On behalf of the Friends of Cherokee Marsh, we wish to voice concerns over multiple developments in the upper Yahara River watershed and, specifically, the proposed QTS data center.

I’m not the first to be thankful for a November walk amidst the drooping oaks, the rain-wet sedges, the bog birch. Far from it. There are the turkeys, for one; the deer bounding off the main trails, their telltale white tails flying up before becoming lost in autumnal camouflage; the sandhill cranes gliding overhead and caterwauling in the glades.

There are active beavers at the two ponds along Wheeler Road in the South Unit of Cherokee Marsh Conservation Park.The City of Madison is working with an environmental contractor to protect the drainage culverts in the ponds without harming the beavers.Parks conservation staff will also consider how best to protect valuable trees.

Over the two evenings of the August bat walks, the Echometer sensors gave plenty of indications of the presence of bats, even if we can't absolutely rely on the exact IDs. The sensors suggested the possible presence of six of Wisconsin's eight species: Little Brown, Big Brown, Hoary, Silver-haired, Tricolored, and Eastern Red.

There’s a fire here, too. One of life. One that continues regardless of temperature or the level of particulate matter wafting through the air.

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?

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

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

On a frigid winter’s day, it did happen. I saw a coyote on the trail.