Environmental historian to examine wetland preservation

The complex history of wetlands in America and how this history has shaped present-day wetland management is the topic of a public lecture by award-winning environmental historian and distinguished author Ann Vileisis at 7p.m. on Monday, April 28 at UW–Madison.

The Student Chapter of the Wisconsin Wetlands Association is hosting the event, which will be in Room 145 Birge Hall.

Vileisis’ book, “Discovering the Unknown Landscape: A History of America’s Wetlands” (Island Press, 1997), has won two prestigious national awards. It received the American Historical Association’s 1998 Herbert Feis Award for the best work by an independent scholar or public historian and the American Society for Environmental History’s 1998 George Perkins Marsh Prize for the best environmental history book.

There will be a question-and-answer session and discussion moderated by Wisconsin Wetlands Association’s Charlie Luthin immediately after the lecture. A reception will follow.

This event is timed to precede National Wetlands Month in May and serves as the inaugural event for the newly chartered Student Chapter of the Wisconsin Wetlands Association.

The event was made possible by the support of the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute, the Associated Students of Madison, the Wisconsin Wetlands Association, the Milwaukee Public Museum, the UW Center for Limnology, and the UW-Arboretum. Additional sponsors include the, the Madison Ecology Group, the Madison Audubon Society, the Wisconsin Historical Society, the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and the Departments of Landscape Architecture and Geography.