Promising Practices: Students Taking Action

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Promising Practices Students Taking Action

• Exotic Species Control Conserve School
• Scientific Research Pittsville High School
• Restoration River Crossing School
• Letter Writing Stoughton High School
• Teaching Tri-County High School

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Exotic Species Control

• Conserve School
• Mandi Brock

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Tug-a-suckle" and Tug-a-barberry" Exotic
Plant Species Control Project

• Mandi Brock
• Conserve School
• Forestry Conference
• November 16, 2004

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What are Exotics???

• Exotics are
• Non-native plant species
• Plants that can overrun natural habitats
• Weeds that have massive amounts of seeds

• Honeysuckle

Japanese Barberry
http//www.lastgreatplaces.org/berkshire/images/ph
oto296.jpg
http//harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/museum/images
/honeysuckle.jpg
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Why are Invasives so Successful?

• Invasive plants are prolific seeders
• These plants are generalists, i.e. they grow well
  in a variety of conditions
• Invasives are hardy plants
• They are hard to eliminate
• Invasives rapidly reproduce in large numbers
• They have few, if any, natural enemies including
  pathogens, parasites, predators and other
  competing species

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Whats so Bad about Them?

• Invasive plants destroy natural habitats
• They eliminate natural plant species reducing
  biological diversity
• Invasives force changes in animal patterns
• They cost billions of dollars to control
• In general they change our landscape ecosystem
• Invasives prevent the regeneration of young trees

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Where?
http//DNR.WI.Gov
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With help from citizen groups, schools and
other volunteers it makes short work of this
undesirable job. We were able to pull over 1,000
pounds of the exotic plants -Colleen Matula
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What You Can Do

• Learn to identify invasive, exotic weeds.
• Remove known invasive plants from your property
• Check if plants are invasive before you purchase
  and plant them.
• Educate friends, neighbors, and local nurseries,
  about the problems caused by invasive, exotic
  plants.
• Avoid spreading exotic plants you may come in
  contact with while enjoying outdoor activities by
  removing seeds and plant fragments from clothing
  and equipment before leaving the area.

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Think Globally Act Locally
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Special Thanks

• Colleen Matula - DNR Botanist
• Woodruff, WI
• Contact your local DNR representative for
  information on how you can become involved in
  helping solve problems in your local community.

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Bibliography

• Plants Out of Place Brochure Developed by the
  Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission.
• http//DNR.WI.Gov

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Scientific Research

• Pittsville High School
• Autumn Wilke

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Porcupine Research Project Sandhill Wildlife Area
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Porcupines

• Sexually mature at age 1
• Have an average littler size of 1
• Give birth in April or May
• Mate in the fall
• Babies are called porkiepets
• Reach adulthood at age 2

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Catching Porcupines
To check if a porcupine is in its den you put
your ear next to the tree, then pound with your
hand. If a porcupine is in the den you will hear
it climbing up the inside of the tree.
Baby porcupines are called porkiepets.
Porkiepets are born in late April or early May.
You can find porkiepets hiding in the brush in
the spring underneath the tree that the mother is
feeding in.
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Den Types
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Processing Porcupines

• After catching a porcupine, we bring it back
  to headquarters where we take measurements. We
  measure its total length, the length of its tail,
  and the size of its feet. We also measure its
  girth size.

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Processing
Next we determine its age based on the teeth that
it has and the wear upon them. We also determine
the sex of the animal. After we have taken all
of the measurements and have recorded the data,
we inject a pit tag to help in identifying the
animal at a later time. When we go out looking
for porcupines, we always take the scanner with
us. If the animal has a tag we can minimize undue
stress on the animal by simply scanning it and
then releasing it instead of processing.
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Release
When we release the animals we spray paint them
so that we can identify those that we have
already caught. For example, the above right
porcupine has been sprayed on both the left and
right rump.
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Predators
Fishers and a lucky coyote are the only threats
to a healthy adult porcupine. Fishers have just
recently moved into the Sandhill area, so it will
be interesting to see if we will see a decline in
porcupine population statistics in the next
several years.
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Recapture Rates
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Recapture Stats

• of Juvies recaptured in subsequent winters 11
• of yearlings caught in subsequent winters 47
• of all adults recaptures in subsequent winters
  56
• of adults originally caught in the periphery
  recaptured in subsequent winters 38
• of adults originally caught in the core zone
  recaptured in subsequent winters 66
• Probability that any porcupine will be recaptured
  in subsequent winters 47.6

