Holy Wisdom Monastery building overlooking woods and lake in distance

Creating a living lab for sustainable building operation

Holy Wisdom MonasteryBenedictine Bridge, Care for the Earth Leave a Comment

by Mark Hanson, director of sustainable services, Hoffman Planning, Design & Construction, Inc “Climate change is a global problem with grave implications. There is a nobility in the duty to care for creation through little daily actions, and it is wonderful how education can bring about real changes in lifestyle.” – Pope Francis, Laudato Si’ Caring for the earth requires thoughtful decisions in design, construction and ongoing operation or stewardship of a building and the land it’s on. Holy Wisdom Monastery was diligent in building a new monastery building in 2009 and has since added considerably more solar energy generation. The …

Prairie naturalist and teacher

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by John A. Van Dinter, Friends of Wisdom Prairie council member Wisdom Monastery is committed to maintaining native prairie and savannas and we’ve been aided by a special person who has a tremendous background and knowledge in local native species and habitats. Nancy Schlimgen, a longtime resident of Westport, has helped the state of Wisconsin, Dane County, Westport Township, Holy Wisdom Monastery and many others restore and rebuild our natural habitats. (She is pictured above, left, as former staff naturalist at Holy Wisdom, working with student interns.) Nancy’s master’s thesis focused on a unique plant, prairie bush clover, which is an …

Spring with the Friends of Wisdom Prairie through a camera lens or two

Car McGinleyBenedictine Bridge, Care for the Earth, Friends of Wisdom Prairie Leave a Comment

This spring the Friends of Wisdom Prairie learned about wildflowers at Abraham’s Woods near Albany, Wisconsin. The Friends also burned 85 acres of prairie, removed hedgerows to ready the land for an oak savanna, planted 10 acres of native prairie, searched for birds on the grounds of Holy Wisdom Monastery and were educated about Wisconsin wildlife by University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Scott Craven. You are invited to join the Friends on one of their upcoming outings, dinner lectures, workdays and tours this summer. Help care for the earth at Holy Wisdom and learn about sustainable practices you can use where you …

Holy Wisdom Monastery driveway sign in front of tall evergreen trees

Land restoration spanning more than 60 years

Car McGinleyBenedictine Bridge, Care for the Earth, Friends of Wisdom Prairie Leave a Comment

The majestic evergreens at the end of the Holy Wisdom Monastery driveway, ranging in size from 50-80 feet tall, started as seedlings growing in strawberry boxes, recalls Sister Joanne Kollasch. “Soon after the sisters came here (in 1953) we planted seedlings from the DNR in the garden. Several years later we transplanted them to several places on the property.” About 20 years ago, these trees were replanted again to the end of the driveway. The monastery garden, also planted that first year, has grown in size and continues to provide fresh produce for sisters and guests. From these early beginnings, the …

Wisdom Prairie Project declared a success!

Holy Wisdom MonasteryCare for the Earth, Friends of Wisdom Prairie Leave a Comment

 We have some exciting news to share with you! The Wisdom Prairie Project is complete! With the help of so many, we have successfully met our goal of raising $1.9 million to cover the acquisition and initial management costs to restore this 53-acre parcel to native prairie and oak savanna. We could not have done this without your support. Thank you to hundreds of families, companies, foundations, and municipalities for supporting our vision of caring for the earth. This project will conserve more land in a rapidly urbanizing location on the north side of Lake Mendota. By restoring this land to native prairie, there …

Cone flowers in the prairie at Holy Wisdom Monastery.

Wisdom Prairie Project declared a success!

Holy Wisdom MonasteryCare for the Earth, Friends of Wisdom Prairie, Wisdom Prairie Project Leave a Comment

We have some exciting news to share with you! The Wisdom Prairie Project is complete! With the help of so many, we have successfully met our goal of raising $1.9 million to cover the acquisition and initial management costs to restore this 53-acre parcel to native prairie and oak savanna. We could not have done this without your support. Thank you to hundreds of families, companies, foundations, and municipalities for supporting our vision of caring for the earth. This project will conserve more land in a rapidly urbanizing location on the north side of Lake Mendota. By restoring this land to native prairie, there …

volunteers gathered by new truck ready for work

Preparing for the prairie burn season

Holy Wisdom MonasteryCare for the Earth, Friends of Wisdom Prairie Leave a Comment

Volunteers gather before preparing to remove woody invasive species. Special thanks to the Endres Manufacturing Company Foundation for a grant to purchase the pickup truck used to transport supplies. Today, a couple volunteers are going to be cutting woody invasive plants along the fire breaks. The fire breaks are what a burn team will use to stop controlled fires from going beyond the area that we want to burn. Prairie burns are a very effective way to remove invasive plants and allow native plants to thrive. A couple weeks ago, Dane County provided the use of a Fecon mower at the …

Preparing for the prairie burn season

Holy Wisdom MonasteryCare for the Earth, Friends of Wisdom Prairie, Wisdom Prairie Project Leave a Comment

A group of six gathered today to do some work in the Wisdom Prairie in preparation for the upcoming prairie burn season. The work was made easier with a grant from the Endres Manufacturing Company Foundation to help purchase a used pickup truck at the end of 2014. Having this extra truck available allows us to haul supplies and transport volunteers to remote parts of the property. It complements our other pickup truck so that we can have multiple groups working at the same time on different projects on different parts of the property. Today,a couple volunteers are going to …

Creating an Oak Savanna at Holy Wisdom Monastery

Holy Wisdom MonasteryCare for the Earth, Friends of Wisdom Prairie, Nature Notes Leave a Comment

By Ron Endres and Will Mann As you drive around Lake Mendota on County Highway M and pass in front of the Holy Wisdom Monastery property, you see two primary ecosystems: prairie (or fields that have been recently planted as prairies) and woodland. Prairie and woodland are wonderful ecosystems. If we finished constructing the prairies, cleaned up the weeds and hedgerows, did a bit of maintenance in the woodland, it would be acceptable to call the Wisdom Prairie project complete. But in nature this is not exactly how a prairie transitions to woodland.  In pre-settlement days, the Eastern states were …

volunteers cutting down and burning hedgrerows along snow-covered fields

Winter work activity at Wisdom Prairie–removing hedgerows

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by Friends of Wisdom Prairie Council Members Ron Endres and Will Mann Winter is the ideal time of year to remove the hedgerows in and around Wisdom Prairie. Hedgerows (also called fencerows) are areas that previously separated sections of crop fields or are rough areas that were too hard to till. Weeds and invasive trees and shrubs grow in these areas and their seeds are easily spread into a nearby prairie, often completely overtaking it. Hedgerows at Holy Wisdom contain species like honeysuckle, buckthorn, box elder, wild grape vine and mulberry.  They shade the ground, thereby preventing grasses and ground …