Annual Conference

People of the Sturgeon (Full Day Workshop)

Participants will explore the deep, thousands-year-old spiritual and cultural connection to the lake sturgeon, which the Menominee people consider a gift from the Creator. Through storytelling,discussion and immersive hands-on experiences, participants will gain a deeper understanding of Menominee People and their connection to the sturgeon, gain access to lessons to use in their classroom or teaching contexts, and a bibliography of children’s literature written by Native authors to support curriculum.

Pre-register to receive the book Saving our Sturgeon: Protecting Wisconsin’s Ancient Fish and an accompanying curriculum guide, We are Water Protectors, the Aquatic WILD curriculum guide, and other helpful resources.

Lunch and books will be provided to those who pre-register. Portions of the workshop will be held outdoors, weather permitting.

Presented by Anahkwet (Guy) Reiter, Menīkānaehkem Community Rebuilders; Lela Schwitzer, Bonduel Elementary; Sandy Benton, FIELD Edventures; and Anne Moser UW-Madison Sea Grant Institute

Learning from Our Ancestors and Seed Relatives (Full Day)

Valentine Gardens Tour (Morning)

9:30 - 11:30 • Valentine Gardens, 3026 Nicolet Dr, Green Bay, WI 54311 (driveway on Church Rd.)

Valentine Gardens is a 5-acre urban organic farm that strives to work with nature to grow diverse produce, raise pastured livestock, tend a 100 tree orchard and a small apiary. Mark and Sarah Valentine are both educators who offer sustainable living and agriculture education to kids and adults. This field trip will offer participants a farm tour as well as a chance to engage in some local food and farm education activities.

Presented by Sarah Valentine

Connect To The Land: Point Beach Ice Age Trail Hike (Afternoon)

This hike will have us sauntering along the Point Beach segment of the Ice Age National Scenic Trail as we connect to nature from a November point of view. We hope to inspire wonder and insight into the history of the land we now call Wisconsin. Hike Leaders will also share information about the IATA's Think Outside program which engages 4th graders across the state to connect to their "place", their community.

The segment is approximately 40 miles away. Participants will need to car pool or meet the group at Point Beach.

Presented by Kathy Waldera

Green Bay Botanical Garden Tour & Program Exploration (Afternoon)

1:00 - 4:00 • Green Bay Botanical Gardens, 2600 Larsen Rd, Green Bay

At Green Bay Botanical Garden, Nature, Community, and Food all come together! Tour the Garden then go behind-the-scenes into our growing spaces. Discover community connections around food, pollinators, and education. Then head into our classroom to explore the lessons and activities we provide to outside groups.

Includes walking for up to a mile over uneven terrain. Limited mobility scooters available for folks with physical mobility needs. Listening devices provided.

Presented by Linda Gustke

Registration, Welcome, and Dinner On Your Own

Member Meeting

Film Screening: An Invitation to Wonder

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Samuel Thayer is an internationally recognized authority on edible wild plants who has been teaching workshops and classes for three decades. He is the author of four highly acclaimed, award-winning books on edible wild plants. His first book, The Forager’s Harvest, has sold over 300,000 copies. His most recent, Sam Thayer’s Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants of Eastern and Central North America, is the winner of the National Outdoor Book Award for best nature guide of 2023.

Born in Wausau, Wisconsin, Samuel began gathering wild food in early childhood. At the age of 18 he built a log cabin and began pursuing his dream of homesteading, foraging, and studying Nature. Today he lives in Northern Wisconsin with his wife, Melissa, and their three children. Besides teaching and writing, Sam runs a small organic orchard featuring apples, native fruits and berries, and edible native ground covers; he also harvests wild rice, makes maple and birch syrup, and hickory nut oil.

Learn more

Workshop - Food As Medicine Workshop, De Pere

Growing Learning Opportunities with New Resources

Promoting the Full Range of Multi-Cultural Environmental Values in the School Setting

Teaching Tiny Explorers Through Nature Play

This presentation will equip educators with the knowledge and tools needed to engage Early Childhood students in nature. We will explore hands-on learning stations, focusing on sensory exploration, processed-based art and nature play. This presentation will feature activities that can be easily adapted for your own programs. Our goal is to help make environmental education more engaging, accessible and meaningful for our youngest learners.

