Natural Resources Foundation Besadny Grant Awarded

The C.D. Besadny Conservation Grant Program promotes the responsible stewardship of Wisconsin's natural resources at the local level by providing matching grants for small-scale, natural resource projects and programs. The grant program is named after C.D. "Buzz" Besadny, former head of the Department of Natural Resources and Natural Resources Foundation co-founder, in honor of his dedication to the conservation of Wisconsin's natural resources.

This year, we applied for this grant to put more plants into the restoration area just north of Ace Hardware. These are our objectives:

Plant milkweed. There has been a long-term invasion of invasive plants, buckthorn & honeysuckle, that has decreased butterfly habitat for adults and larvae. Monarch butterflies have been hard hit.
Plant more shore land native plants in areas that require more stabilization.
Make these planting sessions available as biology projects for school groups and service learning projects for both individuals and student groups. We will be looking for educational material to take into these projects AND for student-created educational material to come out of these projects. Our ultimate goal is to build a sense of local stewardship for the natural resources in this area, and to educate them on the adverse impacts of exotics on our native plant communities, insects and other wildlife.

The value of our grant, $335, represents one half of the funds required for this grant. Of course, volunteer hours will account for the remaining funds of our $2,000 project!