John Magnuson Spoke at the 2007 Friends of the Lakeshore Preserve Annual Meeting

On April 10th John Magnuson gave a presentation, A Changing Lake Mendota: Past, Present, and Possible Futures, at the UW-Arboretum Visitor Center.  Lake Mendota, a relative newcomer to the landscape, has had a dynamic past. Today it changes from moment to moment, around the clock, through the year, and at decadal time scales. The longer the time scale, the more difficult it is to note and respond to the changes. The status of Lake Mendota will not be frozen at today's conditions, but will continue to change for better or worse. The lake signals our history and clarifies our choices for possible futures.

John Magnuson is an Emeritus Professor of Zoology and Limnology and past Director of the Center for Limnology as well as Principal Investigator of the North Temperate Lakes Long-Term Ecological Research Program, all at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  He has served in various capacities on local, state, national, and international commissions dealing with freshwater and marine systems, including the Science Advisory Boards of the International Joint Commission on Water Quality and the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission. John continues to be active as a member of the Dane Co. Lakes and Watershed Commission. His current research interests are in long-term regional ecology, aquatic ecology and climate change and variability, biodiversity and invasions, and fish and fisheries ecology. He was elected to our board at the meeting!

For more information, see: Lake Mendota Is Continually Changing
	John Magnuson

Friends of the Lakeshore Nature Preserve Annual Meeting for 2006

William Cronon, chair of the Lakeshore Nature Preserve Committee, spoke about Caring for the Preserve at the Friends Annual Meeting on Tuesday, April 11, 2006. The title of his talk was "Caring for the Lakeshore Nature Preserve:  A Call to Stewardship." He reviewed the recommendations of the Preserve Master Plan and the challenges it seeks to address and spent at least as much time on the underlying principles that the master plan seeks to fulfill. He suggested ways in which these principles can best be enacted as we now move forward with implementation of the report.  His core message was about the challenge of stewardship, which involves far more than just removing invasive species, preventing erosion, redesigning trails, putting up new signs, and all the other concrete steps proposed in different parts of the master plan.

     At the heart of Bill's talk was a very simple question: How can we best persuade members of the UW and Madison communities that the Lakeshore Nature Preserve is a precious treasure that deserves their care—and their love? He said that we are in the business of reproducing and sustaining love - of the natural world. The Preserve "stands for" the whole - all of nature. It is here that we all can learn the core values of stewardship; it is in this laboratory that we will discover the tools we need to restore the natural world beyond these borders. He framed his talk with the idea from Aldo Leopold that we can only be ethical about something we can see, feel, love or have faith in. He encouraged donors to send gifts of money designated for the Preserve Stewardship Fund to the UW Foundation, 1848 University Avenue, Madison, WI, 53726.

     Bill Cronon is an internationally distinguished environmental historian and Chair of the Preserve Committee.  Professor Cronon is the Frederick Jackson Turner and Vilas Research Professor of History, Geography, and Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  He studies American environmental history and the history of the American West.  His ongoing commitment to understanding human interactions with the natural world is demonstrated through his teaching, scholarly articles, books, and university service.  Bill is a distinguished teacher and a renowned scholar.  His books include Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists and the Ecology of New England and Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West.  He has edited collected volumes, including Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature and is currently writing a book entitled Saving Nature in Time: The Past and the Future of Environmentalism.