Our Committees

• Our Restoration and Management Committee includes Tom Bernthal, Mike Duren, Emil Haney, Mark Horn, Janet Kane, Carl Thedens, Pat Trochlell and Guerdon Coombs, chair. The committee confers as needed with the City of Middleton Public Lands Department and Dane County Parks Department about restoration goals for upcoming work parties. Members meet four times a year to review goals and schedule work dates.
  
  On the weekends, restoration volunteers cut, stack and chip or burn invasive trees and shrubs and eradicate aggressively invasive vascular plants, such as garlic mustard, which crowd out native woodland plants. Other groups of volunteers collect and sow seeds, usually on weekday in the spring and fall. Still others help with prescribed burns to control re-growth of invasive species. Volunteer work schedules are posted under coming events For more information about the committee, email Guerdon Coombs or call him at 831-8823. To receive timely announcements about upcoming restoration events, submit your email address to our list-serve administrator.

• Our Education Committee includes Dreux Watermolen, Jan Coombs and Janet Kane, chair. The committee operates our Kids for the Earth program with the assistance of Colleen Robinson Klug, our part-time education coordinator. View KFTE activities

• Our External Relations and Communications Committee Our External Relations and Communications Committee is chaired by Emil Haney. Other members are: Tom Bernthal, Susan Gruber, Dan Gustafson, Paul Helgeson, Lou Maher, Jim O’Brien and Dan Stapay. The committee monitors Conservancy-related matters before the Middleton Common Council as well as city boards and committees. It also monitors rules for Conservancy use by bikers, hikers, joggers, dog-walkers, etc.

  Committee members serve as liaisons with the Middleton Chamber of Commerce, neighborhood groups bordering the Conservancy and other grassroots conservation groups in the area. The committee coordinates activities with Membership and Fundraising Committees, especially the Highland Way (John C. Bock Urban Forest) Project.
  

• Our Membership Committee is chaired by Gail Shea. It maintains the membership list, recruits new members, and plans events that bring the members together.