Speakers and
Workshop Presenters
Check back soon to see our listing of presenters grow!
Jeb Barzen
Private Lands Conservation, LLC
The Joy and Responsibility Arising as We Progress from Endangerment to Sustainability in Managing Wildlife Populations
For many of us, wildlife conservation is defined by saving species that are in decline. Today, however, examples abound where wildlife populations have recovered to the extent that their abundance has, or may cause, new problems to predominate – problems of success due to burgeoning numbers. In Wisconsin, Sandhill Cranes and Bald Eagles, species with similar life histories, are two such examples, and both were once considered threatened in the state. During this festival, you will see both species well-represented along the Wisconsin River.
However, along with abundance comes responsibility. For example, high crane numbers can cause significant crop damage to farmers who otherwise provide cranes with good habitats. High eagle numbers may restrict populations of prey species (including cranes) as they reoccupy long-abandoned habitats. How can we better prepare for this type of success? Does overabundance even matter, or is more always better? Are scenarios of managing overabundance an exception to the rule of endangered species management or the emerging rule for which we will need to adjust? I look forward to exploring these interesting questions about two iconic species you have come here to celebrate.
I have spent most of my 40-year career studying birds in the field and applying ecosystem restoration tools for these species in wetlands, grasslands, and savannas worldwide. This includes extensively studying four crane species (Sandhill, Sarus, Siberian and Whooping), Bald Eagle winter ecology, and Canvasback migration ecology.
Now, being officially an old bird ecologist, I am naturally interested in how the conservation of birds has changed over time. Concomitantly, I have also realized that most really interesting projects last well beyond my lifetime, so my research has focused on teaching, mentoring, and advancing the tools we depend on to improve bird and ecosystem restoration.
Jeb is also the Chair of the Wisconsin Prescribed Fire Council, Adjunct Assistant Professor for the UW-Madison Department of Planning and Landscape Architecture, and Lecturer at the UW-Madison Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies.
Michael Forsberg
Photographer and Conservationist
Into Whooperland – A Photographer’s Journey with Whooping Cranes
Michael Forsberg has spent the last five years camera-in-hand exploring the natural history of Whooping Cranes across the continent, meeting people who love them, and discovering how these tall, magnificent, and rarest cranes are navigating the 21st-century world. In this multimedia presentation based on his new book, Forsberg will take you on a wild, wonderful, and sometimes heartbreaking journey from their wintering grounds along the Texas Gulf Coast to their remote nesting grounds in northern Canada and on migration through the heart of the Great Plains.
Michael Forsberg is a Nebraskan whose 30-year career as a photographer and conservationist has been dedicated to wildlife and conservation stories in North America’s Great Plains, once one of the greatest grassland ecosystems on Earth. His images have been featured in publications such as Audubon, National Geographic, Nature Conservancy, and Sierra magazines. His fine art prints are in public and private collections, and his solo exhibitions have traveled nationwide. Mike serves as faculty with the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and is a Fellow with the Center for Great Plains Studies and the Daugherty Water for Food Institute. He is also a Senior Fellow with the International League of Conservation Photographers. He lives with his family and a collection of unruly animals in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Mike is the author and photographer of On Ancient Wings – The Sandhill Cranes of North America, self-published in 2005, and Great Plains – America’s Lingering Wild, published by the University of Chicago Press in 2009. He was featured in the Nebraska Public Media documentary Crane Song and co-produced Great Plains – America’s Lingering Wild, based on his book of the same title, released on PBS in 2013. 2011 Mike co-founded Platte Basin Timelapse in partnership with the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and Michael Farrell Photography and Fine Art. Today, it is a conservation storytelling project to inform scientific research, build educational content, and tell stories of a Great Plains watershed in motion.
Diane Moller
Hoo’s Woods Raptor Center
Share a Raptor Experience with Hoo’s Woods
Join us for an engaging one-hour raptor education program featuring several fascinating raptor species, including our Bald Eagle, “Victor E.,” and Snowy Owl, “Wesley,” along with other feathered friends. Participants will delve into the natural history, breeding, habitat, and behaviors of these magnificent birds. Discover why these raptors are among the most beautiful and captivating in the world. Hoo’s Woods, a non-profit organization established in 1998, is dedicated to the rehabilitation and education of raptors, aiming to inspire a deeper appreciation and respect for wildlife and nature.
Dianne Moller founded Hoo’s Woods Raptor Center near Milton, Wisconsin, in 1998. Dianne is a native of southern Wisconsin and has worked with raptors for over 25 years. She is a licensed rehabilitator, educator, and master falconer through state and federal agencies. Hoo’s Woods admits more than 100 injured, sick and orphaned raptors annually. They present outreach education programs, reaching thousands of audience participants each year. Their 12 non-releasable education birds make learning fun while encouraging community involvement and fostering respect for nature and wildlife. Dianne has served on boards for the North American Falconer’s Association, the International Association of Falconry representing U.S. falconry in the Middle East, and is past President of the Wisconsin Falconers Association. She is a past recipient of Wildlife Conservationist of the Year and the Giveback Non-profit from the Milton Community.
