Madison Parks staff discovered Oak Wilt at Meadow Ridge Conservation Park (in the western area of Cherokee Marsh) in the summer of 2026. A few dead red oak trees were surrounded by several that showed the tell-tale “flagging" with brown, wilting leaves that have now fallen prematurely. Samples from three trees were tested by the UW Extension Plant Disease Diagnostics Clinic, which confirmed these trees were infected with Oak Wilt. Unfortunately, there is no cure for Oak Wilt,

Three interpretive nature signs, focused on wetland, prairie, and oak woodland, respectively, were installed in late October 2026 by Madison Parks Conservation staff. The signs are a gift from the Friends of Cherokee Marsh, funded by donations to the Friends and a grant from the Steve Stricker/American Family Insurance Foundation.

I’m thankful for the sandhill cranes and the little frogs in the wetland. I’m thankful for the timid deer and the splashy mallards. I’m thankful for the dying sunflowers and for living, here and now, with the chipmunks and mushrooms and muskrats and hackberry and my neighbors at the golf course just over the park line and my neighbors down the road at the tavern ...

The rain ceased right on time for our dedication of a memorial bench in the South Unit of Cherokee Marsh Conservation Park, honoring the late Russ Hefty. Numerous members of the Friends of Cherokee Marsh donated to support the memorial bench.

Eighty volunteers from the JP Cullen construction company, supervised by Madison Parks staff and the Friends of Cherokee Marsh conservation volunteer crew, came in September 2026 to the Cherokee Marsh North Unit to do conservation work.

Consider the monarch butterfly. The marsh is littered with them on this day. We could all look to their example as a way to live. The last generation born in late summer and early fall flies as many as 3,000 miles from parts around here—this very marsh—to the forested highlands of central Mexico, a place they have never been.

Installation of a new colony of purple martin houses on August 22, 2026, in the Cherokee Marsh Conservation Park–North Unit.

The prairies, laden heavy with golden flowers, are bending to time. The summer, weighted with golden light, is dimming some for the coming autumn. The air, thick with thunderstorm, is whispering something about fall. Cherokee Marsh is transitioning again (always, always), and I walk through the shafts of golden blossoms and sunlight thinking about my kid, off to college in a few short days, leaving us all in a daze.

“Citizen science” is a form of scientific engagement that empowers individuals to actively contribute to scientific projects. Citizen science has been employed in a wide range of areas of study, including ones pertinent to Cherokee Marsh, such as ecology, biology, limnology, and meteorology. There is an opportunity for you to get involved in weather measurements on your own property, as part of a larger citizen science effort.

Cattails are possibly the most versatile wild herbage—in terms of continuous human use—of all time. Evidence of cattail flour has been found by archaeologists on grinding stones from 20,000 years before the known dawn of agriculture.

It’s July 4, 1776, at the marsh. The only fireworks were the stars in the night sky before dawn. The only bugling is from trumpeter swans paddling on the water. The only drumming is a pileated woodpecker hammering a tree. The only picnics are elk feasting on bluegrass, clover, willow.

Regardless of our human encroachment here, nature finds a way. As flocks of fans watch Ernie Els play, downy phlox sprouts nearby. As players approach the 18th green, eighteen green frogs sing in the nearby wetland. At the seventh tee, a tree swallow slices the sky. On the fringe, deer. Near the rough, a rough-legged hawk. On a dogleg, a coyote.

For a second year, the American Family Insurance Championship will take place at the TPC Wisconsin golf course (formerly Cherokee Country Club). The tournament and related activities will take place June 1–7. While the Cherokee Marsh–North Unit will remain open to visitors, vehicle access on North Sherman Avenue will be allowed only from 7 pm until the park closes, one hour after sunset. An exception is vehicles with disabled tags or plates, which will be allowed access from

On May 7, a Madison Parks conservation crew discovered extensive damage at Meadow Ridge Conservation Park: construction of multiple bike jumps and trails, significant erosion, leaf litter disturbed and removed, and great swathes of unique native plants damaged or killed. Bicycles and motorbikes are prohibited prohibited in conservation parks, both on designated walking trails and off-trail, by Madison ordinances. Bikes and motorbikes should be ridden only on main vehicular en

More than 1000 people of all ages attended the 2026 Madison Bird & Nature Festival on April 26 at Warner Park

I think about both of my daughters taking flight as I walk Cherokee Marsh and delight in the return of the tree swallows. The birds dip and glide across blue skies, chirp and chatter in the tree knots, and make ballets in the clouds, so many that there are clouds of swallows. An iridescence of joy. A presence of happiness. Of home.

High winds, heavy rains, and hail in mid-April of 2026 brought both welcome moisture and some damage in the Parks.

Jim Mand, Paul Noeldner, Jan Axelson, and Tom Jarvis have relocated and remapped nest boxes for the bluebird nest box trail in the North Unit of the Cherokee Marsh Conservation Park. There are also bluebird trails at the South Unit of Cherokee Marsh Conservation Park, Meadow Ridge City Park, the TPC Wisconsin golf course, Yahara Heights County Park, Cherokee Marsh Natural Resource Area, Token Creek County Park, and the VFW Club on Highway CV.

The grass known as big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii) is called the “king of the prairie.” It can grow taller than all of us. It has roots that can reach ten feet down. Some folks might think it’s a plain plant, a plain plant on the plains. But, it is host to the larvae of butterflies: the rare byssus skipper, the common wood nymph. The grass is a womb for colorful living origami that dances on the air.