Tours

The Society of Environmentalists invite AESS to attend their Thursday, October 8, all-day tours. To add a tour to your current registration, please email AESS@union.wisc.edu with your registration # and desired tour. Tours depart from the Madison Concourse Hotel and AESS members will be dropped off at the Memorial Union.   

1. Ultralight Delivery: Crane Conservation on Our Fractured Landscape
(5:00 a.m. departure time, lunch included, $50 fee)
Wake up with the birds to see one of North America’s most endangered species. We’ll head north to Necedah National Wildlife Refuge, home of the nine-year-old whooping crane reintroduction project. We’ll watch from an observation tower as this year’s flock of young whoopers flies behind an ultralight plane. We’ll meet the pilots after the morning’s training flight, and we’ll tour the 43,000-acre refuge in search of adult cranes. In the afternoon, we’ll visit the International Crane Foundation, which works to protect all of the world’s 15 crane species. We’ll take a behind-the-scenes tour of the isolation-rearing and crane-breeding facilities, and we’ll meet George Archibald, the foundation’s co-founder. Along the way, we’ll discuss why cranes inspire people, whether there’s enough space for them on our fractured landscape, and where the charismatic birds fit into the larger story of wildlife conservation. Driving time — 4 hours total.
Tour Leaders: TBA
Speakers:  George Archibald, Co-founder, International Crane Foundation, Joe Duff (and the pilots of Operation Migration), Co-founder, CEO, and Lead Pilot, Operation Migration, Joan Garland, Education Outreach Coordinator, International Crane Foundation, Larry Wargowsky, Refuge Manager, Necedah National Wildlife Refuge, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

2. Future Energy Choices - TOUR IS FULL!
(7:00 a.m. departure, lunch included, $50 fee)
Join us as we make several stops along Lake Michigan to delve into a variety of technologies being investigated to power the nation’s energy future. We’ll discuss prospects for building wind turbines in the Great Lakes and we’ll tour a nationally known carbon-capture demonstration project at a We Energies coal-fired power plant. The project is one of many R&D efforts trying to keep coal viable in a carbon-constrained world and it is the first to use ammonia to capture CO2 from coal-burning power plants. We’ll look at a methane-to-energy project built by a key national manufacturer, S.C. Johnson, which could serve as a model for other major corporations. And we’ll check out the HEV laboratory where Johnson Controls (whose headquarters is powered, in part, by 1,500 solar panels) is investing millions into developing next-generation batteries for hybrid electric vehicles, including a plug-in HEV announced this year by Ford Motor Co. Driving time — 5 hours total.

3. Cruising Lake Michigan
(7:15 a.m. departure, lunch included, $50 fee)
More than 300 miles long and 118 wide, Lake Michigan is a freshwater sea of stunning complexity and beauty. But serious ecological problems lurk beneath its surface, from invasive species such as zebra and quagga mussels to toxic pollution and destruction of wetlands and wildlife habitat from coastal overdevelopment. Journey to Milwaukee for a cruise aboard the EPA research vesselLake Guardian, where scientists will discuss the lake’s ecological challenges and demonstrate water, aquatic life and sediment sampling techniques. We’ll also tour the Great Lakes Water Institute in Milwaukee, the largest academic freshwater research facility on the Great Lakes. Driving time — 3 hours total.

4. Roiling the Waters
(7:30 a.m. departure, lunch included, $50 fee)
Water is the new oil, or so they say, and although Lake Michigan is part of the Great Lakes system that contains one-fifth of the planet’s fresh surface water, this is also a resource under siege from all the people living along its coasts. We’ll look at the low-tech solutions to non-point pollution that has closed beaches; we’ll delve underground to see the Deep Tunnel project, Milwaukee’s answer to sewage overflows which itself has spawned a lawsuit by angry city residents; and we’ll peek at how far we’ve come since the environmental movement really took root 40 years ago. Driving time — 3 hours total.

5. Wetlands, Wildlife, and Wind
(8:30 a.m. departure, lunch and pontoon rental included, $60 fee)
Wetlands are nesting and breeding grounds for many species of birds and stopovers for others that migrate thousands of miles. Bring your binoculars to Horicon Marsh, one of Wisconsin’s top birding sites. Two-thirds of Horicon is a National Wildlife Refuge and the rest is a state wildlife area. We’ll take a pontoon boat ride to look for waterfowl and hear from speakers about wetland ecology and pressures on wildlife refuges, including budget cuts and encroaching development. Next door we’ll visit the 89-turbine Forward Wind Energy Center to learn about wind power impacts on wildlife. Driving time — 3.5 hours total.
Tour Leaders: TBA
Speakers:  David Drake, Assistant Professor and Extension Wildlife Specialist, Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Laura Miner, Asset Manager, Invenergy LLC