Presenters: Maddie Jenks and Andrea Bierbrauer, Heckrodt Wetland Reserve

Fashioning a Model Response

Braiding Connections, Blooming Change

Making Waves: Connecting Students with Wisconsin's Freshwater

Bringing Together Early Childhood and Environmental Education in Wisconsin

Improving Wellbeing for Ambassador Animals in the Classroom

Robin Greenfield was raised in Northern Wisconsin on the shores of Lake Superior,

Robin Greenfield is a servant of Earth, humanity and the plants and animals we share this home with. He follows an action-based philosophy of life, service and activism. First and foremost, he seeks to be the change he wishes to see in the world through a life design of simple and sustainable living.

In October 2025, Robin began a year without grocery stores, restaurants, or even a garden. Nature is his garden, his pantry and his pharmacy! As he lives in close connection with Earth he is sharing about the food and medicine that is growing freely and abundantly all round us.

Workshop - Preserving Tribal Land, Culture, and Sovereignty, Oneida Nation Reservation

Originally from upstate New York, the Oneida Nation has called 65,400-acres along Duck Creek home for over 200 years. Participants will tour the Ohe•láku (Among the Cornstalks) farm whose mission is to re-learn to care for our ancestral seed relatives and pass on our cultural teachings to the next generations, as well as a bird monitoring project happening on the wetlands in the Oneida Nation Reservation in collaboration with the North East Wisconsin Bird Alliance.

Pre-register to receive a booklet about land use, access, and sovereignty from the Oneida Nation.

Presented by Tony Kuchma, Oneida Land, Environmental, Agriculture, & Food Division and Lea Zeise, Ohe·láku | Among the Cornstalks

Where Nature Meets Innovation: Building a Schoolwide Culture of Outdoor Learning

Water Wise = "Water Solutions"

2:00 - 2:50 • Meeting Room 1

Presentation, interaction, and sharing resources for a project/place-based approach centered in Expeditionary Learning where students created solutions to the major water issues within the Kenosha community directly related to the watersheds. Students answered the guiding question... In what ways or forms can an environmentally sustainable product be sold/created in Kenosha to support the water quality of the community to be “water wise?” The students created twenty-three options in coordination with over a dozen local organizations and Kenosha municipalities/government officials. Join this session to engage students in the community with theme of being Water Wise!

Overview: for the past three years students have created real life solutions to the water quality issues for the locally "impaired" watersheds in the Kenosha area in the sixth-grade science classrooms. The students, with the support over a dozen local organizations and city officials, have pushed out their ideas in a celebration of learning with over two hundred guests. Also, they have in various years created a billboard display, an expo with twelve student led groups, raised thousands of dollars in planting multiple rain gardens, and have solutions for every day Kenosha citizens to improve their water quality.

Some of the local experts that support the student work include the Kenosha water department, the alderman for the Harborside area, UW-Parkside Health Sciences department, Gateway Technical College, Root Pike WIN Organization, WATERshed Program, city engineers, Jockey International Organization, many various other businesses, and so many more partners. The students also won a five-hundred-dollar grant from the Green Bay Packer's Organization to further these solutions.

This presentation will show the phases of student work, resources for the student's ideas, how to incorporate the local government, use of university experts, coordination of non-profit organizations, field work in the natural community, and cross-curricular incorporation. Participants will have the ability to interact with student work and see if this student-led project is a fit for them and their community! Ultimately, this presentation will provide the tools to connect to the community with student-driven empowerment to engage in place-based learning within the framework of expeditionary learning.

