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
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: 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.
Wetland Coffee Break: For the love of wetlands: Exploring wetland protection and restoration potential in Wisconsin
The Nature Conservancy in Wisconsin has developed multiple tools to highlight high quality wetlands to prioritize protection efforts as well as impaired wetlands with high restoration potential.
Wetland Coffee Break: Into Whooperland: A photographer’s journey with whooping cranes
Conservation photographer Michael Forsberg spent the last five years camera-in-hand exploring the natural history of whooping cranes across the continent, meeting people who love them, and discovering how these tall, magnificent, and rarest of cranes are navigating...
Wetland Coffee Break: Wetland portrayal in modern films
After viewing 163 films that included swamps, bogs, and other types of wetlands, we analyzed how filmmakers have used wetlands as storytelling devices, potentially shaping viewers’ perceptions. Wetlands are predominantly portrayed negatively in film, often as trials...
Wetland Coffee Break: Aerial herbicide application on invasive wetland plants: Planning, process and lessons learned
Jason Fleener, wetland habitat specialist with WDNR, will outline the various steps to plan out and implement a successful spraying project, discuss how to choose the best method for application (helicopter or drone), and how to choose the right chemicals for a project.
Wetland Coffee Break: Purple loosestrife biocontrol model in Wisconsin
Learn about the purple loosestrife biocontrol process and how it is sometimes integrated with other invasive plant management.