BADGER

insider

Tree Huggers
Badgers love the greenery
in the UWs scenery.
Plus, the Arboretum: 80 years of burning and learning.

The Magazine for Wisconsin Alumni Association Members Summer 2014

 BADGER

insider
Paula Bonner MS78
WAA President, Publisher
Mary DeNiro MBA11
Chief Engagement Officer
Jim Kennedy The UW loves its natural areas unnatural as they may be.
Senior Managing Director,
Marketing and Communications
Kate Dixon 01, MA07
Of the 936 acres of area on central campus, 325 of them are classified as natural
Managing Director, areas. These include Muir Woods, the Lakeshore Path, the Class of 1918 Marsh,
Communications
John Allen
Picnic Point, University Bay, Frautschi Point, the North Shore Woods, Eagle
Editor Heights, and the Lake Mendota Footpath. Then theres the UW Arboretum, which
Colleen OHara
Art Director
adds up to 1,262 acres more. That totals 1,587 acres of parkland out of the 2,198 that
Sandra Knisely 09, MA13 the UW owns in Madison: 72 percent of the land area on campus.
Assistant Editor
Paula Apfelbach 83
But as youll see in Trial by Fire, it isnt easy to take care of the UWs natural
Editorial Assistant spaces and its not a task the university leaves entirely up to nature. That article
Brian Klatt
Senior Writer
discusses efforts to tame the prairie through the art of external combustion. And the
Arb is hardly the only campus natural area that has relied on human intervention.
Notes are the second-most-
Take Picnic Point, the wooded peninsula below Eagle Heights on the far west side
popular thing to find in a stein. of campus. Seventy years ago, it was a farm and orchard. The UW purchased the land in
Beer is number one. When was
beer first sold in the Memorial
1941. University officials talk about the Native American burial mounds that dot this
Union? bit of land, but other, less ancient things are buried there, as well. The UW has interred
A) 1908
B) 1928
the carcasses of a giraffe, an elephant, and a rhino there. And in summers, an anthro-
C) 1933 pology class has met on the Point to study how to make stone tools. Students chip
D) 1943 away at flint rocks to make axes and arrowheads, then discard their work in a heap, for
Email Insider@uwalumni.com future archaeology students to unearth while studying excavation techniques.
for the answer. So next time youre in a campus natural area, keep your eyes open theres a lot
Wisconsin Alumni Association going on beyond nature.
650 North Lake Street
Madison, WI 53706
(608) 262-2551 On, Wisconsin!
Fax (608) 262-3332
Toll-free (888) 947-2586 John Allen
(WIS-ALUM)
Email: WAA@uwalumni.com
Editor
Website: uwalumni.com

Alumni Address Changes

Toll-free (888) 947-2586, or email
alumnichanges@uwalumni.com
2014 Wisconsin Alumni
Association
Badger Insider is published
triannually as the community
forum for the members of the
Wisconsin Alumni Association.
For information on membership,
visit uwalumni.com.
Cover photo by C&N Photogra-
10 Its Our Nature 15 Stein Capsules 16 Trial by Fire
phy. Special thanks to the UW The UWs school colors may For thirty years, student Sometimes, the best way to
Arboretum for hosting our shoot,
even though six-and-a-half- be red and white, but campus employees at the Stiftskeller protect something ancient is to
foot-tall, bipedal badgers are a is suffused with green. have quietly kept a tradition burn it to the ground. The UW
non-native (not to say fictitious) Readers share their favorite alive. Were blowing the lid off Arboretum is celebrating eighty
species. natural spots. the secret of the Union steins. years of prairie restoration.
by Badger Readers Ask Abe by Sandra Knisely 09, MA13
Badger Insider is produced at a
facility that contains nuts.

