By Anna Rzchowski, Public Lands Ecologist – arzchowski@wisducks.org
This article originally appeared in Wisconsin Waterfowl Association’s March, 2024 Newsletter edition.
Last week, WWA’s public and private lands team traveled to the Wisconsin Wetland Association’s Wetland Science Conference in Green Bay. It was a great opportunity to talk projects and gather new information to continue developing the wetland restorations that we’re putting out on the landscape.
Developing partnerships, as we’ve seen in our public lands program over the past year, means that we can broaden the impact of our wetlands work. And bringing together practitioners and researchers from across the upper Midwest in a format like the Wetland Science Conference offers the perfect opportunity for collaboration over tacos (and probably a beer or two).
My fellow WWA ecologist Mark and I presented a poster (below) on WWA’s public lands program, and it was a great opportunity to share the work that we’ve been doing over the past year. Talks covered everything from the complex relationships between canvasbacks and wild celery to using drones for restoration and monitoring. I was especially excited to learn about ongoing restoration efforts in Green Bay’s wetlands, and emerging research on reed canary grass in floodplain forests.
When dealing with something as complex as a wetland ecosystem, there’s no way to be an expert on everything. Everyone brings their own experience to the table, and it’s these collaborations that yield the most promising results.
For restoration practitioners, the next step is to take what we’ve learned and put it to good use out on the landscape, and we are looking forward to doing just that in the coming year!