via Mark Taylor, Marcia Halligan and this website

This year's Memorial Service and
Remembrance:

Saturday evening, August 7, 5:00 PM,
Cameron Park
La Crosse WI
(across from People's Co-op)

This free event is sponsored by Crawford Stewardship Project. Presentation and discussion, 10 to 12:30 at the Salem United Methodist Church in Eastman. Field trip after lunch (bring a bagged lunch)

Speaking of news, WDRT 91.9FM has received a $6000 grant from the Sparkplug Foundation to establish a citizen journalism training program. With this grant WDRT will train residents of all ages on gathering, writing, producing, and broadcasting local news. The grant also allows WDRT create a repeatable training model that can be used to educate groups for years to come.

Citizen journalism will play a key role in WDRT's programming. In our bimonthly community listening sessions, you told us you want in-depth local news that's relevant to you. In an era when only five media corporations own the vast majority of our nation’s TV and radio stations, newspapers, and magazines, local news production is more important than ever.

WDRT is putting radio in the hands of the public. The station welcomes everyone in the community to participate in program and news development. Because it's noncommercial, WDRT doesn't have to follow the interests of advertisers and has time to go beyond sound bites. Training funded by the Sparkplug Foundation grant will cover topics such as: interviewing, fact-checking, investigative journalism, journalism ethics, writing for radio, audio recording, and editing. WDRT's state-of-the-art broadcast studios will serve as the classrooms.

The Sparkplug Foundation, based in New York, funds start-up organizations and innovative new projects in music, education and community organizing.

If you're interested in becoming a citizen journalist or volunteering with WDRT in some other way, please contact us at info@wdrt.org.

Stay tuned for more news!

via Chikuwa Stumbles aka @Chikuwa4649 on twitter.

The Valley Stewardship Network is partnering with the River Alliance of Wisconsin and the Kickapoo Valley Reserve to host Project RED in the Kickapoo Watershed! What is this Project RED? “RED” in Project RED stands for Riverine Early Detectors. The River Alliance of Wisconsin has launched Project RED to identify invasive species that are a growing threat to our flowing waters. Standard Project RED involvement provides you with the necessary tools to identify 15 aquatic and wetland species and report their presence. In this Kickapoo Watershed series the River Alliance Invasive species experts will teach us about the invasive species that are threats to the Kickapoo Watershed such as Japanese knotweed and purple loosestrife. These invasive species cause erosion of streambanks and decrease habitat for birds and other wildlife that thrive in the river corridor.

*Project RED Events:*

July 31st – Project RED Training, 1-4 pm at the Kickapoo Valley Reserve Center - S3661 State Road 131, La Farge. Learn to detect and report aquatic invasive species.

August 28th – Project RED Snapshot Day (Canoe trip), 12 pm to BBQ at the LaFarge Community Park (located adjacent to LaFarge Public Schools) Put your knowledge to use. Join us for a day of paddling and identification, BBQ to follow.

All ages are welcome! Children must be accompanied by an adult. For more information contact Sarah at the VSN (608) 637-3615 or Laura at the River Alliance (608) 257-2424 x110, or visit the River Alliance website www.wisconsinrivers.org.