Starting Oct. 10, Valley Stewardship Network will offer “Conservation on Tap,” a six-part, monthly series of talks and discussions on local conservation topics.
The talks will be from 7–9 p.m. on the second Wednesday of the month (October through March) at the Rooted Spoon, 219 S. Main St., Viroqua. Each event will be free, but donations will be accepted, and a cash bar will be available.
The series will kick off at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 10, with Heidi Keuler, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service fish habitat biologist who will share the nation’s first conservation project. Dave Vetrano, retired DNR fisheries biologist, will team up with her in this discussion, sharing “Driftless Waters: A Tale of Destruction, Renewal and Hope for the Future,” a history of land-use changes and its effect on the trout resource in the Driftless area.
Following each speaker’s presentation, the audience may ask questions and contribute to a broader discussion of the night’s conservation topic.
The other topics in the series are the following:
• Nov. 14 — “Prehistoric Ecology of the Driftless Area” with John Delaney, agroecologist, Valley Stewardship Network
• Dec. 12 — “Half a Billion Years of Driftless History” with Kelvin Rodolfo, professor emeritus of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago
• Jan. 9 — “Encouraging Biodiversity in the Driftless” with Melinda Knutson, retired U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service ecologist
• Feb. 13 — “Managing Storm Water Locally with Rain Barrels and Other Structures” by Karl Green, Community Development, Natural Resource & Economic Development Educator, UW-Extension
• March 13 — “Opportunities in Conservation” with Ben Johnston, Kickapoo Valley Reserve, Citizen Science Programs
This series will be held the second Wednesday of day of each month, from October – March at the Rooted Spoon, 219 S. Main St. in Viroqua beginning at 7–9 p.m. The event will be free, but donations will be accepted and a cash bar will be available. Funding for the series was made available through Viroqua Chamber Main Street’s SOUP program, shopdriftless.com, Organic Valley, and Kickapoo Coffee Roasters.
For more information, call (608) 637-3615 or email info@valleystewardshipnetwork.org. For more information on Valley Stewardship Network, go to www.valleystewardshipnetwork.org.
