Earth Day Walk is a Runaway Success!

On Saturday, April 22nd, Beaver Creek Reserve broke out our best matching t-shirts to celebrate Earth Day with a ton of activities going on around the Nature Center! From crafts to scavenger hunts to self-guided nature walks, attendees learned all about sustainability and had fun doing it.

Our self-guided Earth Day Walk had participants start on the South Campus and make their way to the North. Sign posts guided walkers, provided educational facts about sustainability, and encouraged them to admire the nature around them. Despite on-and-off rain and snow, the weather cleared up just in time to celebrate the big day in the great outdoors.

Back at the Wise Nature Center, more activities awaited. A scavenger hunt took searchers on a tour of the center to see a snapping turtle in the Discovery Room, bird feeders outside, and more in, out, and around the center. 

Those wanting to bring home their own piece of nature were in luck. Our seed starter station provided everything folks needed to make sustainable seed starters that could grow into their own plants. Also donated to us by Paint Creek Nursery were swamp milkweed plants and white pine trees, both native to the area, for visitors to take home and plant outside after the final frost. Unfortunately, given our temperamental weather, we may be waiting for that day for a while now.

All in all, we had a fantastic time celebrating Earth Day! If you didn’t get a chance to join, the good news is that the festivities aren’t quite over. Sign up for an event during the last week of April and you may win a gift card! Check out our events calendar!

The History of Earth Day

On April 22nd of each year, people from all around the world celebrate the Earth and come together to protect it. From community clean-ups to tree planting, nature walks and advocacy, the holiday is marked in many different ways. Earth Day was established in the United States in 1970, but how did it come to be?

Ambitious Beginnings and Wisconsin’s Role

Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin was a leading figure in the creation of Earth Day. After a major oil spill the year before, Senator Nelson organized nationwide and bipartisan university teach-ins in 1970 to fire up the public about threats the environment faced. Recognizing the day’s potential, additional events and partnerships with organizations were devised to get all Americans involved in the movement.

They chose April 22nd, and the very first Earth Day inspired fervor across the country. By the end of year, the Environmental Protection Agency was founded. In the following years, Congress would pass many more bills to support the conversation of the environment.

Earth Day in the Current Era

As the world has moved into the digital age, so has Earth Day. For example, in 2019, those participating in clean-ups shared their experiences and photos with the #ProtectOurSpecies. In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, leaders in the movement hosted many online celebrations and events. In 2021, EARTHDAY.ORG and The Biden Administration each hosted online streams featuring activists, teachers, organizations, and other influential players in the movement.

Earth Day Every Day at Beaver Creek Reserve

At Beaver Creek, we celebrate Earth Day all month long! Events and programs are happening all throughout the month of April all over Eau Claire. It’s never been easier to get hands-on in your community, enjoy nature, and help protect the earth. To commemorate Earth Day on April 22nd, we will host an Earth Day Walk. Take a self-guided walk on our trails and learn about all things sustainability! Walk-ins welcome, or register ahead of time here.

From April 17-23, entry to Beaver Creek and all Eau Claire county parks will be FREE! Visit the reserve and participate in our Earth Week Photo Contest! Take a snapshot during your time here and post it on Facebook or Instagram with the hashtag #BCREarthWeek (Beaver Creek is in the digital age, too!) or submit on our website. The photo with the most likes will win a prize!

Pollinators Help Us 一 Let’s Help Them, Too.

Pollinators are one of the most important parts of a healthy ecosystem. While bees often take the role as the mascot of the pollinators (who remembers the Bee Movie?), a pollinator is anything that transports pollen between flowering plants. In Wisconsin, this primarily means bees, butterflies, and moths, but birds, bats and beetles can act as pollinators as well. 

The transportation of pollen is vital in many ways. Importantly, it maintains our agricultural system. Plants can’t exist without pollination, and plants are what feed the world. Plants also feed animals, which also feed the world! The United Nations predicts the world population will reach 9.7 billion by 2030, and all those people need to eat, so a healthy system of pollination is crucial as populations rise.

Since pollinators allow plant life to flourish, they allow for a more healthy and balanced environment as well. The flowering plants on our earth clean our air, support animals, stabilize soil, and more. However, pollinators are at risk. Many pollinators' natural habitats are destroyed or degraded due to human intervention, reducing their ability to transport pollen.

One way to support pollinators is right in our own yards. No Mow May is an initiative taken around the country to create pollinator-friendly zones in residential areas, where there is generally less native plant life. By not mowing or using chemical products in the month of May, natural flowering plants will grow in our yards, helping pollinators thrive. Did you know some pollinators are still overwintering in your grass, garden beds, or leftover plants from last season in May? This is why it's important to limit your mowing even when the weather seems nice enough to do so.

It’s a perfect excuse to get out of an annoying chore for a whole month! But if leaving your entire yard to nature’s whims is not a great fit for you, we also encourage smaller steps. Leaving a patch unmowed or mowing your entire yard less frequently are also great options.

The city of Eau Claire has even changed their lawn ordinances to encourage residents to participate. More information on Now Mow May can be found here! There are also events happening throughout this and next month to celebrate Earth Day and support pollinators and native plant life.

One such event is right here at Beaver Creek Reserve: our Native Plant Sale. We’ve been hard at work in our greenhouse growing native plants, which our online store opens May 3. Beaver Creek Reserve members get 10% off their order! These plants sell out fast, so if you’re looking for new plants, or plants you know will come back every year, for your yard or garden, we recommend jumping on the sale when it opens.

