Tag: UW-Green Bay

Students Explore Water and Farming Practices in Wisconsin’s Driftless Area

Posted on by Heidi Jeter

With its bluffs, caves and cold-water trout streams, Wisconsin’s Driftless Area — the only area of the state not covered by glaciers during the last ice age — is uniquely beautiful. The topography also creates unique farming challenges such as erosion and agricultural runoff.

This spring students explored the intersection of water and farming practices in the Driftless area. Two Ag-Water Nexus courses, funded by the Freshwater Collaborative, taught students how farmers in the region are working to carefully balance farming realities with sustainable practices to protect water quality.

Students enrolled at UW-Green Bay, UW-Platteville, UW-River Falls and UW-Stevens Point had the opportunity to take a semester-long online seminar and/or a three-day field experience. The courses will rotate among the four participating universities, allowing students to learn about agricultural practices in different areas of Wisconsin.

“The vision of the courses is to give students a steppingstone into the farming aspect,” says Joseph Sanford, assistant professor in the School of Agriculture at UW-Platteville who led the spring courses. “Students aren’t going into agricultural fields, but they are going into jobs where they need to work with farmers. We wanted to give them a better understanding of agricultural practices.”

Forty-eight students took the online course and 32 took the field course in May; some students took both. The seminar course highlighted current research and applied projects addressing Wisconsin’s agricultural water issues through readings and online lectures.

During the field course, students visited farms to learn about stream restoration techniques, irrigation, rotational crop practices and approaches to working with landowners to improve habitat. They visited two winners of the Leopold Conservation Award and a new digester facility that converts dairy waste into renewable natural gas. They also conducted hands-on activities at UW-Platteville’s Pioneer Farm.

“I wanted them to take away that not one farm is the same,” Sanford says. “As a student you can learn in classes but not understand why practices aren’t implemented. We want students to understand the challenges and economics of the farmers and why they do things or don’t do things.”

Students learned about sustainable practices on dairy and beef farms.
Wisconsin is a major producer of potatoes!

A few of the students shared their experiences.

  • Alex Jourdan, UW-Stevens Point, law conservation major
  • Adam Klappa, UW-Stevens Point, hydrology major
  • Claudia Lenz, UW-Stevens Point, conservation and community planning 
  • Jessica Willette, UW-River Falls, crops and soil science major

Why did you enroll in this field experience course? Did you take the online course as well?

Willette: I enrolled in the weekend trip part of this class because I’m very interested in sustainability in agriculture and like to get ideas of implementation through observing others. 

Jourdan: The reason why I enrolled in this class is due to the diversity between the universities and experiences. Between the topography and geographical lessons regarding Wisconsin, I was hooked.

Lenz: I took this course along with the online one because I wanted to learn more about the environmental and agricultural relationships, especially in water. I want to help develop policies that benefit rural communities and landscapes in the future, and this perspective seemed like it could benefit those goals. 

Klappa: I enrolled in both the online and field components of the class for a couple of reasons. I really enjoy learning about the current research and projects that are going on in Natural Resources [at UW-Stevens Point], and this seemed like a good chance to experience different aspects of agriculture and water resources. In addition, it seemed like a direct way to apply my knowledge in water resources to agricultural systems.

What was your favorite part of the course? 

Klappa: I really enjoyed some of the field visits. My favorite was the anaerobic digester. It is a novel and creative way to engineer natural gas from livestock manure. 

Jourdan: Hands down the most enjoyable part was the field experience. The opportunity to learn at another university temporarily was a pleasurable experience and provided me with a different outlook on the Driftless Area.

Lenz: My favorite part of the course was learning how this knowledge is being implemented in unique and new ways to better the environment and farmers. I really liked the farm visits and seeing a new part of the state. I have spent very little time in the Driftless region, so it was pretty eye opening. 

Willette: My favorite part of the course was stopping at such different sites — dairy and beef operations, grain farms and old mining sites — that all have such varying impacts on the environment. It’s interesting to see what, if anything, producers are doing to counteract these impacts.

What did you learn or how did your perspective change? 

