Lauren Finch Thomas, a natural resources educator with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, will be the featured speaker for the next Thursdays at the U lecture at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire – Barron County.
Thomas will highlight some of the unique wildlife found at the Crex Meadows State Wildlife Area and will discuss the management of their habitat from 12:30-1:30 p.m. March 7 in the Blue Hills Lecture Hall in Ritzinger Hall. The presentation also will be livestreamed at ricelaketv.com.
Crex Meadows is a 30,000-acre wildlife area in Burnett County that is intensively managed by the Wisconsin DNR. The property is home to more than 700 native plants, 270 birds and a wide variety of mammals, reptiles, amphibians and insects. Crex Meadows is most known for its bird-watching opportunities, and, more specifically, the chance to see species that are uncommon in other areas.
Thomas works primarily at the Crex Education and Visitors Center. She has worked in the field of wildlife management for nearly 10 years but has loved the outdoors for far longer. She grew up in Grantsburg and spent most of her free time enjoying the opportunities that Wisconsin public lands have to offer.
After studying fisheries biology and ecology and graduating from UW-Superior, Thomas moved back to the Grantsburg area and immediately began working at Crex Meadows. Today, she still spends much of her free time outside, enjoying activities like bird-watching, fishing and hunting.
The Thursdays at the U weekly series is free and open to the public thanks to support from the UW-Eau Claire – Barron County Foundation. Neither seating reservations nor parking permits are needed for in-person attendees. There also is a livestream option and recordings are archived on the Thursdays at the U webpage.
The next lecture in the series will be March 14, with B.J. Hollars, author and professor of English at UW-Eau Claire, presenting “Personal Stories of the Freedom Riders.”
For more information, call the campus at 715-788-6244 or email Dr. Linda Tollefsrud, the series organizer, at tollefla@uwec.edu.
