The Commons – March 2023

  • A Voice for the Wild

    A Voice for the Wild

    “Chances are you’ve probably heard of the controversy involving a proposed mine near the Boundary Waters,” a voice echoes over the sound of howling wind as the camera sweeps over a dark, frozen landscape.

  • Graphic by Bri Meyer, CHE Graduate Student

    CHE Graduate Student Symposium: Watersheds

    The Center for Culture, History, and Environment (CHE) is excited to welcome you to gather with CHE students and faculty on March 25 for our annual Graduate Student Symposium.

  • Photos credit: Jeff Miller, University Communications

    Director’s Cut

    This is an exciting time for the Center for Culture, History, and Environment (CHE)!

  • Earth Day 2023 Species on the Move

    Earth Day 2023: Species on the Move

    Across the globe, climate change has put people, animals, and plants in a constant state of movement.

  • Grace Bulltail

    Q & A: Grace Bulltail

    It’s not every day a working professional engineer trades their “PE” stamp for academia.

  • Aly Scanlon

    From the Big Apple to Small-Town Wisconsin

    As an out-of-state student at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Aly Scanlon looked for opportunities to feel more at home in the place she was attending school.

  • Rachel French

    Bikepacking for Credit

    Imagine biking 50 miles up a mountain carrying nearly 100 pounds of gear with only peanut butter, tortillas, and applesauce to keep you going. 

  • Mark Parker petting a calf in a cage while his son is standing next to him. Photo courtesy of Organic Valley

    Partnerships in Greener Pastures

    About 80 miles northwest of Science Hall sits 538 acres of farmland.

  • Climate change and human health

    The WICCI Human Health Working Group addresses challenges and shares recommendations.

  • The Planetwalker’s Guide to Good Will

    In Human Kindness, John Francis shares encouraging tales from around the world.

  • Land Grant, Land Grab?

    Three Nelson affiliates partner on new teaching effort on Indigenous land dispossession

  • Public access can be created on private lands through easements and leases, which require the ongoing cooperation of private landowners, such as this area in southwest Wisconsin. Photo by Adena Rissman

    Managing Public Lands for Conservation

    The Nelson Institute Issue Brief is a quarterly publication that summarizes and conveys up-to-date scholarship from across the UW–Madison campus on key issues of environmental concern.