Departments
4 Badgering 14 Buckys Wardrobe 23 Badger Pride Find more about these
stories and past Buckys
6 Badger Notes 22 Badger Families 28 In Memoriam Wardrobe outfits at
uwalumni.com/insider.
 Trial by Fire
For eighty years, the UW Arboretum has blazed new trails
in prairie restoration by Sandra Knisely 09, MA13

To the casual observer, Curtis Prairie is a peaceful place. The central (and
original) land tract at the UW Arboretum is a seventy-three-acre oasis for
tall grasses and the wildflowers tucked among them species that have been
growing on Wisconsin prairies since the Ice Age.
Yet the chirping birds and sweeping grasses conceal a warzone. For more
than a century, native plants have been under siege, and sometimes the best,
and only, way to protect these ancient inhabitants from their creeping enemies
is to burn them all.

16 BADGER Insider Where Badgers Belong

 Dawn breaks over the UW Arboretum.
JEFF MILLER, UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS

uwalumni.com/insider SUMMER 2014 17

T
his year marks the UW Arboretums eightieth anniversary.
One of the lasting scientific contributions from the countrys
first restored prairie is a series of experiments showing that
controlled burning is absolutely essential for helping
native plant life to survive.
However, even though prairie plants
We only have one-tenth of 1 percent of native prairie left in
can do things like grow fire-resistant
Wisconsin, says Arboretum ecologist Brad Herrick. Its a vital bark or germinate in scorched soil, they
resource that is very rare, and people are understanding more and were unable to cope with the rapid land-
more that once these communities are gone, theyre gone forever. scape changes wrought by agriculture.
By the early 1930s, the land that is now
Though modern Arboretum land managers and volunteers know
Curtis Prairie was an abandoned farm
much more than their predecessors about how to use fire for overrun by Kentucky bluegrass, an
conservation, they also face an increasing number of man-made invasive, non-native plant used for
barriers to burning and native species could end up in the crossfire. livestock grazing and often found in lawn
and turf mixes. The bluegrass roots had
turned the soil into a dense sod that had
An ecosystem in ashes and animals. Fire is one of the most
fundamental of these processes, and
all but choked out the native plants.
When the UW acquired the field in
Arboretum researchers believe that many prairie species have evolved to 1934 to establish the Arboretum, no one
certain natural processes are as much a thrive in an environment that regularly not even founding director and famed
part of the prairie ecosystem as are plants experiences large, intense wildfires. conservationist Aldo Leopold quite

Volunteers complete entry-level firefighting training and wear fire-retardant outfits during burns.