Presenters: Jamian Knuth, Harborside Academy

Who Already Cares? Finding Hidden Environmental Partners

Second Best: Using Props and Models to Interpret and Play

Future and opportunities for water curriculum in Wisconsin

Building Community and Possibility through Outdoor Experiences in Urban Spaces

Igniting Climate Action in Wisconsin

Small Acts, Stronger Community

Lisa Poupart, Ph.D., is a member of the Lac Du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Anishinaabeg. She is an associate professor of First Nations Studies, Women's and Gender Studies, and Humanities at UW Green Bay. Dr. Poupart's work is concerned with healing First Nations generational historic trauma. She is also involved in a number of initiatives to standardize First Nations Studies curriculum in K-16. Her collaborative book "Connective Pedagogy: Elder Epistemology, Oral Tradition and Community" explores the traditional knowledge and teaching methodology of the Tribal World (2013, Aboriginal Issues Press/University of Manitoba). Dr. Poupart works with First Nations oral traditional Elders and First Nations youth in higher education settings.

The University of Wisconsin—Green Bay features a First Nations Education Doctorate (FNED), the only degree of its kind in the U.S.. Participants will expand their worldview of the Indigenous people of Turtle Island (North America) and explore opportunities to collaborate with professionals and practitioners in their communities.

Dinner on Your Own

Networking at Titletown Brewing Company

The creation of an art exhibit can lead to an experience that not only inspires its audience, but educates them—and moves them. Mary Burns’s latest exhibit, Women and Water: Woven Portraits From Around the World, gives viewers the opportunity to learn about extraordinary women and their work with water as protectors and advocates, scientists and water-walkers, teachers and farmers, healers and activists. By honoring these women and sharing their stories, the exhibit invites the viewer to consider their own relationship with water and the natural world—offering a learning experience for the head, and also for the heart.

An award-winning weaver, Mary Burns is the creator of the handwoven jacquard exhibits Women and Water: Woven Portraits from Around the World and Ancestral Women: Wisconsin's 12 Tribes.

Mary crafted the portraits for these exhibits on her unique hand-jacquard loom, a TC-2 named Brigid Mariah. Mary's love of weaving began in high school art class and for many years she wove award-winning rug-weight wall hangings, which reside in private homes across the United States. She also creates and teaches tapestry weaving, felting and eco-printing.

Her looms range in width from 10 inches to 8 feet.

Mary's work has been displayed in numerous exhibits and shows, including several art and science collaborations, and she has received many awards including the Best of Show in Wausau’s Festival of Arts in 2012 and 2008. She has also participated in several art and science residencies.

Mary founded Hazel Eyes Textiles with her sister Nancy and daughter Callie, offering eco-printed and naturally dyed house art and apparel.

Also a writer, Mary's novel Heartwood (2003) is a middle grade fantasy/natural history novel. She is a contributor to A Place to Which We Belong: Wisconsin Writers on Wisconsin Landscapes (1998).

Bridging Nonformal and Classroom Education Through Green & Healthy Schools

Creating Recycling Champions: Building Community Through Environmental Education

Strong communities are built by informed and engaged residents. This presentation will showcase how Winnebago County and the Tri-County Recycling Partnership is cultivating recycling champions through a variety of educational programs designed for classrooms, community groups, and lifelong learners. Explore the development and impact of the Recycle Right Master Class, Resource Trunks, the ABC's of Recycling Right book, and other outreach efforts that empower individuals to share knowledge within their own networks. Learn practical approaches for building community ownership of environmental initiatives and inspiring collective action.

Presenter: Kelly Reyer, Winnebago County Solid Waste

Navigating iNaturalist

To Know Them is to Love Them: A Forestry Refresher

Setting up Seasonal Staff for Camp Success

Join the summer camp coordinators on the panel in examining how to provide summer camp staff with valuable insights, practical strategies, and professional guidance. By engaging with these experts who have extensive backgrounds in outdoor recreation, environmental education and camp leadership - participants will gain a deeper understanding of effective staff training to increase camper outdoor engagement, safety practices, leadership techniques, and program management. The panel discussion will create opportunities for seasonal staff to deliver a safe, inclusive, and memorable outdoor summer camp experience for all campers.

