one of the important benefits that trees give us.

A single tree can cool a house enough to save $10 a month on cooling costs. Imagine what that means for a whole street full of trees, then extrapolate that out to an entire city. A healthy tree canopy can have a significant cooling effect on urban environments. Some estimates show that the urban forest can drop the temperature of cities by up to 9º Fahrenheit!

When cities lack urban forest, a phenomenon known as an urban heat island can take effect. An urban heat island is created in an area that has a larger proportion of surfaces like concrete, asphalt and similar building materials. These materials absorb and hold heat from the sun’s rays during the day, causing increases in the local temperature. The increased temperature in turn leads to higher energy consumption as residents rely on more cooling from air conditioners, which also play a role in increasing outdoor air temperature. Thus, the cycle of increased heating continues.

The trees planted along city streets, in backyards, and in neighborhood parks come together to create the urban forest, which is a vital tool for fighting the urban heat island effect. Urban forests contribute other important services, such as reducing noise and light pollution, providing habitat, slowing erosion, and reducing water pollution. LEAF's 5-8 Urban Forest Benefits lesson has been updated to help students understand how urban forests combat urban heat." if you still want to include a link to the lesson

Urban forests are also increasingly valued for the role they play in mitigating climate change. As the number of summer days above 100º continues to climb in Wisconsin, cooling from the urban canopy is becoming even more important as a tool for fighting the damaging effects of extreme heat. But trees also absorb and hold carbon dioxide as part of the process of photosynthesis, making them essential for slowing the rate of climate change.

Planting more trees in urban areas, such as efforts like the Trillion Tree Pledge, and sustainably managing urban forests with an eye towards the effects of climate change, will continue to be important steps in this fight.

Summer PD Opportunity

Join us for Resistance, Resilience and Transition: Learning About Climate Smart Forestry in Wauwatosa’s urban forest this summer to learn how the Forest Exploration Center (FEC) is working to help Wisconsin’s forests adapt to a changing climate.

In the morning of this hands-on workshop, we will assist the FEC and the Wisconsin DNR Division of Forestry with data collection at experimental Forest Regeneration Monitoring Plots, where experts will demonstrate different strategies that are being used in Climate Smart Forestry. The afternoon will include an introduction to LEAF and Project Learning Tree lessons that help bring the concepts learned back to the classroom. Though any educator is welcome to attend, the lessons discussed will focus on middle and high school science and agriculture.

Lunch is included in this workshop, and support is provided by the Forest Exploration Center through a grant from Wisconsin SFI Implementation Committee.

Cost: FREE

Date & Time: 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m., Thursday, July 31, 2025

Location: Forest Exploration Center, Wauwatosa, WI

You can learn more about how professional foresters are planning ahead for the future using Climate Smart Forestry practices in a professional development opportunity being offered this summer at the Forest Exploration Center. In the meantime, we encourage you to start planting more trees in your urban forest environment this spring!

School Forest Seed Collection Sows Seeds of Success

LEAF and the Wisconsin DNR collaborated last year to get Wisconsin’s School Forests more involved in tree seed collection. Educators in Almond-Bancroft, Laona, and Rhinelander helped pilot seed collection efforts in their School Forests in the fall of 2024.

Video thumbnail showing two students twisting pine cone off a red pine tree.

In Almond-Bancroft, 7th-grade Science Teacher Brenda Sherman brought her students out to harvest red pine cones. Twenty-six students learned about red pine reproduction and assisted in harvesting a half-bushel of cones.

In Laona, Science Teachers Karen Biedermann and Amy Vaclav brought out their middle school and high school students to learn about seed collection. Unfortunately, though the forest was rich with a variety of tree species, none of them were viable for seed collection that day. Students were able to collect a few hemlock cones to investigate.

In Rhinelander, School Forest Manager Mike Cheslock helped various groups of elementary students learn about seeds, seedlings, and different types of trees. All-together, students collected 66 pounds of red oak acorns.

Seed Collection Workshop

Join fellow outdoor educators to learn how to collect tree seeds to support reforestation efforts at school forests and elsewhere across Wisconsin. Design a program to lead your students to collect seeds to sell to Wisconsin's State Nursery. The seedlings grown from them will go back to school forests. Educators will gain experience with tree identification and natural history as related to seed production. Most of this workshop will take place outside at one or more school forests.

Cost: $50

Date & Time: 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m., Monday, July 14, 2025

Location: Twin Oaks Environmental Station, Kronenwetter, WI

Learn More!

Encouraging tree seed collection in School Forests is a way to create fun and meaningful educational opportunities. It is also one way LEAF is ramping up for the School Forest Program’s centennial.

Tree seed takes 2-3 years’ time to mature into the seedlings that get planted. So seed collected through the pilot project and through the summer and fall of this year, 2025, should be ready to plant as the School Forest Program celebrates 100 years of its existence during the 2027-2028 school year.

LEAF and the DNR are currently developing additional seed collection resources to get more students involved in seed collection at their school forests. Join us this July to get access to those resources and learn the fundamentals of seed collection.

Professional Development

In-Person Trainings

School Forest Seed Collection Workshop | July 14 | Kronenwetter

Resistance, Resilience and Transition: Learning About Climate Smart Forestry | July 31 | Wauwatosa

On-Demand Trainings

LEAF On-Demand, Online Offerings

Project Learning Tree On-Demand, Online Offerings

LEAF featured on WPC's Paper Files Podcast

Listen to Gretchen Marshall, LEAF Forestry and Outdoor Education Specialist, give an overview of our program and how we work with educators and industry partners to promote forest literacy throughout the state.

Thank you to the Wisconsin Paper Council's Mykaila Chaffin for taking some time last month to get to know us better and spread the word about LEAF!

Listen Now!

Pat Arndt Receives WSST's Gibbs Award

Pat Arndt, retired Berlin High School science teacher, received the Wisconsin Society of Science Teachers' (WSST) Ron Gibbs Award Thursday, April 4th, during its annual conference in Oshkosh.

The Gibbs award, WSST's most prestigious, is given to honor a person who has made outstanding contributions in science education over a long and distinguished career in Wisconsin.

In addition to his more than three decade commitment to the Berlin Area School District, Pat has deep connections to LEAF and the Wisconsin Center for Environmental Education. He was part of the group of educators and other stakeholders that came together for a two-day meeting in the spring of 2002 to develop LEAF's first Conceptual Guide, helping chart the course for the program in its early days.

He was also a key player in updating the Berlin School Forest's education plan, an effort LEAF's director at that time described as "easily one of the best ed plans I have seen."

Pat went on to serve as a LEAF ad hoc instructor from 2004-2016 helping us expand our reach and fulfill our mission of educating educators statewide. Pat helped nearly 200 of his fellow educators gain a deeper knowledge of forestry education during this span.

Pat Ardnt demonstrating forestry tools to a teacher at a LEAF training in 2007

Pat was part of the task force that helped develop LEAF's High School Forestry Scope and Sequence from 2020 through 2021. In this role he attended focus group meetings, sharing a treasure trove of lessons, ideas, and wisdom.

Pat was also an ad hoc for KEEP, our partner program, which focuses on K-12 Energy Education. He reached more than 600 educators on the energy education side from 1997-2014. In 2018 he was recognized as one of KEEP's Energy Educators of the Year for his work in the classroom.

All of us at LEAF, KEEP and the WCEE congratulate Pat on this well-deserved recognition!

Have questions or need additional resources? Contact us at leaf@uwsp.edu. We are here to support educators and students with forestry opportunities.

Workshops

Kits

Curriculum

Published for April 2025