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
Introduction to wetland sedges (Carex)
Aaron Feggestad, Stantec
Friday, November 14, 2025
10:30 am CT
Description
Genus Carex, the true sedges, form a fascinating and diverse group of plants. An evolutionary success story, Carex is the most species-rich genus in Wisconsin with more than 150 species. This introductory talk will focus on basic Carex ecology, morphology, and common terminology, and will be useful for anyone looking to expand their understanding and use of identification guides and keys.
Aaron Feggestad has been a practicing wetland professional for the past 20+ years, working in Wisconsin and the Great Lakes Region as a consulting ecologist, volunteer, and educator. Fascinated by the role of Carex in natural area function and the importance of Carex in the restoration of many types of natural communities, he is working towards a goal of cataloging nearly all the 158 species that occur within the state.
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: 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.
Wetland Coffee Break: Reed canarygrass: A comprehensive literature review for wetland managers
Hear from practitioner Craig Annen, who has been collecting and examining an extensive body of reed canarygrass literature from across the world since 2002 (from more than 1,000 studies and over 300 journals in ten different languages).
Wetland Coffee Break: Draft wetland functional assessment tool for Wisconsin and Minnesota
Hear Tom Pearce from Wisconsin DNR discuss the strategy and goals for developing the new RAM tool, provide an overview of current tool functions and scoring, and share an update on stakeholder engagement efforts.
Wetland Coffee Break: Helping farmers, saving cranes
International Crane Foundation’s Ryan Michalesko joined us to discuss how ICF is expanding its efforts to find real solutions to support farmers while also protecting cranes and the landscape.
Wetland Coffee Break: New general permit to promote hydrologic restoration of streams, wetlands, and floodplains in Wisconsin
Hear from WWA’s Erin O’Brien and the WDNR’s Tom Nedland as they give a brief background and overview of the Hydrologic Restoration General Permit, which will encourage voluntary wetland, stream, and floodplain restoration and management projects.