Timber Sale at Beaver Creek Reserve

By: Jim Schwiebert, Beaver Creek Reserve Naturalist & Land Manager

For the first time, Beaver Creek Reserve will have an active timber sale on its property. Over the years, Beaver Creek has basically had a “no management” policy for timber harvesting despite a forestry plan made in 1981. Things were left to follow a course of natural succession. Looking at the many different timber stands on the property however, and one jack pine stand in particular, it soon became apparent that some kind of a timber sale operation not only needed to be done, but could benefit Beaver Creek as well.

South Trails Overlook at Beaver Creek.

In 2014, a DNR Forester surveyed the existing timber stands around Beaver Creek and noticed that one particular area had a component of jack pine that was aging and in need of harvest. The jack pine is currently mixed with pin oak with an understory (trees that are growing beneath the canopy) of predominantly red maple and white pine. This parcel of land was donated to Beaver Creek after we were already established and had current forestry management recommendations. However, prior to allowing a cutting to take place at that time, we decided our previous forestry management plan should be updated to help our Board of Directors make a better recommendation for the proposed harvest. Most of the acreage at Beaver Creek Reserve was recently placed in "County Forest Special Use" lands. Special Use exceptions are given in light of the unique nature of Beaver Creek and the way we use the property. 

This stand of timber, and the potential for harvesting, could be approached in two ways. One is to do nothing- let the jack pine mature, rot, and fall down. The other option is to conduct a tree selection harvest where only the jack pine, hazard trees (oak and others that border the hiking trails), and some of the oak that are dying from oak wilt, could also be harvested. Our Board of Directors decided that a tree selection harvest was the most desirable to capture the value of the jack pine before it became unusable. Also, this harvest would provide a safer space for hikers since the mature trees represented significant falling hazards near popular trails. The money generated from the sale will go back into operation and maintenance expenses for Beaver Creek.

Photo by My Wisconsin Woods.

From a strictly silvicultural (the science of forest management) standpoint, this stand probably should have been clear-cut to allow the oak and jack pine to regenerate. Oak and jack pine cannot regenerate without full sun reaching the young seeds and saplings.  This can only happen when the stands are clear-cut. With the selective removal of the jack pine only, the stand will eventually convert to a less desirable white pine/red maple forest type, which is typical succession for most of the oak/pine forest types in our area. I use the term ‘less desirable’ simply because the oak/jack pine forest type is diminishing in acreage and the maple/white pine forest is becoming more predominant. The oak/jack pine forest type also has obvious wildlife benefits with mast (seed) production and browse, benefiting many species. Both white pine and red maple grow well in the shade, so a clear-cut is not necessary to promote their growth. They will replace the oak and jack pine. Although there will be disturbance with the selective thinning, it won’t be to the same degree as a clear-cut. Considering the use of the area for hiking, snowshoeing, and nature exploration, the selective thinning was the timber harvest prescription approved by our Board. There is also a small strip of red pine in the sale area that was planted years ago and is in need of thinning. Those trees will also be selectively removed as part of the sale.

Red Loop Trail on South Campus.

The hiking trail will be closed for the duration of the sale activity this spring, hopefully with sale completion done by the end of May. The Red Trail on our South Campus is the only area affected, in the far western part of Beaver Creek's property, north of County Highway K. Signs will be posted on the trails to alert hikers of the closure. We apologize for this inconvenience, but look forward to new growth and continued proper management of our land.

Reduce and Reuse: Recycle’s Underrated Sisters

It’s one of the first things we learn about how to practice sustainability in our everyday lives: reduce, reuse, recycle. Most of us have recycling down by now, but what about the first two steps? Reducing consumption and reusing what we already own are the first two steps after all, and they deserve just as much love as recycling. They even go hand in hand. By reusing what you already own, you’ll reduce what you have to buy. Simple, right? One example of how reducing and reusing can benefit the environment is in our closets.

Clothing is a great way to express yourself, but it’s also an efficient way to make a lot of trash. 11.3 million tons of textile waste are created every year in the U.S. alone, and the average garment is worn just seven to ten times. This waste has cascading effects. Most fabrics used to make clothing contain at least some polyester, which requires a huge amount of power and carbon emissions to produce, which releases microplastics into the environment, harming wildlife.

While wider use of recycling programs for clothes could reduce this amount, what if we reuse our clothes thirty times instead, as this challenge posits? Even better, what if we only buy what we really love, not what fits in with ever-changing trends, and wear our clothes for years and years at a time?

I have hand-me-down sweatpants that age back to my brother’s high school days, circa 2013. Some sweaters I have worn so many times that people immediately recognize them as my signature pieces. Because they are all clothes I genuinely love, there’s no reason for me to buy more new things or try to recycle them.

Without a doubt, recycling is an important aspect of sustainability and should not be forgotten by any means. But by reducing and reusing, we can make it so that recycling is less needed in the first place.

Earth Day is April 22nd, but at Beaver Creek, we are celebrating “Earth Day Every Day”! If you have the sustainability bug, we have no shortage of ways to get involved. Check out our website and sign up for one of our April events. At the end of each program, you will be entered in a drawing for a gift card! Be sure to take advantage of our FREE admission the week of Earth Day and participate in our Earth Day Walk on April 22nd!