Wetland Coffee Break
The Wetland Coffee Break series helps keep our community of wetland lovers connected and learning about wetlands throughout the year, from anywhere! Bring your coffee and learn about wetlands, the plants and animals that call them home, and the many natural benefits they provide to our communities. Sessions are held on Zoom and feature time for audience Q&A.
See below for a list of upcoming presentations and to register. Once you register, you’ll receive an automatic email including the URL link and password you’ll need to access the meeting. We record and post each presentation so you can watch any that you missed live. You’ll find links to these recordings below, and you can also find them on our Facebook page.
We are grateful to all of the presenters for sharing their knowledge and expertise and to everyone interested in learning more about wetlands! If you are interested in giving a Wetland Coffee Break presentation, or if you have a wetland topic you’d like to see covered, please contact Katie.Beilfuss@wisconsinwetlands.org.
We are now able to provide attendance verification to Wetland Coffee Break audience members who attend the live sessions and request this service. We created this mechanism in response to requests from members of the Wetland Coffee Break audience who would like to apply their Wetland Coffee Break learning to their continuing education or certification requirements. Learn more about how to receive attendance verification here.
Register for a Wetland Coffee Break
Hydrology and Hydraulics 101
Dave Kraft, Hey & Associates, Inc.
Friday, Aug 22, 2025
10:30 am CT
Description
The hydrology and hydraulics of the watershed and waterways that we work in are key drivers to understanding wetlands and developing preservation and restoration approaches. How much water there is and how it navigates the landscape can also influence regulatory needs. This presentation will provide wetland scientists and other practitioners with an introductory understanding of hydrology and hydraulics, or H&H, and how to work with the water, not against it.
Rooted in a deep passion for the outdoors, Dave Kraft has over 20 years of professional experience in water resources engineering with a focus on restoration of natural wetland and stream systems in a wide range of settings. Mr. Kraft holds a BS in Civil/Environmental Engineering from UW Madison and is a registered Professional Engineer in Illinois and Wisconsin.
How do beavers impact water?
Cortney Dean, Conservation Biologist
Friday, September 26, 2025
10:30 am CT
Description
Do beaver dams actually increase water temperatures? How do beaver ponds impact water quality, pollutants, and sediments? Conservation Biologist Cortney Dean takes a look at the data, challenges, and unexpected findings of beaver-water research in northwestern Wisconsin.
Cortney Dean is a conservation biologist located in Eau Claire, WI. She studies beaver impacts to the biotic and physical components of ecosystems. Her research focuses on water quality, food webs, and biodiversity impacts to avian and bat species.
Watch previous presentations
Click “Older Entries” below to see more past presentations, or view our Google Sheet index of past presentations here.
Wetland Coffee Break: Wetland monitoring and assessment 101
Ecologist Sally Jarosz provides an introduction to the wetland monitoring and assessment methodologies employed by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
Wetland Coffee Break: A primer on aerial imagery reviews
Interpretation of historic and current aerial photography is an important skill for wetland ecologists of all disciplines because it helps tell the story of land use over time.
Wetland Coffee Break: What do fall-staging canvasbacks need on the Upper Mississippi River?
Stephen Winter, wildlife biologist for the USFWS, uses information from previous research and aerial survey data to highlight three important components of canvasback habitat quality on the Upper Mississippi River.
Wetland Coffee Break: Invasive species or invasible ecosystems?
Stephen’s talk was a favorite among attendees at the conference, so we asked him to join us for a Wetland Coffee Break presentation to share how many invasive species are better understood as symptoms of a stressed ecosystem.
Wetland Coffee Break: Chasing dragonflies: Leveraging genetic tools to help conserve Hine’s emerald dragonfly
Dr. Toczydlowski will talk about how she and her collaborators are leveraging genetic tools, including environmental DNA (eDNA), to build our knowledge of Hine’s Emerald Dragonfly.
Wetland Coffee Break: The fur trade and the north woods environment
Between 1630 and 1830, fur hunters exterminated more than 95 percent of the region’s beaver population. In this talk, Hayden Nelson shares how the historical overhunting of beavers substantially altered the forested wetlands around Lake Superior.