Dexter Patterson
Wisco Birder
Bird Joy for All
Join Dexter Patterson, also known as the Wisco Birder, for his presentation “Bird Joy for All.” Dexter’s educational and entertaining online birding videos have gained millions of views on social media, making him a well-respected figure in the birding community. Learn about the physical and mental health benefits of birdwatching, hear personal stories from Dexter about his birding journey, and explore how birding can foster curiosity and a love for nature. His presentation will dive into the importance of diversity in birding communities and practical tips for introducing children to birding and creating memorable family adventures. “Bird Joy for All” will also showcase birders’ role in conservation efforts and insights on ensuring safety while birding, particularly for people of color, women, and differently-abled individuals. Celebrate the joy of birdwatching and depart with practical tips, inspirational stories, and a deeper appreciation for the wonders of birding.
Dexter Patterson is on a mission to spread as much joy as possible by making his new hobby of birdwatching welcoming for all birders around the state. Dexter co-founded the BIPOC Birding Club of Wisconsin in 2021, and his Instagram followers love his energetic and exciting videos that feature him singing and dancing through the woods, finding stunning birds throughout the state, and taking gorgeous photographs. Dexter is on a mission to prove that birding is for everyone, and he hopes the BIPOC Birding Club of Wisconsin will help make birding more inclusive not only in our greater Madison community but across the Badger state.
Susan J. Preston
Photographer, Mindfulness Guide, and Author
BOSQUE, Winter Wings – An Author Presentation
Bird photographer, mindfulness guide, and author Susan J. Preston shares her inspiring journey of wonder and grief that unfolded in the company of the Sandhill Cranes and the enchanting winter landscapes of Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. In this artful presentation, Susan will share photographs and stories from her international award-winning coffee table book BOSQUE, Winter Wings.
Susan and mindful birding guide Dr. Holly Thomas will also lead an intimate outing, The Gentle Gaze—The Mindful Path of Bird Photography. If you are curious about how engaging in wildlife photography can be a gift of reciprocity with the more-than-human world, please join us!
Susan J. Preston is a lifelong photographer and professional designer with a deep love for the birds and enchanting desert landscapes of central and northern New Mexico. She is the author and designer of the exquisite photography book BOSQUE, Winter Wings – a love letter to the winter migratory birds, especially the Sandhill Cranes of Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. The fine art edition has won five international photography awards, including a Gold Tokyo Foto Award (tifa), Silver Nautilus Book Award, and the Award of Excellence from Communication Arts Magazine.
Drawing upon many years of meditation practices and contemplative traditions, she brings fresh perspectives to the art of wildlife photography, weaving reverence in relationship, mindful compassion, and wonder into her talks and photography workshops. Her art is deeply attuned to the heartache of our modern era, focusing on co-creation and reciprocity with the living Earth.
Dr. Liz Smith
Senior Research Associate, International Crane Foundation
Personal Lessons Learned Working to Save Whooping Cranes
Whooping Cranes are regaled as one of the conservation success stories in North America. This species was listed as endangered in 1967 and 1973 due to unregulated hunting and habitat loss across their historic range. The increase in the wild Aransas-Wood Buffalo Population from less than 20 individuals in the 1940s to above 500 today is largely due to the concerted efforts of dedicated leaders and concerned individuals affecting the conservation effort. What has inspired us to ensure this recovery over eight decades and continue to address increasing challenges to their habitat, health, and safety? Please join Liz as she shares her personal motivation throughout her career and being part of this collective effort to save Whooping Cranes.
Liz is a native Texan, where she encountered her first Whooping Crane family at the age of ten as the endangered cranes wintered within the protected coastal marsh ecosystem. Her motivation to follow a scientific career was based on love and curiosity about the natural world and how she could contribute to saving it. After earning her Ph.D. at Texas A&M University in wildlife sciences, she focused her research on coastal habitat assessment and conservation at Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi. Liz joined the International Crane Foundation in 2011 as Sr. Whooping Crane Scientist as well as the Texas and North American Program Director until her retirement in 2022. She continues working as a Sr. Research Associate using crane behavior to both assess habitat health and educating human communities on ways to share coastal habitat with cranes.