Jourdan: I had no clue how fragile this part of Wisconsin was; the push for habitat restoration in agriculture areas was so refreshing. As an avid trout angler, I can appreciate the sustainability practices that farmers implement to better water quality.

Lenz: I learned a lot about how large-scale solutions can be implemented and effective. I grew up believing that large farms and farmers didn’t really care about the environmental impacts of their farming, so it was nice to see how these farms are implementing new changes to protect water and the environment. It was surprising and gratifying to see this in practice. I also really liked learning from the smaller farms and seeing the benefits of those. Lastly, I really liked learning about stream restoration projects. I knew almost nothing about it, so it was fun to hear about. 

Klappa: I learned how much perspective matters in natural resources. The best case scenario changes depending on the values and goals of the person behind any project or farm. Understanding not only what someone is doing, but why they decided on that solution, helps provide context for the decision. This is also important in decision making, helping to create a solution that most everyone is at least somewhat happy with.

Willette: I learned about the process of stream restoration. This is a very complex task that I hadn’t learned about before. I can be pessimistic about people implementing conservation practices in their operations, so it was very nice to see some people are making these changes. 

Did taking the course support your career path and if so, how?

Jourdan: This class aided me in knowing where I want to go for a job. It made me think about being a conservation officer/warden in southwest Wisconsin to play a part in maintaining one of the most unique parts of the United States.

Klappa: I planned on going into county conservation (and still might in a future job); however, I was hired by the USGS as a GIS mapper. This course and its knowledge will help expand my natural resources background. I will draw on this background to make myself more effective as I work throughout my career.

Lenz: I think this course greatly supports my career path. Having a deep understanding of the impacts of agriculture on water and the environment will help me to make informed, beneficial decisions and recommendations. Lastly, as someone interested in agricultural policy, this course benefits me because it exposed me to more forms of agriculture and more perspectives of those in the field who are actually living these experiences. Regardless of what I end up doing, I will benefit from learning about water and agriculture, and I will benefit from learning from diverse experiences and viewpoints. This class gave me that.

UW-Green Bay will host the fall 2026 course offerings.

From Baker and Birder to Researcher and Mentor

Posted on by Heidi Jeter

Sarah Baughman never thought of herself as a science person. She attended an arts-based high school and then earned an associate degree in fine arts and philosophy. For 10 years, she worked as a baker in a coffee shop that also did community outreach.

A trip with a friend to the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, Wisc., in 2021 changed everything.

“We learned about the cranes and habitat restoration. I couldn’t believe that was something you could do for work and that there was a strong restoration movement in Wisconsin,” Baughman recalls.

She turned to her friend and said: “I think I want to go to college and become an ecologist.”

By the time they drove out of the parking lot, Baughman had applied to UW-Green Bay from her phone. She began classes a few months later. Soon she was working on environmental research funded through the Freshwater Collaborative.

“Within a year I went from baking full time to being a full-time student and an undergraduate researcher,” she says.

Five years later, Baughman is the bird and peatland research coordinator at UW-Green Bay. Not only does she conduct environmental research and lead community outreach programs, but she also mentors high school students through UW-Green Bay’s High School Summer Scholars Program, also funded through the Freshwater Collaborative.

A New Career Takes Flight

Baughman had a wealth of knowledge from years of birding with her father. She wanted to get hands-on research experience. She emailed Erin Giese, associate director of UW-Green Bay’s Cofrin Center for Biodiversity, about volunteer opportunities. They instantly hit it off, and they submitted a proposal to the Freshwater Collaborative for an undergraduate research award.

She received a $10,000 grant from the collaborative in 2022 to study coastal bird populations along Lake Michigan, from Milwaukee to northern Door County. Soon, she was scouting research sites, recruiting volunteers, writing grant proposals and reports, and coordinating community science efforts to conduct bird surveys. 

“Sarah’s Freshwater Collaborative project launched her into project leadership roles with the Cofrin Center for Biodiversity,” Giese says.

Her next step was getting involved in a budding new program: the Oneida Bird Monitoring Program, a partnership among the Cofrin Center for Biodiversity, Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, Northeastern Wisconsin (NEW) Bird Alliance and Audubon Great Lakes. She began leading bird outings for community members and used her art skills to create an illustrated beginner’s field guide to the birds of the Oneida Nation, collaborating on the project with Oneida Tribal Elders and UW-Green Bay students and staff.

