We’re in the final countdown to a major online event honoring the 50th anniversary of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, March 30th and 31st. The Resource Stewardship Symposium will feature expert presentations on a wide variety of topics concerning the national lakeshore – from shipwrecks and the role of wildfire on the landscape to piping plovers, underwater photography, fisheries, songbird migration, and political history.
This online event is free and open to the public. To register by March 28th, go to https://www.northland.edu/centers/soei/apostleislandssymposium. The event program, available in PDF format below, will help you plan the sessions you wish to attend. (Adobe Acrobat Reader or another PDF reader may be required to view it offline.)
The Friends of the Apostle Islands is sponsoring the event.
Executive Director Jeff Rennicke said, “This important symposium brings together experts in each field of study to offer the public both a retrospective view of what has occurred in these islands over the last 50 years and to set the stage for the next half century in the park. It is an important milestone for anyone who cares about the Apostle Islands.”
“The Apostle Islands has long been a landscape of stories, a place where humans and nature meet.”
jeff rennicke, friends executive director
The short presentations (20-45 minutes each) include such topics as “Gaylord Nelson and the Creation of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore” by retired NPS historian Bob Mackreth, “A Singing Wilderness: Songbirds of the Apostle Islands” by Ted Gostomski of the NPS Great Lakes Inventory and Monitoring Network, and “Under the Surface and Zaaga’igan Ma’iinganag (Lakewolves)” by Toben Lafrancois of Northwest Passage.
Other agencies represented in the lineup include the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission, the University of Wisconsin, the Midwest Archeological Center, and Great Lakes Ecological Services. All of the presentations will include a Question and Answer session and will be recorded for later viewing on the Friends of the Apostle Islands website.
Thanks to sponsorship by the Friends of the Apostle Islands, Northland College, the National Park Service, the Apostle Islands Historic Preservation Conservancy, the Bayfield Heritage Association, and the support of the National Parks Foundation “Strong Parks/Strong Communities” program, for making this program available to everyone.
