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 upcoming presentations Watch previous presentations

Register for a Wetland Coffee Break

Science to the Sidewalk: Relational care of people and nature

Kristen Voorhies, Greenlight Nature Lab for People and Places, LLC
Friday, September 18, 2026
10:30 am CT

Description

Explore the tension at the heart of conservation practice: how formal scientific knowledge and community-held knowledge can work together rather than compete, and why relationship — not just policy — is what makes environmental work durable and equitable. Drawing on decades of fieldwork from sea turtle beaches to Great Lakes wetlands, Dr Kristen Voorhies will share a place-based, relational approach to redefining how science, management, and policy connect people to the land and water they depend on — an approach that can inform how you do outreach in communities you work with.

Dr. Kristen Voorhies is the founder of Greenlight Nature Lab for People and Places, LLC, an environmental consulting practice bridging scientific rigor with community-led climate adaptation and nature-based solutions. With a PhD in Evolutionary Biology from the University of Chicago and prior roles at USGS, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and the Field Museum’s Keller Science Action Center, she brings deep expertise in conservation science alongside a commitment to knowledge equity and environmental justice. She lives in Chicago with her husband, their two sons (ages 5 and 8), and two reptile companions — a red-eared slider and a gargoyle gecko — who keep her grounded in the everyday wonder of the natural world she works to protect.

Advancing hydrologic connectivity in Dane County, WI

James Brodzeller, Dane County Land & Water Resources Department
Friday, October 2, 2026
10:30 am CT

Description

The Dane County Land & Water Resources Department and partners have completed a series of restoration projects over the last few years focusing on repairing hydrologic impairments. Shared goals span from nutrient reduction and water quality improvement, to flood mitigation, recreational enhancement and bolstering ecological integrity. Sitting in the shadow of the state capital, the projects have been used to demonstrate techniques and the many co-benefits of hydrologic restoration to local residents, legislators, community officials, and natural resource practitioners. Learn more about these projects from Watershed Coordinator James Brodzeller.

James Brodzeller has worked in water resources management throughout Wisconsin for 17 years. A proud UW – Stevens Point graduate, he has spent time monitoring the Wisconsin River Basin, developing water quality and hydrodynamic models, and served as Wisconsin DNR’s Wetland Program Coordinator. He currently focuses on stream and wetland restoration on Dane County parkland.

What does Soil Health have to do with wetlands anyway?

Randy Zogbaum, Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection (DATCP)
Friday, November 6, 2026
10:30 am CT

Description

This presentation will explore how land use, in particular agricultural land use, impacts soil and soil health in and around wetlands. We will discuss what is soil, what is soil health, and how implementing soil health principles protects and enhances wetlands.

Randy Zogbaum has worked as a soil scientist and educator in a variety of roles serving Wisconsin agriculture focusing on the connection of soil and water quality. He currently serves as the Soil Health Program Manager at DATCP.

Reciprocity on the St. Louis River estuary

Drew Harry, Emmons & Olivier Resource, Inc.
Friday, November 20, 2026
10:30 am CT

Description

Come learn about the plant communities and restoration efforts on the Minnesota side of the St. Louis River estuary, near Duluth, Minnesota–in both qualitative and quantitative detail. In partnership with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources through a Great Lakes Restoration Initiative grant, EOR ecologists Jimmy Marty and Drew Harry surveyed eleven sites on the estuary for invasive species and floristic quality. In his presentation, Drew aims to capture the spirit of those sites—near and dear to interstate supporters—and to detail plans and results from restoration actions.

Drew Harry is an ecologist for EOR in Madison. He spent nearly a decade with the Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance working on prairie restoration, and he’s fascinated by plants, birds, and data. Follow some of those data dives here.

An introduction to the bryophytes of Wisconsin fens and swamps

Keir Wefferling, UW-Green Bay
Friday, December 18, 2026
10:30 am CT

Description

Join Keir Wefferling from the herbarium at UW Green Bay to get an introduction to the most common and abundant bryophytes (mosses and liverworts) of Wisconsin fens. Keir will cover bryophyte life history, then dive into a review of the most easily field-identifiable species that we commonly encounter in western Great Lakes minerotrophic peatlands, including Boreal Rich Fens and Northern Wet-mesic Forests. Keir will also provide a brief summary of the bryophyte and vascular plants floristic quality assessments that he and his team have been performing in Wisconsin wetlands over the last several years.

Dr. Keir Wefferling is Curator of the Gary A. Fewless Herbarium in the Cofrin Center for Biodiversity and Associate Professor of Biology at University of Wisconsin, Green Bay. He studied phylogenetics, cytogeography, and phylogeography of flowering plants and ferns before (re)finding peatland bryophytes, such as Sphagnum, “brown mosses,” and liverworts. He now spends most of his research time in fens and swamps and at the microscope, collaborating with students, the public, and regional conservation partners.