Upcoming Events

Virtual Mondays@ Mead

The Mead Education and Visitor Center will be hosting a series of virtual presentations on Wisconsin’s amazing flora, fauna, and natural resources. Presentations are on Monday nights from 6:30-7:30pm (CST), beginning with the month of April and ending in October. Mondays @ Mead, will feature a unique topic, led by the State’s leading experts and current researchers. These once a month presentations are free and sponsored by the Aldo Leopold Audubon Society.

Advanced registration is required. See details below.

Self-guided Interpretive Walks at the Mead Wildlife Area

The Mead Wildlife Education Team is pleased to welcome families, teachers and homeschools to a series of monthly self-guided interpretive trail walks for 2021.  Groups are encouraged to get outdoors and enjoy the seasons throughout the year. While exploring the three habitats and the inter-relationships with wildlife on the Mead property groups must follow the DNR COVID rules; social distance, stay with your family pod, groups size of 10 or less, and wear a mask if interacting with others not in your group.  Trail information handouts and tools needed will be available in the brochure rack where the walk begins at the Main Entrance Front Kiosk Parking Lot. See below for list of topics and dates.

Virtual Mondays@ Mead dates and presenters:

April 26: Keep Wildlife Wild (KWW)-Amanda Kamps, WDNR Wildlife Health Conservation Specialist will present information on why it is important to keep wildlife wild, how wildlife differ from domestic animals, what to do if you encounter an injured, orphaned, or sick wild animal and laws protecting wildlife. Zoom Registeration link: https://bit.ly/3wuGb8r

May 24: Prairie Chickens-Lesa Kardash, WDNR Wildlife Biologist will present on prairie chicken population status and current grassland management techniques. Zoom Registration link: https://bit.ly/3miz5iM

June 28: Snapshot Wisconsin-Sarah Cameron, WDNR Volunteer Coordinator & Research Technician will present on history and goals of the project, how to volunteer, educational impact in classrooms, and how data is used.  Zoom Registration link: https://bit.ly/2R3PJHb

July 26: Wisconsin Monarchs-Karen Oberhauser, University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum Director, Aldo Leopold Professor of Restoration Ecology, Professor-Department of Entomology will present on the life cycle, habitat, and migration of monarch butterflies. Zoom Registration link: https://bit.ly/39FdE6r

August 23:Wild Rice in Wisconsin-Jason Fleener, WDNR Wetland Habitat Specialist, will discuss Wisconsin’s wild rice history, ecology and harvesting. Zoom Registration link: https://bit.ly/3mlyPiY

September 27: Astronomy-Sebastian Zamfir, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, UWSP - Physics and Astronomy, and Director of Blocher Planetarium & Pejsa Observatory, will discuss star gazing and constellations in the night sky. Zoom Registration link: https://bit.ly/39JboLr

SPECIAL EDITION October 11: Bats in Wisconsin-Janet Raddatz, Wisconsin Master Naturalist and WDNR bat program volunteer, will discuss the eight bat species recorded in Wisconsin, how bats have a significant role in ecosystems, bats as pollinators, how bats survive winter, and which species migrate from Wisconsin. Zoom Registration link: https://bit.ly/31QFCaS

October 25: Wisconsin Turtles-Andrew Badje, WDNR Conservation Biologist will present turtle identification, range, and ecology of Wisconsin’s 11 native turtle species. Zoom Registration link: https://bit.ly/3wnpfRc

2021 Self-Guided Interpretive Walks at The Mead Wildlife Area:

  • April –  Wake up Wetlands!  4/16/21 – 5/13/21
  • May – Frog Scavenger Hunt 5/14/2021 – 6/10/21
  • June - Native Grasslands/Prairies  6/11/21-7/15/21
  • July -  Winged Wonders-Native Pollinators (Pollinators Week 6/21-6/27) 7/16/21 – 8/12/21
    • Bees, Bats, Birds and Butterflies
  • August – Wildlife of Native Prairies 8/13/21 – 9/9/21
  • September – Tree ID & Leaves 9/10/21 – 10/14/21
  • October - Owls in Wisconsin 10/15/21-11/11/21
  • November – Wisconsin Wildlife Safari - 11/12/21 – 12/9/21
  • December – Bald Eagles - 12/10/21 – 1/20/22

The Mead Education team can be contacted: Pam Resech: pamela.resech@wisconsin.gov                                                                                                                   Text Pam’s Cell Phone: 715-315-9393                                                                                                                                                                                                    Joan Voigt: joan.voigt@wisconsin.gov

Mark Your Calendar's  

April 16 to May 13, 2021

Wake up Wetlands!  You have work to do this Spring!

Wetlands provide critical benefits to plants, animals, humans, and the environment. There is a wide variety of insect diversity that depends on wetlands for survival. Some insects, such as dragonflies, damselflies, caddisflies, and mayflies, develop as larvae within the wetland before they emerge as adults into the terrestrial habitat.

The food webs within wetlands can be quite complex. Insects shred plant material and graze on algae, breaking down and recycling nutrients within the system. Predators eat many of these insects and often each other as the larvae grow within the wetland’s waters. Most aquatic insects emerge from the wetlands and are transformed into the terrestrial adult insects most of us are familiar with. As adults, these insects continue to play an important role within the wetland community.

As you hike along the “Wake up Wetlands” trail you will discover some of the unique aquatic insects that we have here at the Mead. The trail starts at the Visitor Front Kiosk parking lot down to Turkeyfoot Trail, over to the Wildlife Scrape and ends at Dragonfly Pond.

The following are pictures of a damselfly adult and larva.