Inside This Issue

• A Message from the Executive Director
• Barn Dance Prep
• Champions of Conservation
• Pine Creek Field Day
• Woodland Dunes uses grant to purchase equipment and supplies
• Hayton Pond Paint-Out and Exhibit at Terra Verde
• Jurors select paintings for 2011 Calendar

A Message from the Executive Director

LNRP Continues to Grow

We hope you’ve been enjoying your summer and getting out and about in the Lakeshore Basin.  Just wanted to share our story of continued growth and maturation as an organization. 

By the end of the summer, we’ll have built our Board membership up to 14 individuals spanning across our programs and geographic region.  Sherrill Anderson is now firmly in place as our program assistant.  Collectively, we make a great team! 

We’ll continue to have a Community Grant Program every other year with our fifth round of grants planned for 2011.  Our Champions of Conservation Award Program will continue to recognize the environmental leaders of our communities.  We have two very significant restoration projects on Centerville Creek in Manitowoc County and on Pine Creek in Calumet County.  Finally, the We All Live on the Water Campaign will focus our activities on the groundwater and surface waters of northeast Wisconsin.

You too can have an impact.  Please consider joining us as a member, a volunteer, or a sign sponsor.  We truly appreciate your support!

Top

Planning Underway for 2010 Barn Dance

Partnering For Progress: Celebrating Rural Communities is a collaboration of Gathering Waters Conservancy, the Council of Rural Initiatives, Lakeshore Natural Resource Partnership and the Wisconsin School for Beginning Dairy and Livestock Farmers. Together we conserve farmland and natural resources, support beginning and continuing farmers, and sustain vibrant, rural communities to improve rural life in Wisconsin.

Last year we created Partnering For Progress to enhance our respective missions toward the shared goal of keeping life thriving in Wisconsin’s rural communities. We held an old-fashioned barn dance and harvest celebration on a historic, working dairy farm. The inaugural event was a huge success!

We celebrated the season’s harvest, Wisconsin’s farms and farmers, the value of working lands, our rural heritage, and recognized the need to conserve the state’s quality natural resources for everyone’s benefit. We built partnerships and raised vital funds to support our work to improve rural life. The event also created statewide awareness of rural development and environmental stewardship issues and raised thousands of dollars for our organizations. And we had fun!

The enthusiasm since last fall has been so invigorating we decided to make this an annual harvest celebration and build on this synergy to promote the importance of Wisconsin’s working lands and rural communities.

The Klessig family, who owns and operates the Saxon Homestead Farm—a fifth-generation, grass-based, family dairy farm that crafts its milk into artisan cheeses—is again graciously hosting the celebration in its restored, 160-year-old dairy barn in Cleveland, Wis., on Saturday evening, Sept. 25, 2010, 5 p.m.–10 p.m. Area growers and chefs are generously preparing to share their products, skills and creativity. And this year we have added more culture born from the land.

Join us and get:

• An old-fashioned barn dance with music by the King Comets—a lively, swing band.
  
  
• An exceptional, locally sourced appetizer buffet and refreshment bar, including artisana cheese from the farm’s Saxon Homestead Creamery.
  
  
• Special guest Jerry Apps, Wisconsin author, storyteller and historian, will read from his book Barns Of Wisconsin.
  
  
• Wisconsin Rural Art Show and Sale featuring the work of Water’s Edge Artists and award-winning painter, Bonnita Budysz, who spearheaded the exhibit Farm Stories: Studies Of A Disappearing Landscape, which won an award of excellence for its historical significance. Meet Wisconsin artists and authors, purchase their work and have them sign it.
  
  
• Door prizes, displays, conversation, beautiful scenery and fun on the farm!

Tickets can be purchased by sending $85 per couple or $50 per person to Jim Kettler at 7003 Cedarview Road, Cleveland, WI 53015.  Checks should be made out to LNRP.  Your contribution is tax deductible and will be split between the four organizations. 

Top

2010 Champions of Conservation Receive Awards

The Lakeshore Natural Resource Partnership (LNRP) and Dominion®, owner of the Kewaunee Power Station,awarded this year’s Champions of Conservation in the Lakeshore Basin at UW- Green Bay. For the first time, LNRP partnered with UW- Green Bay’s Environmental Business and Management Institute, the Center for Food in Community and Culture and SLO Food. Together we hosted the event May 20 in the Phoenix Rooms of the student union. A record number of participants enjoyed the delicious food and camaraderie, and we were honored to host well-loved Wisconsin writer Michael Perry. We also offered collectible paintings with an exhibit by the Water’s Edge Artists.