Becky Rom
Serves on the Governing Council of The Wilderness Society and National Chair of the Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters
Extraordinary Leadership – The Wilderness Act of 1964
Becky Rom will trace the work to protect America’s wild public lands that resulted in the Wilderness Act of 1964. She will describe the extraordinary leadership, much of it by Midwesterners, that led to the passage of the Act by Congress and its signing by President Lyndon Johnson. Management decisions that continually eroded wilderness protection for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area and other areas around the country in national forests and national parks made clear to the leaders of The Wilderness Society that Congressional action was essential to saving wilderness.
Becky Rom serves on the Governing Council of The Wilderness Society, the premier land conservation organization in the country. Aldo Leopold was one of eight founders of The Wilderness Society. She has served on the Governing Council for nearly 30 years and, among other positions, chaired the Governing Council for four years from 2002 to 2006. Becky has worked on public lands advocacy across America, with a special focus on Alaska and the Quetico-Superior region. She has worked on four national campaigns to protect the Boundary Waters and held a leadership role in the last two such campaigns. She is currently the National Chair of the Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters, a 400+ national coalition of businesses and organizations united to permanently protect the Boundary Waters, Quetico, and Voyageurs from sulfide-ore copper mining. The Campaign successfully achieved a twenty-year mining ban for the headwaters of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, Quetico Park, and Voyageurs National Park.
Melanie Tallmadge Sainz
Founding Director
Little Eagle Arts Foundation
Boundaries vs. Connections
Boundaries vs. Connections will explore the colonialist notion of land and maps that control and define people’s relationship with land through hard lines and divisions. As a Ho-Chunk tribal member and artist raised in rural Wisconsin, Sainz explores the Indigenous relationship to the land and its inhabitants characterized by connections and stewardship. Featuring a variety of arranged temporary installations juxtaposed with diverse cultural objects that reflect an objection to planned obsolescence, the lecture and exhibition will also include new mixed media work created by Sainz set in indoor and outdoor areas at the Aldo Leopold Center.
Melanie Tallmadge Sainz is a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin and has been an exhibiting artist, art educator, and arts organization administrator since 1985. Melanie received a certificate in Minority Business at UW-Madison and her B.F.A. and M.A. graduate studies in Art Education at Arizona State University. She held the positions of the Education Specialist at The Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona, Art Department Chair at Phoenix Country Day School in Paradise Valley, Arizona, and currently the founding Director of Little Eagle Arts Foundation, a Native-run non-profit organization dedicated to the economic betterment of Native artists in the western Great Lakes region.
Her art has received awards and has been exhibited and sold at the Shirotopia in Himeji, Japan; Southern Highland Craft Guild Folk Art Center in Asheville, North Carolina; Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC; the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indian and Western Art in Indianapolis, Indiana; the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona; and the Autry Museum in Los Angeles, California. Her recent public art installations in Wisconsin include Earth Sky Water, Great Sauk State Trail, Prairie du Sac; Tee Wakacak: Sacred Lake, Jack Young Middle School, Baraboo; CUNA Mutual Insurance building, Madison; International Crane Foundation, Baraboo; and Wingra School, Madison.
Dr. Stan Temple
Senior Fellow
Aldo Leopold Foundation
Aldo Leopold Was for the Birds!
Although widely recognized for his book, A Sand County Almanac, and his contributions to modern conservation, Aldo Leopold was also a life-long birder. A well-worn pair of birding binoculars was often around his neck whenever he was in the field. Leopold not only enjoyed bird watching, but he also wrote some of his most poignant essays about birds and their conservation. He faithfully recorded many of his bird observations, providing important historical records that allow us to understand how birds are responding to such environmental factors as climate change. Stan Temple will review Leopold’s love of birds and birding and explain why his writings are so important for bird conservation efforts today.
What Have We Done to Deserve All These Cranes?
In recent years, islands and sandbars along the Wisconsin River have hosted ever-growing numbers of Greater Sandhill Cranes as they prepare to depart for their wintering areas. Flocks of upwards of 10,000 birds converge on the stretch of the river above and below the Aldo Leopold’s Shack each fall. That’s a large proportion of the cranes that now nest in Wisconsin. Why has there been such an impressive resurgence in the crane population since Aldo Leopold worried about its impending extirpation 80 years ago, and what attracts all these birds to the vicinity of the Shack? Stan Temple will review the remarkable recovery of Midwestern Sandhill Cranes, describe their migratory behavior and discuss some of the recent controversies, such as crane hunting, that have attended their new status as an abundant bird.
Stanley A. Temple is the Beers-Bascom Professor Emeritus in Conservation in the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. For 32 years, he held the academic position once occupied by Aldo Leopold, and during that time, he won every teaching award for which he was eligible. He and his students have helped save many of the world’s endangered species and the habitats on which they depend. He is currently a Senior Fellow with the Aldo Leopold Foundation. He has received conservation awards from the Society for Conservation Biology, The Wildlife Society, and the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology. He is a Fellow of the American Ornithologists’ Union, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters. He has been President of the Society for Conservation Biology and Chairman of the Board of The Nature Conservancy in Wisconsin. He was recently inducted into the Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame.