18 BADGER Insider Where Badgers Belong

knew what to do with it. Over the course
of the next decade, Arboretum leaders
began to transplant native sod from other
Midwest prairie remnants and to dabble
with controlled-burning techniques.
Prior to European settlement, American
Indians had regularly burned prairie in
the area, and conservationists suspected
that native plants just needed a little
room to breathe and bounce back.
In 1948, plant ecology professor John
T. Curtis, the prairies eventual namesake,
and Max Partch PhD49 published the
first scientific paper to directly attribute a
reduction in an invasive-species popula-
tion to controlled burning. In this case,
the researchers were able to significantly
uwalumni.com/insider
decrease the abundance of Kentucky
bluegrass, which allowed native species
to better compete and even take hold
in certain areas of Curtis Prairie. After
the paper, fire became a core tool for
generations of Arboretum researchers
and land-care managers. They burned the
prairie regularly at the beginning of each
spring and later carried the practice to
additional land acquisitions.
A lot of whats known about fire
started here, says Herrick. Anyone who
utilizes burning in their management has
been indirectly impacted by the studies
that happened here. Even if they dont
know the research was done [at the
UW], theyre benefiting.
Burn practices remained fairly
unchanged until the 1980s, when a new
invader swept into Curtis Prairie. White
sweet clover, a biennial legume, was
proliferating, and it had fire to thank in
part for its success: early spring burns
always missed the clover blooms.
Botany professor and long-time
conservation advocate Virginia Kline 47,
MS75, PhD76 decided it was time to
mix things up. She found that alternat-
ing the schedule to burn in early spring
one year and in late spring the next made
a major dent in the abundance of sweet
clover. In the first year, the fire stimulated
germination, depleting the seed bank in
the soil. In the second year, the fire killed
BRYCE RICHTER (2), UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS
SUMMER 2014 19
off the flowering plants before they could
seed again.
If you burn the same way over and
over, decade after decade, a fire will start
to help certain plants and harm certain
plants, says Michael Hansen, the
Arboretum land manager who heads the
fire crew and oversees every burn. If you
mix it up, then your actions are having a
more diverse effect. Youll favor and harm
a different suite of species.
No job for blue jeans
For Hansen, a successful fire is, quite
simply, a safe fire a concept that has
evolved gradually at the Arboretum.
In the early pictures, the people
doing fires were usually university
researchers, wearing what they wore to
teach class, or women in dresses, he
says. Even more recently, maybe from
the 70s, 80s, or early 90s, you would
see them wearing flannel shirts and blue
jeans. No gloves, no helmet. You would
never see that today.
Todays fire crew is composed of
approximately eight Arboretum staff and
select volunteers who have completed
entry-level firefighting training. They
wear special outfits, comlete with fire-
retardant pants and shirts, eye
equipment, and gloves.
The general burn seasons run from
late fall until it snows and again in
spring, usually from April to May. The
crew tries to get in as many burns as
possible, but some seasons, such as the
overly wet spring of 2013, conditions
never allowed for even a single fire.
Hansen and his colleagues write
up burn plans months in advance with
clearly outlined objectives for each fire.
Then they wait for the weather to
cooperate. If a good forecast holds true
on the morning of a scheduled burn,
Hansen will go through a checklist and
make sure firebreaks are in place. These
are either natural features, such as water
courses, or man-made elements, such as
roads or strips of razed land.
The team will then test a small
portion of land to make sure the fire
behaves as expected. If the flames are
bigger than the crew anticipates or the
wind shifts, they must reschedule. But
20 BADGER Insider
if the test goes as planned, the team will
split into two groups of three or four.
Theyll light the fire downwind and move
it slowly into the wind, with each group
moving in opposite directions around the
burn land.
Every member of the crew carries a
backpack filled with water that is sprayed
to guide the fire along its intended path.
By the time the fire makes it to the op-
posite side of the land unit, its typically
small enough to be put out simply by
stepping on it.
Flames against a flood
Hansen bears the responsibility of
keeping a long-time Arboretum practice
alive, but unpredictable weather isnt his
only obstacle theres also bureaucracy.
I got into this line of work to protect
the plants and animals that need land
set aside and actively managed to protect
them, Hansen says. I know fire is only
going to get harder to use as a tool to
restore land. I realize I have to do a good
job, do it safely, and be an advocate so that
[fire] can continue to be used.
Curtis Prairie is surrounded on all
sides by signs of urban life, as its borders
are close to hospitals, schools, public
parks, and several homes. The Beltline, a
major highway, slices through its middle.
This tricky location means that Hansen
has to look at a complex menu of factors
before even scheduling a burn.
Each year the Arboretum receives
a permit from the city, which specifies a
narrow range of temperatures, humidity
levels, wind speeds, and wind directions
