If you walk in the Mahon Woods area of the Arboretum you may notice a potentially hazardous tree between the asphalt trail and South Circle Drive, east of Nicolet Drive.
We are aware of this tree and have made arrangements with a tree service to safely take it down. Unfortunately, this work won’t happen until the last week of November.
Until then, we believe it’s safer to close this section of trail. We apologize for any inconvenience. It’s possible to walk up to Circle Drive and back down to the trail (past the deer statues) to avoid this closure.
barricade blocking the Arboretum trail with hazardous tree in background
CCB’s Conservation Biologist, Andrew LaPlant, and graduate student assistant, Sam Gerarden have finished the boardwalk! The trail is open again with a sturdy way to pass over this muddy spot.
One of the bark paths in the Niagara Escarpment area will be temporarily closed this week. CCB staff will be replacing a small section of boardwalk. The trail should be open by next week!
This past October, 2022, the Cofrin Center for Biodiversity hosted a native seed collecting activity for the UW – Green Bay Day of Service. After this bountiful harvest of seedheads from a variety of native species, including purple cone flower (Echinacea purpurea) rattlesnake master (Eryngium yuccifolium), yellow coneflower (Ratibida pinnata), Indian grass (Sorghastrum nutans), common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), and more, we have been working the past couple of months on “cleaning” our seeds.
Over the past couple of months we have held several work sessions both by hand and with a hammer mill in the UWGB Greenhouse.
Eco-Friendly Phoenix volunteers hand divide seeds and dried flower debris into separate bins. December, 2022. Photo credit: Bobbie Webster
UWGB students, Sam Gerarden and Patrick Brodhagen, load bags of previously collected native seedheads into a hammermill, which breaks the seeds apart from the dead seedhead. January, 2023. Photo credit: Andrew LaPlant.
As of this week, we are almost 90 percent finished cleaning our native seeds! We now have over eight pounds of native seed which will be used to further enhance pollinator habitat in areas like the Keith White Prairie, the Cofrin Arboretum Gateway, Wequiock Creek Natural Area, and possibly the Shorewood Recreation Area!
CCB staff Andrew LaPlant and Bobbie Webster presented a poster this past fall at the Natural Areas Association Conference held in Duluth, MN.
The poster captures not only our ecological restoration and biological monitoring efforts at the Wequiock Creek Natural Area, but also our partnerships with First Nations people in the area and how we are attempting to infuse Land Back practices into our restoration work.
Thumbnail view of the poster presented at Natural Areas Association Conference, 2022.
Click the thumbnail or link below to see the pdf of the poster.
If you haven’t been to the Arboretum lately you should plan a visit to walk the trails and check out the new bridges! Bridge construction was completed recently and they are now ready for regular use. There is still work ahead once things start to thaw out, but remaining work is limited to things like repairing trails and other areas that were disturbed during the construction process.
Construction workers are making good progress on replacing the bridges in the Cofrin Arboretum! Helical bases have been installed and bridge parts are tentatively planned to arrive the week of January 24th.
UWGB Natural Areas Crew members and staff hung a few posters (see poster here:NewBridgesComingPoster_Update) around the Arboretum today to remind the community that bridges are in progress and will be finished by April. There’s a possibility the project is completed before then, but by April is a safe estimate.
Keep checking our blog for the latest updates on bridge construction!
Students Patrick Brodhagen and Olivia Salm (the designer) install a poster in the Arboretum to update the community on the bridge progress
The “New Bridges” poster in the wild. See the pdf linked above to read the full text
Construction equipment staged near one of the bridges to be replaced
Construction workers have begun removing old bridges and are in the beginning stages of constructing the new bridges in the Cofrin Arboretum! You’ll notice several areas in the arboretum with signs alerting you to ‘Keep Out’. Please help us out and abide by these signs for your safety and to avoid impacting the construction work.
Bridge Out
Please be aware that ‘Bridge Out‘ means there is NOT a crossing and you will need to turn around and go back the way you came.
‘Bridge Out’ sign
It’s important to remember that the Cofrin Arboretum is a research natural area that is managed for biodiversity and habitat, education and research. The hiking trails are a community benefit, but are a secondary use of this area. Please stay on the hiking trails and abide by posted trail use requirements; this includes not bringing your pets to the arboretum.
One less bridge
It’s important to note that one of the bridges will not be replaced. Because bids came in much higher than we expected, difficult decisions needed to be made.
It’s not too late; we can still include this bridge if enough funds are raised by Nov. 19th. We would need at least $60,000. To donate, visit www.uwgb.edu/arboretum or contact Jacob Depas at depasj@uwgb.edu.
The southwest area of the arboretum showing the location of the bridge that will not be replaced
In the past few weeks, we’ve installed two new interpretive signs in the Cofrin Arboretum that are focused on educating visitors about watersheds.
The sign near Mahon Creek which describes what a watershed is.
These signs are one result of a recently completed watershed planning project conducted by CCB staff and a former graduate student in partnership with UW Sea Grant.
The sign near the Cofrin Overlook, which describes UWGB’s place in the Green Bay watershed. Olivia Salm, the student who designed both signs is pictured with the sign.
The watershed planning project was funded by the Wisconsin Coastal Management Program and the signs themselves were funded by the UWGB Sustainability Committee.
CCB Natural Areas Crew member and Environmental Science major, Olivia Salm, designed both signs and incorporated content and ideas from Erin Giese, Dr. Robert Howe, Julia Noordyk, Lynn Terrien, and Bobbie Webster.
Olivia Salm and Dustin Sablich with sign they just installed.
We hope these signs will raise awareness about the small watershed of Mahon Creek, which flows through the south part of the UWGB Campus, as well as the larger Green Bay watershed that our campus is located in.
Join Cofrin Center for Biodiversity staff for another volunteer workday on Wednesday, October 13th. Like last month, we will be working on refreshing sections of bark trails on the outer loop of the Cofrin Memorial Arboretum trail. Trail refreshing efforts will begin in the Escarpment (eastern portion of the Arboretum). Work will be occurring from 8:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. with a half hour break starting at noon. Any and all time will be appreciated and there are not any requirements on the length of time you put in. The work will primarily be raking out wood chips as they are dumped on the trail via utility vehicles. I would encourage you to wear long pants, long sleeves and sturdy shoes. Work gloves, safety glasses and a brief orientation will be provided. Volunteers will also be asked to sign a liability release. Meet at 8 a.m. at the gravel University Recreation (UREC) parking lot on the east side of East Circle Drive. Late arrivals can navigate to the bark trail using the crusher dust trail north of the parking lot.
Any questions, including directions to work site for late arrivals, can be directed to Andrew LaPlant, Conservation Biologist via email at laplanta@uwgb.edu.