Presenters: Angela Rivera, Dane County Parks, Lynn Anders, Urban Ecology Center, and Rachael Lewandowski Sarette, Upham Woods

Ishkode: The Story of Fire

This session aims to gather educators of all backgrounds together to collaboratively envision learning activities that could be developed around the new illustrated children's book Ishkode: A Story of Fire (https://www.ishkode.org/ishkode-story-of-fire). The book engages readers through Indigenous and Western ways of knowing to tell the story of people, fire, and pines in the Great Lakes Region. Ending on a hopeful note, the intent of this book is to help reshape and revitalize relationships with fire across Wisconsin and the broader region by recognizing Indigenous Wisdom and showing a path toward healing for people and the land. Please consider joining for this visioning effort to support the understanding and resurgence of Indigenous Fire Stewardship to the lands of Wisconsin!

Pre-register to receive a signed copy of Ishkode: The Story of Fire

Presenter: Evan Larson, Author

Evan Larson is a father, husband, teacher, and scientist who celebrates learning with heart and mind. Of European ancestry, Evan’s childhood took place in the woods of central Minnesota, helping his parents tend 80 acres of mixed hardwood forests. As a Professor and Chair in the Department of Environmental Sciences & Society at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, the work currently at the center of Evan's thoughts and energy is fueled by the enthusiasm of amazing Indigenous and non-Indigenous collaborators who are together working to re-story the interwoven relationships among people, fire, and pine in Great Lakes Forests, and translating this work to more good fire on the ground.

Dig In: Living Soil, Connected Communities

AgriSolar Innovations: Nature + Food + Energy

How can one piece of land support food, ecosystems, and energy? Join KEEP and Angela Rivera to explore KEEP’s new AgriSolar kit and activities. Discover strategies and tools you can use to engage learners in real-world problem solving and spark conversations about sustainable communities and innovative land use.

Presenters:

Gina Smith, KEEP - Wisconsin's K-12 Energy Education Program/Wisconsin Center for Environmental Education

Angela Rivera, Lussier Family Heritage Center, Dane County Land and Water Resources

Advocacy in Action: Voices Advancing Environmental Education

Restoring Manoomin and the Cat Island Chain

Participants will learn about how Native and non-native communities are working together to use Manoomin (wild rice) to restore the Cat Island Chain that once protected coastal marsh and underwater plant communities critical fish and wildlife habitats but was lost in the 1970s. Participants will learn about Tribal conservation perspectives, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, and treaty rights, as well as gain perspectives on how non-Native educators can take action as allies in the classroom and support the sovereignty of Native nations in Wisconsin.

Pre-register to receive the children’s book Manoomin maan’gowing/ The Gift of Mnoomin.

Presenters: Rob Fish, Miya and Rob Goodeagle

Mary Burns - Weaving Workshop

Human Ecology Games for People and Wildlife

Phenology: Leveraging Regular Nature Observations as a Restorative Practice

1:30 - 3:20 • Outside: Picnic Area

Students at Northern Waters Environmental School participate in regular phenological observations on our school grounds and beyond. Field journals act as personal nature diaries, in which students are able to focus on the world around them and make connections to the world inside them. In this session, we will discuss getting started with building field journals for each student, and using the work of local naturalists to help guide student observations, all while grounding student energy towards focused curiosity.

Presenters: Kate Witkowski, Northern Waters Environmental School

Eating Our Way through PLT’s "Trees & Me" Guide

Sponsorships and in-kind donations help us achieve our mission, provide high-value keynote speakers, and plan exciting, enriching experiences during our conference, all while keeping event costs low for educators. We have a wide range of sponsorship levels and exclusive benefits, and your donation may be tax deductible!

Consider supporting in the following ways:

Becoming a financial partner
Donating services (such as printing or advertising)
Donating goods (such as coffee and snacks for breaks)
Donating items for our silent or live auction. Auction proceeds support our scholarship fund.

Connect with our Executive Director to discuss sponsorship options or download our sponsorship packet to learn more:

Wisconsin State Environmental Education Conference

The Craft of Connection: Nature, Community, and Food

⸺ November 5 – 7, 2026 ⸺ 3 Venue locations in Green Bay﻿

Registration and Lodging

Member Rates

Non-Member Rates

Book Your Hotel Room Today!

You have until Wednesday, October 4 to book at the group rate.

View Conference Locations, Off-site Events, and Lodging Options

Program

Thursday, November 5

Field Trips and Workshops