Dominion® sponsors this program to recognize and honor the outstanding achievements of groups, programs, organizations, businesses or individuals in a wide range of environmental initiatives throughout Northeastern Wisconsin.  The Champions of Conservation embody a commitment to environmental excellence, leadership, and accomplishment in their respective fields. Monetary grants are donated to the recipient’s favorite charity. This year’s winners:

• LNRP’s 2010 Champion of Water Resource Protection and Champion of Champions.  Door County resident Carl Scholz has served the Lakeshore Basin and state throughout his life in many remarkable ways. As principal of Sevastapol High School, he promoted environmental stewardship and created the environmental education proposal for regional schools.  From protecting sturgeon during the spring spawning season to being a Master Gardener, serving as president of the Ridges Sanctuary for 15 years and a volunteer naturalist for The Nature Conservancy, among many other accomplishments, LNRP and its partner, Dominion, awarded Carl $2,000 as the Champion of  Champions.

• As Champion of Land Use Protection and Habitat Restoration, Kay and Wayne Craig of New Holstein were selected. The owners and operators of Grassway Organics Farm, the Craigs followed a dream and purchased their 247 acre farm nearly 10 years ago. They practice “managed rotational grazing”-- getting the cows outside and onto green pastures, in fresh air and sunshine -- mimicking natural systems as much as possible, and promoting good health by enhancing the animal’s immune system. The Craigs milk about 100 cows and graze all of their calves on pasture throughout their life cycle. They also pasture-raise chickens for eggs and meat, dairy steer for meat, and use hogs to aerate bedded packs. They received $500.

• Coggin Heeringa has been the Director and Naturalist of Crossroads at Big Creek in Door County since 2001.  She has built and strengthened the environmental educational and outreach programs of Crossroads into models and standards for others to emulate, often putting in a 70-hour work week.  In 2009 alone, she led 129 school field trips for 2,226 children and hosted 160 adult programs with 4,646 participants as an ambassador for environmental education and water quality awareness. She was awarded $500 as the Champion of Environmental Education and Outreach.

Top

Pine Creek Field Day

LNRP and TRC Solutions hosted a field day at Pine Creek on July 13.  The field day was designed to provide landowners and other interested members of the public current information on the work underway at the site.

TRC is responsible for completing the environmental remediation of the polychlorinated biphenyls, commonly known as PCBs, found in the channel sediments and floodplain of Pine Creek and Hayton Pond.

Current activities have consisted of cleaning up the in-channel sediment and overbank soil.  The work is occurring about 4000 feet east of Honeymoon Hill Road where the contractor installed access routes and completed excavation of the site.  The flow of Pine Creek is temporarily diverted in short segments to allow the dry removal of PCB-contaminated soils.  The stream channel and floodplain are excavated using a backhoe.  After excavation, restoration of the stream channel and floodplain are completed with backfilling, grading, stream bank reconstruction, and revegetation with native plants.

The project will continue this year and next with completion expected sometime in 2012 or 2013.  All publicly available reports are available at the New Holstein Public Library.

Top

Woodland Dunes Nature Center Purchases Equipment and Supplies With LNRP Grant

The staff of Woodland Dunes in Two Rivers has improved their programming by purchasing equipment and supplies with an LNRP Community Grant awarded at the end of 2009.

Four microscopes were purchased for the third grade wetland program, Amphibmeander.  By using microscopes, students could closely observe macro-invertebrates.  Kelly Eskew says, “Through closer observation, students are able to learn more about the animals they are studying.  Learning more about the animals and how they function often leads to a greater appreciation and emotional attachment to the animals and the place they live.”

Sixteen pairs of wading boots were also purchased for the Water Wonders program, allowing each student an opportunity to hike through the marsh and search for macro-invertebrates in the pond.  Kelly added, “Teachers and students were thrilled to have this unforgettable experience."

Having the proper equipment to really explore and dive deeper into the natural world creates unforgettable experiences for students who visit Woodland Dunes.  Improving programs with more hands-on experiences guarantees teachers will continue coming back to the nature center with their classrooms year after year.

Top

Artists Paint Pieces of Local History and Share With Community

The first Saturday of June, if you were headed west from Manitowoc on Hwy 151 and drove through the unincorporated village of Hayton, you may have noticed several artists with easels surrounding the Hayton Pond on Pine Creek just a few miles east of Chilton. These Water’s Edge Artists were capturing this historical site on canvas in oils and pastels at one of their monthly paint-outs.

Later that same day, a few dozen local and area residents gathered at the Charlestown Town Hall to meet with the artists and one another, sharing stories of their youth. LNRP Board of Directors Don Schwobe and Rock Anderson recalled spending countless hours canoeing, fishing, and dining at the restaurant that now houses TRC Solutions staff and is owned by Tecumseh. TRC is in the process of reclaiming the waterways and lands where PCBs were deposited for decades by Tecumseh (see related article about the TRC Field Day in this issue).