“Sarah is one of the best students I have ever had the privilege of working with, and I would be lost without her leadership and dedication to bird conservation,” Giese says.

It’s no wonder that after graduating from UW-Green Bay in 2025, Baughman was hired to coordinate the Oneida Bird Monitoring Program as well as peatland research at the campus herbarium, where she also had worked as a student. Both roles are steeped in community outreach.

Baughman credits her Freshwater Collaborative research grant with preparing her to work in public outreach. Giese encouraged her to present her undergraduate research at Research in the Rotunda twice.

“Those first presentations set a foundation for me to see how research can be shared,” she says. “They built my skills as a student and a communicator. Now I’m leading the way for others and helping them learn.”

From Mentee to Mentor

Baughman works closely with interns in UW-Green Bay’s High School Summer Scholars program. They join her on bird surveys where they learn to identify birds and record data, and she tells them about the importance of conservation and restoration in land management decisions. Students also help plan and participate in events where they talk to community members about birds and wetlands. She also brings art and science together to create educational materials.

This spring, Baughman reviewed applications for the Freshwater@UW Summer Research Opportunities Program, a program coordinated through UW-Madison and funded by Freshwater Collaborative. It gives undergraduates in Wisconsin and beyond mentored research experiences at one of the Universities of Wisconsin campuses. Two students will conduct research with UW-Green Bay faculty this summer.

As for her own career path, Baughman is enrolled in UW-Green Bay’s Biodiversity Conservation and Management program, an online certificate program that builds to a master’s degree. Between the graduate program and full-time work, Baughman is busy but happy.

“I’m solving problems every day that improve our program,” she says. “And I still get to go birding all the time with my dad. I can’t believe this is what I get to do.”

Written by Heidi Jeter, Freshwater Collaborative

UW-Green Bay Students Contribute to Lake Sturgeon Conservation Research

Posted on by Heidi Jeter

Lake sturgeon first evolved around 200 million years ago, around the same time as the dinosaurs. This unique fish species once numbered more than two million. Fish biologists estimate about 3,000 adult fish exist in the Great Lakes proper today.

Wisconsin is an international leader in lake sturgeon conservation. The state’s efforts target sustaining populations that use four major tributaries of Green Bay for reproduction: the Fox, Oconto, Peshtigo and Menominee Rivers. The Freshwater Collaborative is funding undergraduate research at UW-Green Bay that centers on lake sturgeon reproduction, survival during early life stages and behavior.

“Because of the evolutionary history of lake sturgeon, and their cultural significance in the region, no one really wants to see the species at risk of extinction,” says Patrick Forsythe, an associate professor of biology at UW-Green Bay. He has studied lake sturgeon for about 20 years.

Lake sturgeon spawn in rivers, and their larvae need a long stretch of river to provide protective habitat for growth before they move into the bay and then Lake Michigan, where predators abound. The Menominee and Park Mill Dams, located about a mile upstream from Green Bay, restrict reproduction for lake sturgeon living in the bay.

Enter the Menomonee River Fish Passage Project, which allows adult lake sturgeon to access important spawning habitats upstream from the dams. Sturgeon swim into an “elevator” inside the Menominee Dam. They are then moved by truck upstream of the Park Mill Dam to reproduce further up the Menominee River. The adults and juveniles then journey back through several bypass routes in the dams and into the bay.

Using genetic techniques to determine parentage of recently produced larvae emerging from habitat downstream from the Grand Rapids Dam, Forsythe and his team have determined that nearly 90 percent of the fish passed upstream of the two lower dams —and those impeding access to historic spawning sites — reproduce successfully. That’s good news for conservation efforts, but it’s only on part of the equation.

With funding from the Freshwater Collaborative and supporting partners including the Fish and Wildlife Restoration Act and We Energies, Forsythe and students in his lab are looking at survival rates. Do juveniles in their first year of life survive the journey? If so, which routes do they take through the dams before entering the Bay of Green Bay?

