Field day set Friday at Woodruff Kemp Station

UW-Madison’s Kemp Natural Resources Station will hold a field day this Friday, June 12, beginning at 1 p.m., featuring three sessions about northern forests and some of the plants that call the forest home. Sessions are indoors at the Connor Forestry Center building at Kemp Station (follow signage). No registration is required, and attendees may come and go to attend sessions of interest to them. Participants also may enter to win a door prize.

At 1p.m. will be “Plant Basics and Some Northwoods Favorites” led by Mary Barkowiak, retired DNR botanist. Barkowiak will first briefly review what defines a plant and the plant kingdom, and then brush up on terminology used for keying out plants and take a closer look at some Northwoods species.

Then at 2 p.m., Libby Zimmerman, UW-Madison, Department of Botany will present “An Introduction to Sedges: Do Sedges Have Edges?” Participants will learn what is special about this plant, how to identify and about some of the common species in northern Wisconsin.  

Lastly at 3p.m.,  Sara Hotchkiss, also from UW-Madison Department of Botany, will host “Northwoods History, as Told by Forests.” Guests will investigate accumulations of pollen, charcoal, and other forest detritus to explore how Northwoods forests have responded to environmental changes over thousands of years.  

For additional information or questions, contact kemp@cals.wisc.edu or 715-358-5667. 

Kemp Station is located at 9161 Kemp Road in Woodruff.