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Woodland School Announces Fall/Spring Courses
 Have a vision for your land but don’t know where to start? Let us get you going on the right foot. Since 1998, ALF’s Woodland School has offered hands-on land stewardship classes designed to help private landowners and public land managers realize their vision for land. We offer a wide range of workshops from prescribed burning and timber stand improvement to wetland management and birding. Pick the one that’s right for you and come join us in the field!
View detailed course descriptions or register online. If you have further questions please contact Alanna Koshollek, Woodland School Coordinator, at 608-355-0279, ext. 30.
Courses for Fall 2009-Spring 2010:
Saturday, October 10: Timber Stand Improvement
Sunday, October 11: Game of Logging I
Saturday, November 14: Plant Communities of Southwest Wisconsin
Saturday, December 12: Fire Behavior
Saturday, January 9: Ignitions
Saturday, February 13: Game of Logging I
Sunday, February 14: Game of Logging II
Thursday-Friday, March 25-26: Introduction to Prescribed Burning
Thursday-Friday, April 1-2: Introduction to Prescribed Burning
Saturday, April 10: Wetland Management
Saturday, May 8th: Birding the IBA
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Leopold Center Welcomes New Gifts
 The Leopold Center has been delighted to welcome two new Leopold artifacts to our collection in the past month: Aldo Leopold's office chair and his gun cabinet. The chair was donated by Aldo's youngest son, Carl Leopold, and his wife, Lynn, of Ithaca, New York. The gun cabinet was donated by Scott and Sandy Ellarson of Madison, Wisconsin. Scott is the son of Bob Ellarson, who was one of Aldo Leopold's graduate students. Mrs. Leopold gave Bob the gun cabinet, which was made by the Leopold Furniture Company, as a gift in 1953. Both of these pieces of furniture are on display at the Leopold Center and will be used in future interpretive exhibits about Leopold's life and work. Visit us this summer to preview the new interpretive signs in our exhibit hall and give us valuable feedback on what else you would like to see at the center.
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Yale Conference Webcasts Now Available
 The Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies hosted a Symposium on April 3rd, 2009 honoring Aldo Leopold’s Graduation Centennial from the school and his acclaimed contributions to environmental conservation. Leopold became a leading and radical voice in American conservation, launching his land ethic in his celebrated A Sand County Almanac. The day-long symposium appraised Leopold’s legacy and examined how his land ethic might be reformulated for the global environmental and social challenges of the 21st century.
The audio recordings of the five sessions from the Symposium are now available as netcasts here. Simply click on the word "netcast" following the title of the session.
You can also access the recordings on iTunes. Simply go to Yale on iTunes U, click on "Environment" and scroll down to episodes 47-51.
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Two Ways to Volunteer with ALF
Saturday, Sept. 12: ALF Annual Volunteer Day. Bring the family out to the Leopold Center for a day this fall! We'll start at 9am and provide a variety of volunteer work projects--from washing windows to weeding to cleaning the Shack, there's something for everyone. We'll break for lunch (provided), then we invite you to join us for free tours of the Leopold Center and Shack in the afternoon. Read more about Volunteer Day.
Want to volunteer for the Foundation on a regular basis? We have a new list of volunteer projects, so whether you have a few hours one day or want to come out regularly we'll find something for you to help with! Contact Kathy Pelzek at 608.355.0279 for more information.
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Come Canoeing with Us!
 On September 26, the Aldo Leopold Foundation will host a members-only canoe trip in partnership with Upham Woods Outdoor Learning Center. Join us as we canoe the beautiful Wisconsin River from Wisconsin Dells to the Leopold Shack. We’ll meet at Upham Woods in the morning and paddle alongside the sandstone formations that made the Dells famous. We’ll portage around the dam, and continue on in a very different river landscape as we enter Aldo Leopold’s “sand counties.” The entire stretch of river is home to many birds and wildlife species and it will be lovely on a fall morning! We’ll have lunch at the Shack and then offer an in-depth tour of the Leopold Shack and Farm property. Join us!
Open to Aldo Leopold Foundation members and their families only. If you're not a member, you can join today.
Advance registration required. Cost is $40 per person, which includes all equipment rental and lunch. Limit 30 people. To sign up, contact Education Coordinator Jennifer Kobylecky, 608.355.0279 ex. 27.
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Learn From the Experts!
September 4: Land Health on the Leopold Memorial Reserve
1:00 – 3:00pm.Why should we care for land? What is the Aldo Leopold Foundation doing about it? Join staff ecologist Steve Swenson for a discussion and exploration in the field of land stewardship, land health, the Important Bird Area (IBA), adaptive management and conservation partnerships in the area. Steve has been working for ALF since 1999, and is responsible for the science and stewardship work on foundation property and in partnership with private landowners. Steve’s work builds on the critical connection between people and land – the land ethic. He received his Bachelor’s degree (1995) in environmental science and biology from the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay and a Master’s degree (1999) in plant ecology from The Ohio State University. Register here.
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Notes From the Field
 The land stewardship crew spent all of July combating a new invasive plant: Japanese Hedge-Parsley (Torilis japonica). Native to Eurasia, Japanese Hedge-Parsley is relatively new to Wisconsin, first recognized as a threat to native plant communities by the Department of Natural Resources in 2006. It is capable of forming dense populations and spreading rapidly, which means that it could become a serious problem if it is allowed to continue spreading. Learn more about Japanese Hedge-Parsley and how to identify it on the DNR website, or read the stewardship crew's 2009 report on how we're managing it on the Leopold Reserve.
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New! Green Building Audio Tour
 Thanks to a grant from the National Association for Interpretation Region Five Mini Grant program, visitors to the Leopold Center can now explore the “greenest building in the United States” with an audio tour. Tour recordings are stored on mini mp3 players that can be rented from the visitor desk, and give detailed descriptions of the local materials, alternative energy technologies, and green design techniques used throughout the center. This audio tour is part of a pilot test of several new interpretive materials being introduced to visitors this summer. Next time you visit, we hope you'll use it and share your feedback with us! In future years, we plan to refine the tour by including interviews with members of the building team, and by uploading the tour as a free podcast on the web. We’re also working with some local teens to write and produce a “for kids, by kids” audio tour, so look for more tour options coming soon!
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