The sound of gravel crunching underfoot precedes Reinartz as he emerges from Downer Woods to welcome visitors. Reinartz surmises from the open branches on the mature trees that the site may have been a Native American gathering spot at one time. Around the turn of the 20th century, the land was owned and farmed by Guido Pfister, who eventually donated it to Downer College, on the site that became UWM in 1964. Since UWM’s Field Station began managing and restoring the 11-acre conservancy on the northern rim of UWM’s 104-acre main campus in 1998, Reinartz says it’s much easier to walk its meandering pathways.
“When we were first assigned to care for the woods, it was a dense thicket of invasive buckthorn,” Reinartz explains. “Then garlic mustard took over.
We worked very hard to eliminate those aggressive invaders and let the natural area recover.”
Downer Woods now provides an easily accessible venue that is woven into the curriculum of UWM’s growing biosciences and conservation programs. It provides opportunities for scientific research, like one project underway to study when specific trees leaf out each spring, and is also a haven for casual visitors who venture in to enjoy the changing seasons.
“A lot of native species, like jack in the pulpit and enchanters nightshade, are returning,” Reinartz says. “They’ve responded wonderfully. Our ultimate goal is to get the property back to being a beech maple forest.”
While much progress has been made, the conservancy is not “out of the woods.” The emerald ash borer is a looming threat, and with almost half of the canopy comprised of ash trees, the insect invader’s impact could be significant. But this unique, urban natural area has weathered nature’s storms before.