during which a burn can take place. For
instance, Hansens team cant burn with
any sort of north wind, which would
drive smoke in the direction of the
thousands of cars on the Beltline.
In addition to the rules, urban
structures also complicate burn practices.
Three storm sewers from Madison-area
suburbs drain into Curtis Prairie, carrying
in outside soils and excess nutrients.
Further, runoff keeps the ground wetter
than it would be naturally. In fact, some
acres in the nearby, smaller Greene
Prairie are now so saturated that wetland
vegetation is taking hold, and its begun
spreading to Curtis Prairie.
Reed canary grass is a particularly
aggressive species. It seems to benefit from
the open spaces created by fire, so land
managers have had to turn to other
strategies to control it, with limited
success.
But Hansen, Herrick, and their
colleagues are far from surrender in
their ongoing war against native and
non-native invasives. They are currently
exploring plans to try burning during the
summer months. Though the logistical
challenges of burning during the hottest
time of the year are substantial, they
anticipate that burning during growing
season could kill off significant numbers
of invaders.
A canary with petals
One of the Arboretums core goals is to
maintain species diversity and, where
possible, to expand it. But for Herrick,
biodiversity is more than a research
agenda. Its an ethical imperative.
I think we have a moral obligation
on some level, he says. Who are we
to do things that would make or allow
these plants to go extinct? We dont fully
understand what we have yet [to know]
what we are losing.
Preserving the right balance of
species is an ongoing challenge for
Arboretum staff, but the presence of a
particular and very popular plant
family indicates that their efforts are
making a difference.
In 1938 the Wisconsin State Journal
published a scathing letter by Leopold
addressed to an anonymous wildflower
enthusiast who appeared to have dug up
the Arboretums last remaining yellow
ladys-slipper orchid.
The University of Wisconsin has
got the notion, perhaps a foolish one,
that the privilege of seeing a ladyslipper
[sic] in the woods has got something to
do with education, Leopold wrote. For
this reason, it is acquiring an arboretum
Perhaps, after all, our students would
learn a lot if we took them out there and
said: Here is where we used to have a
ladyslipper.
The Arboretums orchids continue
to evoke strong public interest and
the protective instincts of its scientists.
Where Badgers Belong
Several small orchid populations can be
found on Arboretum lands. However, to
prevent wildlife vandalism, staff members
are careful not to publicize their exact
locations. The definitive guidebook to
plant life in the Arboretum, Prairie
Plants of the University of Wisconsin
Arboretum, lists six orchid species as being
present, including the eastern prairie
fringed orchid, a flower as fragile as
the snowflakes its flared, white petals
resemble. The orchid was once a common
sight on Midwest prairies but is now on
the federal threatened-species list. In
2005, only a single specimen was found
in the Arboretums Greene Prairie.
Wisconsin is home to almost fifty
orchid species. That may seem like a
lot, but orchidaceae is actually one of the
largest plant families in the world, with
around 25,000 species. The incredible
diversity of orchidaceae has inspired
generations of researchers interested in
plant diversity, from Charles Darwin to
Ken Cameron, a botany professor who
An orchid species native to Wisconsin, the yellow ladys-slipper blooms during morel mushroom season. Hikers may discover them while exploring woods and fields.
uwalumni.com/insider
directs the Wisconsin State Herbarium
and runs a lab at the UW that is dedicated
to orchid biology.
In a recent survey of orchid
populations across Wisconsin, Cameron
and his graduate students found that
Dane County is home to around thirty
species, making it the fifth most diverse
county in the state. He says preserved
land areas serve as refuges for the flowers.
There is just so little native prairie
left in North America that these orchids
are barely hanging on, Cameron says.
Were fortunate that in Dane County,
we have quite a lot of protected land
[managed by the Arboretum] that gives
more places for these orchids to grow.
Native orchids are a finicky bunch
overall. They are dependent on fungi in the
ground to help them obtain nutrition from
the poor soils they typically inhabit. Thats
partly why digging up and transplanting
orchids often dooms them; they cant
survive for long without the fungi nearby.
In general, prairie orchids arent as showy
as the tropical varieties depicted in movies
and books. Unlike those tree-dwelling
cousins, Wisconsin orchids grow on the
ground, and fire is an important element
for encouraging their growth. Many species
are short but need direct sunlight, so they
benefit from periodic burns that clear off
surrounding, taller plant life.
Because they are so delicate, the
presence of orchids at all is taken as a
sign of a balanced ecosystem. Cameron
says that these flowers often serve as
the canary in the coal mine in terms of
gauging the health of their environment.
Orchids tie together this web of
life, he says. They need fungi, insects
and other plants around them to create
an ecosystem. Break that web and it
collapses it cant survive. We cant
protect the species without protecting
the whole ecosystem.
Sandra Knisely 09, MA13 probably
shouldnt be allowed to manage a candle,
much less a wildfire.
IISTOCK PHOTO
SUMMER 2014 21