Dr. Holly Thomas
Mindful Birding Guide
The Gentle Gaze—The Mindful Path of Bird Photography
Have you ever “woken up” in the middle of a photography outing only to realize your inner dialogue is louder than the cacophony of nature around you? Between the pressure to create Instagram-worthy images and the unpredictable movement of wildlife, nature and wildlife photography can feel more stressful than soothing.
During this mindfulness-based workshop, your guides, Susan J. Preston and Dr. Holly Thomas, will create a supportive, non-judgmental environment with a focus on presence as an antidote to perfectionism and loneliness. Please join us to explore the gifts of paying attention with a reverent and creative approach to nature photography that can be applied to any area of your life and deepen your sense of belonging. This is not a technical workshop, so be sure to bring a camera or phone that you are familiar with to reduce tech-related distractions. We encourage bringing an open heart and welcome photographers of all levels to join!
This 2.5-hour workshop will primarily take place outdoors on the nature trails at the International Crane Foundation; these trails are not paved, so please do not take scooters, wheelchairs, bicycles, or strollers onto trails. If you have any questions, please be in touch with Susan on Instagram @susanprestonstudio or BosqueWinterWings.com
Holly Thomas brings a unique blend of expertise to her work. Her background includes a Ph.D. in physiology from UC Berkeley and a certification in yoga teaching. This combination gives her a strong foundation in academic research and practices that support holistic well-being. Initially, her research focused on the physiological responses to stress, but she has since shifted her attention to exploring how yoga and meditation can offer benefits that align with holistic health principles and a deep appreciation for nature.
In addition to her individual practices, Holly is actively involved in leading birding outings for various Audubon groups, where she shares both her extensive knowledge and her passion for birdwatching with others. She currently leads innovative workshops that weave together mindfulness, yoga, and birding, offering participants a holistic experience aimed at highlighting the importance and benefits of connecting with the natural world. Holly also takes on a leadership role by guiding mindful birding hikes for the Sierra Club and contributing to the Mindful Birding Network. Through co-hosting The Mindful Birding Podcast, she reaches an even broader audience, enriching the community’s understanding and appreciation of both birding and mindfulness practices.
Hillary Thompson
Whooping Crane Project Manager
International Crane Foundation
Reintroducing Whooping Cranes in Wisconsin
Have you ever wondered how we release cranes into the wild and learn so much about their lives? Whooping Crane Project Manager Hillary Thompson will present how the International Crane Foundation reintroduces and monitors Whooping Cranes in Wisconsin and what research the North American team is doing to learn more about the population.
Hillary Thompson grew up in rural Wisconsin, hearing the Sandhill Cranes calling from the marsh. She attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison and earned a B.S. in Zoology, Conservation Biology, and Scandinavian Studies. She traveled the country after graduation and studied insects in the forests of Yellowstone National Park, sea lions in the Columbia River, and salmon in the streams of Oregon before starting as a Field Ecology Intern at the International Crane Foundation in 2012. Since then, she hasn’t really left the Foundation and even studied Whooping Cranes for her M.S. research at Clemson University. Now, Hillary leads our Wisconsin-based Whooping Crane field team and is the North American Crane Working Group president.
Marianne Wellington
Senior Aviculturist and Chick Rearing Supervisor
International Crane Foundation
Building a Better Bird – Chick Rearing at the International Crane Foundation
Since 1973, the International Crane Foundation has worked to raise and safeguard all 15 species of cranes. Join Marianne Wellington, the International Crane Foundation’s Senior Aviculturist and Chick Rearing Supervisor, to learn about the chick-rearing process, discover how things have changed (or stayed the same) for the cranes, and learn how Marianne’s team “builds a better bird” to prepare different crane species for release into the wild or captivity.
Marianne Wellington is an Iowa native and received her B.A. in Biology from Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Marianne started at the International Crane Foundation as a shared intern between the Education and Aviculture Departments in 1986. Her Aviculture intern project correlating the female crane’s physical characteristics with egg laying intervals increased her desire to learn more about birds. In the fall/winter of 1986, Marianne interned as a naturalist at the Audubon Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary and began learning about the various Florida ecosystems. Marianne returned to the International Crane Foundation in the spring of 1987 to work with the Crane Conservation Department in an experimental position overseeing the chick-rearing program, helping develop isolation and parent-rearing protocols. Marianne feels fortunate to have worked with national and international colleagues, building relationships with others interested in captive and wild cranes. Through this collaboration, she has gained experience and knowledge of crane husbandry and field techniques, including capture methods, banding, tracking, and monitoring behaviors in the wild.