Students are collecting larvae and raising them until they are large enough to surgically implant acoustic and PIT transmitters. The transmitters will track the fish as they move downstream. The collected data will inform whether river and dam management can improve survival rates of juveniles as they journey downstream. This knowledge could improve overall conservation efforts.

Forsythe says students are directly involved in every aspect of the project. This includes experimental design, setting up the tailer to collecting larvae, inserting transmitters, and caring for the fish before they are released and tracking can commence.

“This project gives students a lot of experiences,” he says. “My students are in a really good position to apply for graduate school or get their first job. I’m really proud of that.”

The students routinely participate in planning sessions with working professionals, giving them networking opportunities and insight into the complexities of large collaborative projects.

Partners include USGS, Wisconsin Cooperative Fishery Research Unit, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Wisconsin DNR, Michigan DNR, the cities of Menominee and Marinette, WE Energies and the Mitigation Enhancement Fund, Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin, Michigan Hydropower Reform Coalition, River Alliance of Wisconsin, and Eagle Creek Renewable Energy (owner and operator of the Menominee and Park Mill Dams) and fish biologists from Carlton University in Canada.

Lauren Klawiter is an undergraduate working on the project. She gained so much experience last year that she snagged a summer internship with Colorado State University. She is working with the Environment for Management of Military Lands at Fort McCoy.

“I will be using my skills from last summer and adding additional skills, which I am extremely excited for,” she says. “I have really enjoyed my experiences with fish. I hope to obtain a position working at a fishery or potentially with the DNR.”

Klawiter shared her research at Research in the Rotunda in March 2024. She also presented it at the 154th National American Fisheries Society Conference, attended by more than 3,000 people. Graduate students Steve Hughes and Zach Nordstrom presented posters at the AFS conference as well.

In 2023, students helped collect and care for about 1,500 lake sturgeon. This summer, three new undergraduates and a graduate student joined the team to continue the research. The project is expected to wrap up at the end of 2025 when results will be submitted for publication.

Lake Sturgeon Larval Production in the Upper Menominee River

Posted on by Heidi Jeter

The 2024 Research in the Rotunda featured 16 Freshwater Collaborative-funded research projects. Students shared more about their experience.

Student: Lauren Klawiter 
University: UW-Green Bay
Major: Biology with an emphasis in Fisheries and Aquatic Ecology and minor in Environmental Sciences
Expected graduation date: May of 2025
Mentor: Patrick Forsythe

Lauren Klawiter with sturgeon

Summarize the research and your role.

The main goal of this research was to determine the larval production downstream from the Grand Rapids Dam, and to evaluate the timing of the drift as a function of river conditions. My role was to take part in collecting the sturgeon larvae and data collection. Once data was collected, I compared the data from 2020, 2021 and 2023 to see how they correlated. 

What skills did you learn? 

I have learned a wide variety of skills: how to collect the sturgeon larvae, how to feed them in the many different stages of life, and how to tag them. I also was able to expand my knowledge on fish hatcheries and all the skills that are needed to successfully take care of the fish.  

What has been your favorite part about this experience?

My favorite part of this entire research project was probably being able to collect the larvae. It was something I’ve never done before and being outside till almost 3 in the morning with my coworkers was something I’ll never forget. 

What are some of the opportunities you’ve had because of this research?

This research project has opened the door for me to several opportunities. I presented at the National American Fisheries Society (AFS) Conference. At the conference, I was also able to speak with multiple people and gain experience in presenting and making connections. Also, the skills I learned while on this project helped me gain a summer internship with Colorado State University, working with the Environment for Management of Military Lands at Fort McCoy. I will not only be using my skills from last summer but adding some additional skills which I am extremely excited for.

Students walking in stream

What kind of career do you hope to go into after graduation? 

I’m looking into a DNR biologist role as of now. I have really enjoyed my experiences with fish and hope to obtain a position working at a fishery or potentially with the DNR. I have always enjoyed being outside and I know my internships from last summer and this upcoming summer are setting me up nicely to help me reach my goals.

How will this experience help you attain your career goals?

My experience has helped make me a more confident person with my education and skills. I learned a variety of skills from electrofishing, tagging fish, water sampling and so much more, but I also learned to have confidence in myself.