What is the Big Hill?
What is the Big Hill's History?
What is going on at the Big Hill?
How can I get involved?
What has happened to the Big Hill so far?
Teachers who are interested in going to the Big Hill?
When can you go to the Big Hill?
What are the Big Hill's rules?
Photos of Big Hill
What is the Big Hill?
The Big Hill Environmental Learning Center is an area rich in diverse plant and animal communities and habitat: wetland, prairie, oak savanna, and woodland, owned jointly by the DeForest Area School District and the Town of Windsor. Since 2004 it has been a Wisconisin School Forest
Big Hill map.
What is the Big Hill's History?
Survey records of 1834 indicate a rolling prairie thinly timbered with bur, black, and white oak.
Because of its location near wetlands, native Americans may have used this hill as a camp or lookout.
During the Civil War it was used for target practice.
In the 1990's Cecile and Bernadine Smith and Fred and Helen Chase generously established 62 acres as a nature preserve and environmental learning center for the local schools and community.
The next century it was a University of Wisconsin ski hill. Later a gravel quarry was started to the south of the hill; the north end is cultivated farmland.
What is going on at the Big Hill?
Student activities led by experienced teachers of environmental education.
Student seed gathering and planting activities.
Maintenance of facilities: benches, dock, shed, shelter, birdhouses, soil pits, tracking boxes, pond bank reinforcement, etc.
Classroom extension opportunities for New Reflections, the high school alternative education program.
Quarterly community clean-ups, control of invasive plants, and brush removal.
Water quality observations.
How can I get involved?
Volunteers should look for bulletins in the local newspaper and in school newsletters.
Contact the Director of Instructional Services
Big Hill guidelines.
What has happened to the Big Hill so far?
Clearing trees
Controlled burning
Spraying with Round-up
Planting and mowing
Water sampling wells
Bird houses with a yearly follow-up study
Shed for storing tools
The shed was started by vocational education class; completed by WCC on leveled ground
The shed was built at the high school and moved to the site
Removable pier at the pond (by New Reflections alternative program students)
Clearing of non-native species and planting native species
Survey and marking of property
Teachers who are interested in going to the Big Hill?
Big Hill guidelines.
Teacher checklist in planning a Big Hill visit.
When can you go to the Big Hill?
Open to the public: Sunrise-Sunset
What are the Big Hill's rules?
Picnics, vehicles, bikes, camping, and hunting are not permitted.
Leave your pets home; seeds collect and spread from their coats.
Protect natural areas by staying on trails.
Leave animal burrows and nests alone.
Leave plants, plant parts, animals, rocks, and artifacts where you found them.
Take your trash with you.
Main Goal:
Insuring that the property is maintained as an environmental, learning outdoor classroom.
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