These artists created works of spectacular beauty honoring Pine Creek, Hayton Pond and the structurally sound stone bridge hand-built in the mid-1800s. Then, on July 22, they presented 14 of these collectible works of art at a show at Terra Verde Coffeehouse in Chilton. Again, local residents came to peruse their paintings in an atmosphere of celebration and camaraderie.

Participating artists included Mary Rypel Anderson, Bonnita Budysz, Sharon Delvoye, Betsy Bultman, Cindy Tumpach and Phyllis Verhyen. LNRP’s Jim Kettler commented, “We hope by tying these paint-outs to critical restoration areas to expand awareness of -- and interest in -- these important resources. Through our DNR River Planning Grant, we’re engaging with the public as part of the ‘We All Live on the Water’ campaign.   We are working on Pine Creek in Calumet County, and on Centerville Creek and Hika Bay in Manitowoc County. We’re really excited to explore these educational opportunities.”

Upcoming paint-outs will take the Water’s Edge Artists to Sturgeon Bay Maritime Museum and environs August 6-7, and to two separate events in September. The first over Labor Day Weekend they’ll be at the Kite Festival at Neshota Beach, Two Rivers. September 10-11 they will visit High Cliff State Park (Friday) and the Fall Food & Energy Fest at Ledge View Nature Center, located just outside Chilton in Calumet County (Saturday). Both events help celebrate 2010 as the Year of the Niagara Escarpment. Concurrently, you can visit an exhibit that will run from mid-September through October at the Weis Earth Science Museum located at the UW-Fox Valley in Menasha. For more information, you can go to the Water’s Edge Artists website at www.lnrp.org/art. You can find the remaining scheduled Water’s Edge Artists’ paint-outs and events listed in the calendar at the right of this newsletter.

Top

Jurors select paintings for 2011 Waterways Calendar

We at LNRP are very fortunate to continue with the steady and inspired guidance of Barb Bundy-Jost for the daunting task to jury the prodigious entries – from the Water’s Edge Artists -- for our Lakeshore Waterways Calendar, and subsequent exhibit at the Rahr-West Art Museum, Manitowoc, in October. This year marks its third year of production.

Born during the Barbie Doll era, and named the same by her pediatrician, Barbara denies modeling her life after the plastic icon. Although immediately mesmerized by women’s accessories (particularly handbags and shoes) and being fascinated with ‘50’s- ‘60’s fashion and guys with 3-letter names like Ken or Jim, she flatly denies Barbie’s influence on her life.

Born, raised and educated in Manitowoc, Barb spent 23 years working for the Manitowoc Public School District as an art teacher, visual arts department head and a multimedia communications team teacher. In July of 2007, she was named Director of the Rahr-West Art Museum. This position was the realization of a dream come true and the beginning of an era where all ages will find excitement and fun things to learn at the museum. She adds, “As an educator, I met students who lived in Manitowoc their entire life but never set foot in the museum! My goal is to get students and their families involved in educational programs we offer, and open doors to places they never knew existed.”

As one of our new jurors for the 2011 Lakeshore Waterways Calendar, Kevin Crawford brings his extensive background in the energy industry as senior vice president of governmental affairs at Orion Energy Systems, Inc. in Manitowoc.

In addition, before joining Orion on Earth Day, April 22, 2009, Crawford served as the longest continually serving mayor of the City of Manitowoc from 1989 to 2009, having been elected to six terms. Under his leadership as mayor, Manitowoc Public Utilities grew to one of the largest municipally-owned electric generating facilities in Wisconsin.  As a result, Crawford is highly regarded — nationally and statewide — as an expert in the energy and utility industry.

As the senior vice president of governmental affairs at Orion, Crawford works closely with local, state and national governments, regulatory agencies, utilities, industry associations and other organizations to further the role of energy efficiency as a clean, low-cost and effective energy solution.

Dan Smith serves as the Senior Preservation Coordinator at the Kohler Foundation in Kohler. He brings 27 years of experience as a curator, administrator and museum consultant at historical societies in Providence RI, West Bend WI and Princeton IL, as well as the UW-Milwaukee Art Museum and Luxembourg American Cultural Society in Port Washington, WI. Dan holds an MA in photography from UW-Milwaukee and a BA in cinema and photography from the University of Illinois-Carbondale.

We are very grateful to the efforts of this talented group of jurors in selecting the winners from this year’s dazzling array of plein air paintings.

Top