The Ice Age Trail Alliance, an accredited land trust, permanently protects land for current and future Ice Age Trail. Property monitoring, a crucial practice, helps the Alliance maintain its land trust status.
Claire Finucane, Property Steward, will explain the Alliance’s annual property monitoring program and what it means for our properties and easements. She will cover the who, what, where, when, why, and how of property monitoring, and how volunteers can get involved with spring and fall monitoring.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony at a newly completed segment may well be 20-plus years in the making. Come learn what it takes to turn a good idea into miles of sustainable tread.
Before the picks hit the dirt, there are many steps to making the Ice Age Trail a reality. Alongside planning the Trail line, there are compliance issues to navigate: considering endangered species, cultural artifacts, and more.
Join members of the Trail Team to learn about important behind-the-scenes steps to be taken during Trail planning and development.
This is the third in a three-part series:
A ribbon-cutting ceremony at a newly completed segment may well be 20-plus years in the making. Come learn what it takes to turn a good idea into miles of sustainable tread.
Join the Trail Team and guests from the National Parks Service to learn about the county-by-county process of establishing a statewide IAT corridor. Some of the questions we’ll answer include:
- What counties have an established corridor?
- What counties are in the queue?
- What are the benefits of establishing a statewide corridor? How long does it take?
We’ll pull back the curtain on the behind-the-scenes processes that help make the Ice Age Trail a reality!
This is the first in a three-part series:
Volunteers gather around to learn the finer points of tread construction from Tim Malzhan, Director of Trail Operations for the Ice Age Trail Alliance. Photo by Cameron Gillie.
Private citizens coming together to create a public resource is an astonishingly complex undertaking. The momentous scale of developing and stewarding the Ice Age National Scenic Trail requires a shared vision for the Ice Age Trail and the skills and resources necessary to bring that vision to life. It isn’t easy, but it happens one volunteer, one steward, at a time. It happens during Ice Age Trail University (IAT-U). Continue reading →
Photo by Michael Maziarka
The secret sauce of our wildly successful and award-winning Mobile Skills Crew program?
Well-trained volunteers. Absolutely.
When the Mobile Skills Crew trailer pulls up to a work site, the flurry of activity that follows is nothing short of astounding. Tents are set up, meals are cooked, trails are built and boardwalks constructed. Much of what is accomplished, over the course of a few days, happens, in part, because the Ice Age Trail Alliance staff is able to rely on knowledgeable, capable volunteers. Individuals who have raised their hands and said “YES” to learning new skills or deepening their existing capabilities in service of the Trail. Continue reading →
Ice Age Trail University is summer camp …
… for Trail wizards of all ages. Plenty of fresh air, good sunshine, and happy times learning new things.
The best way to learn is by doing, and we’ll be providing lots of hands-on learning!
We’re super excited to partner with the Merrill Area School System and the Friends of the Merrill School Forest to build two boardwalks, and super excited about this year’s Camp Chef course.
North Central Technical College is offering a special training through their Culinary Arts program. It’s an exciting time for those who want to become more involved in the volunteer-support side of our Mobile Skills Crew events. Continue reading →
The new 24-foot-long bridge, with lengthy approach ramps, for a total of 268 feet of boardwalk, now spans Parfrey’s Glen Creek. Photo credit: Dave Caliebe
August is prime time for community festivals big and small, celebrating the heart of each locale. Last week’s MSC event in Sauk and Columbia Counties rolled out the big top, anchored by four heavyweights of the Ice Age Trail – stonework, trailbuilding, woodworking, and most importantly, learning. These four anchors held the big top sturdy through high winds and downpours. These four anchors play a key part, every day, along the Ice Age Trail, expanding the big top to include more volunteers and hikers. Continue reading →
Photo credit: Dave Caliebe
The Baraboo Bluffs are beckoning…this is the view the Trail reroute will provide.
“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keep learning stays young.”
~ Henry Ford
Educating and Empowering volunteers to build maintain and steward the Ice Age National Scenic Trail is the cornerstone of the Ice Age Trail Alliance Mobile Skills Crew Program. In the words of Henry Ford, “Anyone who keeps learning stays young.” If this is true, then our end-of-summer MSC event in Sauk County is a veritable fountain of youth.
Bring your youthful back-to-school spirit, because the best way to learn is by doing, and we’ve got a substantial, hands-on Trail improvement project in the works. This section of Trail meanders through the beautiful Riverland Conservancy owned Merrimac Preserve, near Devil’s Lake State Park. A dilapidated bridge and boardwalk will be replaced, ready for their own infusion of youthfulness. Continue reading →
