Two-day symposium scheduled on Niagara Escarpment sense of place

What the Niagara Escarpment means as a sense of place in Wisconsin and beyond, including the Great Lakes, will be the subject of a symposium at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay on January 10 and 11.

The Niagara Escarpment is a unique geological feature originating in south central Wisconsin, extending through Door County and culminating at Niagara Falls in New York.

The Wisconsin-based Niagara Escarpment Resource Network (NERN) and the Lakeshore Natural Resources Partnership (LNRP) are co-sponsoring the symposium, which is titled "Cultivating a Sense of Place: The Niagara Escarpment, the Great Lakes and Human Perception."

"Exploring A Sense of Place" author Karen Harwell of Palo Alto, CA. will be the featured presenter at the symposium.

The first 120 registrants for the conference will receive a free copy of her book. Another speaker will be Jim Uhrinak, who is a land restoration advocate, arborist, and a tree care consultant in Milwaukee.

Topics for presentations at the symposium include the structural geology of the escarpment, popularly known in the area as "The Ledge," and tourism based on the natural features of the geology.

Other topics will be conservation of the rare natural resources along the escarpment, greenway and geo-park projects, and the industrial heritage of the escarpment region, including mines.

Within Wisconsin, the Niagara Escarpment includes or borders such natural features as the Horicon Marsh, Lake Winnebago, caves in several counties, and the white bluffs facing the bay of Green Bay in Door County.

To embellish the "sense of place" theme of the symposium, there will be descriptions of the natural character of the escarpment, its role in shaping the associated landscape, and the cultural history, which included several Indian settlements within its immediate periphery.

Both sessions of the symposium will open at 8:30 a.m. in the Phoenix Room at the Student Union building at UW- Green Bay.

The cost of the event is $80 for paid members of NERN or LNRP, $95 for non-members, or $40 for students.

The fee covers a dinner on Thursday evening (Jan. 10), a lunch at conclusion of the symposium on Friday (Jan. 11), and all conference materials.

Registration fees can be sent to the LNRP at P.O. Box 62, Sturgeon Bay, WI 54235. Complete information about the conference and how to register is available on the www.escarpment network.org Web site.