Day trip to Toft Point: Millers join student and faculty researchers for a day in one of UW-Green Bay’s natural areas

In Northern Door County is a one-mile peninsula along the Lake Michigan coast with outstanding native plant communities and endangered species. This beautiful piece of property was gifted and entrusted to the care of UW-Green Bay by conservationist Emma Toft in 1968, and it continues as a rich research space and treasured natural area.

UW-Green Bay Chancellor Miller and his wife Georgia joined a group of 14 students and University faculty and staff with a visit to Toft Point and the nearby Ridges Sanctuary last Friday (July 29).

On the trip, the group observed two federally listed endangered species — the Hines Emerald Dragonfly and the Dwarf Lake Iris — and faculty and students explained their research and efforts. Projects presented included: Great Lakes Coastal Wetland Monitoring, funded by a large grant from the Environmental Protection Agency awarded to 14 universities and agencies to systematically monitor the health of coastal wetlands across the great lakes; studies on the distribution of seeds of federally listed Dwarf Lake Iris; and soil sampling to determine the natural environment in which threatened orchids grow.

Click to advance slideshow or view the album on Flickr.

— Photos by Dan Moore, Marketing and University Communication
— Editorial by Jena Richter, Marketing and University Communication