By Kathlean Wolf
Wild Warner

On Tuesday, March 12, at 7 pm, Trish O’Kane will discuss her book and her experiences with the public at Madison Public Library – Central Public library 201 W Mifflin St · (608) 266-6300.
https://www.wisconsinbookfestival.org/events/birding-change-world

If you’ve ever walked out to the center of Firebird Island in summer and found yourself surrounded by wildflowers, or enjoyed the sound of spring’s return as geese honk about where to build a nest along the shores of Warner Pond; if you’ve ever seen Sherman Middle School kids romping happily through Warner Park with college-age mentors after school, you may have Trish O’Kane to thank for it.

O’Kane spent seven years on Madison’s Northside as she worked to attain her Ph.D. In that short time, she left a lasting environmental legacy that has touched thousands of lives. The story of her journey from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans to becoming an avid birder, activist, community organizer and senior lecturer at the University of Vermont is found in her new book, “Birding to Change the World, a Memoir.”

O’Kane and her husband, Jim Carrier, moved into the Brentwood neighborhood in 2007. Soon after, she began to notice her avian neighbors, then to connect with her human ones. As she began exploring the trails of Warner Park, she met unique neighbors of both human and bird varieties and learned about the ecological challenges faced by us all.

In 2010, when she learned of a city plan to cull the geese from the park by lethal means, she took action to intervene by gathering people from surrounding neighborhoods together in protest. In the years since, a program of population control through non-lethal means has become the default way of keeping Canada Geese from overwhelming the ponds and lawns of Warner Park. Volunteers have worked to bring the same program to other parts of the city.

The group that gathered together around the issue of Canada Geese formed the group Wild Warner. Soon after, the group took on an even more difficult task: stopping the annual devastation of wildlife and damage to wetlands caused by Madison’s annual Fourth of July fireworks, launched on what was then known as Fireworks Island. Today, Firebird Island is a nesting site for hundreds of birds, a grocery store for Warner’s resident beaver, and a summer-long explosion of wildflowers. Only in early spring is the evidence of fireworks evident, as pieces of shrapnel, fuses and plastic caps migrate up through the soil over a decade after they were detonated.

If O’Kane has one thing to be proud of above all others, it should certainly be the program that formed the core of her dissertation, “Birding to Change the World.” The program brought together UW students with Sherman Middle Schoolers in an outdoor adventure format in Warner Park. The middle school students who participated went on to become nature-lovers and sometimes young activists themselves. (This program was put on hold last year, impacted by MSCR policy changes in the past year, and it is uncertain if it will resume in the future.)

On Tuesday, March 12, at 7 pm, Trish O’Kane will discuss her book and her experiences with the public at the Central Library.