July 3, 2009
UW-Stevens Point to host ecologic restoration
institute
Twenty-one educators from across Wisconsin will learn how to use ecologic restoration as
a teaching tool at the Central Wisconsin Earth Partnership for Schools Institute held at
the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point July 6-10.
Using techniques developed and taught through the Earth Partnerships for School (EPS)
program at UW-Madison Arboretum and the Wisconsin K-12 Forestry Education Program (LEAF)
at the Wisconsin Center for Environmental Education at UW-Stevens Point, educators will
learn specifically about woodland restoration, although any ecosystem can be restored
using the EPS model. The institute will provide teachers with specialized skills in
restoring the native ecosystem adjacent to or near their classrooms, allowing them to
teach their students how to be responsible caretakers of their natural
surroundings.
Institute instructors from UWSP include Alan Haney, emeritus professor of forestry, Dennis
Yockers, associate professor of environmental education, Virginia Freire, associate
professor of biology, and Emmet Judziewicz, associate professor of biology, and LEAF
associates Jeremy Solin, director, Sarah Gilbert, program coordinator and Chris Kuntz,
program associate.
According to Gilbert, as part of the institute participants will create a plant inventory
map of a site at UWSP and make improvements to the site including pulling invasive species
and planting native species. They’ll also learn how to evaluate a school site, take field
trips to local outdoor classrooms and a rain garden, perform a site history and analysis,
and do some school-yard mapping, planting and management.
“The process of restoring a native ecosystem is an exciting, real-life project that engages
kindergarteners to senior high school students in an active and meaningful way,” said
Gilbert. “And the process reaches across many disciplines such as science, math, social
studies, language arts, and related arts.”
Educators Doug Baily, Becca Bestul, Miki Brettingen, and Todd Stewart will attend as well
as Thomas Epps, Susan Leadlholm, Daniel Nortman, Kelly Olson, Damon Panek and Brian Stemper
from the Black River Falls School District; Cheryl Steinbach, Randy Wesenberg, and Annette
Woller from the Grafton School District; Doug Cox, Benjamin Grignon, and Dan Star from the
Menominee School District; and Kim Boden, Karen Dostal, Molly Eron, Kimberly St.
Aubin-Clark, Margaret Wright from the Stevens Point Public School District.
For more information about the institute visit
www.uwsp.edu/cnr/leaf or call the LEAF
office, 715-346-4956.