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Huber
Huber was the radioed porcupine at Sandhill for
several years. By studying Huber while he was
radioed, we were able to learn a lot about a
porcupines home range.
We also learned that Huber had a unique habit.
He never denned during the whole time he was
radioed. He is the first porcupine we
encountered that is like this. We are wondering
if perhaps adult males are less likely to den
than females and yearling males.
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Ecological Restoration

• River Crossing Charter School

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River Crossing Living Laboratory and Portage
School Forest

• River Crossing Charter School
• Portage Community Schools

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Our school forest

• An Oak Woodlot
• A Wetland
• A Wet Meadow
• An Oak Savanna
• A Pine Plantation

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Getting started

• Collected a series of maps (aerial maps,
  topographic maps, and plat maps)
• Talked to previous land owners
• Conducted a site analysis
• Invited foresters out to the forest to get their
  opinions

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Stumbling blocks

• Invasive Species- removed them at a time when the
  seeds would not spread
• Overgrown trees- marked and cut out the trees
  that were choking out the native trees

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Restoration process

• Removed invasive species
• Cut down dead, sick or overgrown trees
• Cleared trails through the forest and the wetland
  
• Made the wetland trail handicap accessible
• Made signs to put up in the forest along the trail

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Knowledge gained

• Sustainable forestry management techniques
• Compatible land use
• Tree and plant identification
• Mapping skills
• Research
• Industrial education
• Design and publishing

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Other benefits

• More diverse ecosystem
• Better habitat for fauna
• Other teachers can take classes there
• Community members can hike trails and observe
  wildlife
• We can get out and enjoy our environment!

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Community effort

• River Crossing students and teachers
• Members of the Environmental Action Club
• Members of the Wisconsin Waterfowl Association
• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
• Wisconsin DNR

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Any Questions?

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Issue-Based Letter Writing

• Stoughton High School

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Northern Highland American Legion State Forest

• Letter Advocating Expansion
• Stoughton High School

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The expansion area is in red.
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Will to family?
Sell to the government?
Keep?
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After
283,000 acres
Before
226,000 acres
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Wolf Population Recovery
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No cover
NHAL (WI)
Ottawa (MI)
No travel
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Land Bridgecover travel
Ottawa (MI)
NHAL (WI)
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Private land owners have to pay property taxes
which pay for personal and community services as
well as schools.
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Which would be a more valuable piece of property
to you? This.
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. or this?
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The expanded forest will
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? benefit the environment
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? benefit the environment
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? provide recreation
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? provide recreation
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? generate additional revenues
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? generate additional revenues
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When you have the opportunity to make a positive
change in the environment - go for it because
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.it is our future - lets make a difference!
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Teaching Other Students

• Tri-County High School
• Amanda Krohn

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Tri-County High SchoolEnvironmental Education

• Teaching Other Students

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Tri-County School Forest

• Established in 1969 in the town of Hancock
• 240 acres of public land
• 160 acres of Conservation Easement Property
  established in 1991
• School District is in charge of managing the
  School Forest and using it for Environmental
  Education

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How to use the forest?

• Wasnt being used by the district
• Teachers werent properly trained on teaching
  environmental education outdoors
• Surveys taken
• School Forest Committee formed

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Environmental Education

• Established in the summer of 1993 by Larry Mancl
  and Tom Whalley
• Wanted to make use of the Tri-County School
  Forest
• Forest could be used as an outdoor classroom
• The program is funded by revenue generated from
  the School Forest and district funds
• Funds are allocated by a School Forest Committee
  consisting of community members, teachers,
  administration, and students

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EE Counselors

• What it takes
• Application Process
• Summer Training
• Trip Planning
• Special Events
• Legacy Projects

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Summer Training

• Six week course
• Units of study
• Ecology
• School Forest History
• Forestry Resources
• Wildlife and Plantlife
• Soil Resources
• Water Resources

• Teacher Training
• PLT
• Project Wild/Aquatic Wild
• Peer Teaching
• Lesson Plans
• Practice Teaching
• District EE Resources
• First Aid and CPR

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The School Forest Today

• Shelterhouse
• Observation Tower
• Leopold Benches
• Bluebird, Butterfly, and Bat houses
• Lizas Prairie
• Trail Maintenance

• Trail signs
• Storage Shed
• Amphitheater
• Lakes
• Bathrooms
• Challenge Course
• Cross country ski trails

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Promising Practices Students Taking Action

• What will you do in your community?