Wildflower, Butterfly, Bat, & Bird Walks  We're pleased to offer some new events!

I was very sad to learn of Russ’s passing in June after a long battle with cancer. Russ was a champion of the natural world, with a special love for purple martins, oak savannas, and winter adventuring by snowshoe.

The Upper Sugar River Watershed Association (USRWA) is sponsoring a project to map and manage the non-native phragmites population in Cherokee Marsh. The participating partners in the project are the Upper Sugar River Watershed Association, Dane County Department of Land and Water Resources, City of Madison, Friends of Cherokee Marsh, Wisconsin DNR, and some private landowners along the Upper Yahara River.

She was an acorn once. She’s an oak now. An oak, and maybe a branch, too, of a mighty oak: our family.

Madison Parks maintenance staff discovered the problem but needed to bring in a septic system contractor to clear the pipes and pump out the septic tank. Restrooms have now re-opened.

Enter stage right, the muskrat, a resident of Cherokee Marsh. The muskrat, the not-often-thought-about rodent. O muskrat! O you, the poor man’s beaver! Ondatra zibethicus is its scientific name, and it is found almost everywhere in Canada and the United States. Yet, how often do we think about it? How often are muskrats championed?

Cherokee Marsh is not yet a dazzle of blossoms, but it is on its way. Bellworts are ringing their yellow bells. Mayapples hide their blossoms beneath green umbrellas. Shooting stars glitter in the thickets. Daisies dance. These are wild geranium days.

The field along the north side of Wheeler Rd between N. Sherman and Hwy CV was sown with prairie seed last fall.

60 third-graders from Sandburg Elementary School visited the Cherokee Marsh Conservation Park, North Unit for activities.

Results of the Spring 2025 Snake Survey at the North Unit of Cherokee Marsh Conservation Park

UPDATES: American Family Insurance golf championship & Cherokee Marsh North Unit

Friends volunteers and board members were busy throughout Earth Week.

The goal is to identify snake species present in the park and estimate their populations.

Sometimes I can be done with work early enough to glimpse the last gleams of daybreak at the marsh. Glorious days, those.

The PGA Tour Champions American Family Insurance Championship will take place June 6–8, 2025, at the TPC Wisconsin golf course.

The marsh in rainy weather has a different feel. The soft susurrus of the rain over trees and fields, ponds and riverbanks, pulls me in.

I headed down the River Trail to visit a giant dead snag to the west of the trail. Much to my dismay, it had fallen.

American White Pelicans in the "Cherokee Lake" area of the Yahara River

The trained and certified staff of both Madison Parks and Dane County Parks are busy when conditions are optimal for prescribed burns.

One of the most valuable tools in restoring Wisconsin’s native communities is prescribed fire, and this is especially true in a wetland.