6. Feeding Cities: Sustainable Agriculture and Environmental Justice - TOUR IS FULL!
(9:00 a.m. departure, lunch included, $50 fee)
Food has become an environmental story. Research suggests locally produced food can reduce our carbon footprint. But how it’s produced may be just as important as the distance it travels to the plate. We’ll check out how fish and fresh vegetables are being raised at Growing Power, an urban farm in Milwaukee started by Will Allen, recent winner of a MacArthur genius grant. A sustainable lunch, fresh from Growing Power, may be served. Then we’ll see environmental justice in action in an inner city neighborhood that has turned to vegetable gardening to help fight obesity related health problems and the proliferation of fast food. Driving time — 3 hours total.

7. Canoe the Wisconsin River
(9:30 a.m. departure, lunch and canoe rental included, $65 fee)
This year, 2009, marks the 20th anniversary of a unique and successful preservation effort that protects the undeveloped and undammed reaches of the Lower Wisconsin River between Prairie du Sac and the Mississippi River, 92 miles downstream. Flowing between shifting sandbars and wooded bluffs, the river’s broad floodplain is home to everything from numerous endangered species to mysterious mounds left behind by ancient cultures. Creation of the 80,000-acre Lower Wisconsin State Riverway by the state was an experiment in cooperative preservation involving landowners and state and local governments. A paddle down a scenic section of the river will introduce paddlers not only to the river’s rich natural treasures but also to its human history. This is gentle river paddling and should pose no problem even for novice paddlers. Driving time — 1.5 hours total.

8. A Different Kind of CAFO
(10:00 a.m. departure, lunch included, $50 fee)
Dairy farming is as much about manure as it is milk. The average Holstein produces the same amount of waste as 18 humans. Large-scale confined animal feeding operations – CAFOs – can exacerbate the problem by their sheer size. The Crave Brothers dairy farm is a different kind of CAFO. With 950 cows, manure is processed through an anaerobic digester to produce methane to generate electricity. The farm keeps a greater share of its returns from the milk by making its own award-winning cheese in a 6,000-square-foot cheese factory. Lunch will be provided and include three types of Crave cheese: Farmers Rope, Petit Frere and fresh mozzarella on the salad. Cattle feed is home grown. Heifers graze in the fields. Once processed by the digester, the manure is used as an organic fertilizer and composted for bedding. As the scale of agriculture grows, so can environmental problems. The Crave Brothers farm, however, is a large-scale operation that strives to find a balance between economics and the environment. Driving time — 1.5 hours total.

9. CSI Madison: Wildlife Forensics - TOUR IS FULL!
(1:00 p.m. departure, no lunch, but snacks and beverages will be included,

Who gets the call when thousands of sick and dying bats are discovered in the caves and mines where they hibernate? What is the connection between wild birds in Alaska and surveillance for highly pathogenic avian influenza? Where are scientists studying environmental solutions to Chronic Wasting Disease? The USGS National Wildlife Health Center is where the nation turns for research solutions to questions involving wildlife health and disease. From white-nose syndrome in bats, to avian flu, chronic wasting disease, or the emergence of the West Nile virus in unlikely species, NWHC researchers are the sentinels of wildlife disease. We’ll tour the high-security biological containment laboratories, watch a necropsy and talk with the scientists about wildlife, pathogens and tracking down emerging diseases. Driving time — 20 minutes

10. Saturday Night Party at the Shack - $70.00
AESS Participants will be picked up outside the Memorial Union at 5:30pm.

© Legacy Center photo by Mark Heffron of the Heffron Group.

If you’re an Aldo Leopold fan, you can’t miss this pilgrimage. And, if you don’t know who he is, then you must come and learn. “The Shack” is arguably one of the top environmental icons in the world, the place where Leopold conceived his land ethic and ideas for A Sand County Almanac. With the sounds of swirling geese and trilling cranes on the Wisconsin River as backdrop, the setting is soothing and sobering. If that’s not enough, then perhaps you’ll be enticed by the brand new, yet rustic, Leopold Legacy Center, the top LEED-certified building in the entire U.S. Imagine wining and dining under beautiful wooden beams milled from the very trees that Leopold and his children planted decades ago on nearly the same spot. Still not enough? Well, then, the kicker: We’ll have a “slowfood” extravaganza with some of the best beer, wine and organic fare that Wisconsin has to offer, followed by bluegrass music, bonfires, dancing and lots of downhome banter in the heart of "Sand County." Check back here for updates.