University of Wisconsin–Madison

Listening through time

Episode 19


Transcript

On Listening through time, we talk about climate change, which threatens to upend everything Western science understands about native and invasive species.  

First, we join the Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission climate change team as they carefully observe the relationships between the seasons and all the other beings in the forest. Phenology gives the team a baseline of what places look like now, so they can better understand how places are changing in the future.

Then we talk to the Tribal Climate Adaptation Menu team, who are helping tribal nations find ways to assert their knowledge and adapt to climate change. While the menu is based in Ojibwe and Menominee cultures, it is in high demand far beyond the Great Lakes region.

Finally, we step back 20,000 years with paleoecologist Jack Williams, who looks to the bottom of lakes for a record of how plant populations have changed since the ice age. What has he learned about how species move in a warming climate, and what can that tell us about the futures of the beings around us?

A person holding a large cross-section of ice.
GLIFWC’s Hannah Panci has been visiting this lake almost every week for the last 5 years. She and her colleagues keep returning to this site to learn how it changes from season to season and from year to year. Here, Hannah handles mikwam (ice) on one of her winter surveys.  
An overhead image of Madison's Picnic Point.
Professor Jack Williams walks us through the climactic change of the last 20,000 years, using Madison’s Picnic Point as an example. The glacier that once covered Picnic Point melted 15,000 years ago, forming the four surrounding lakes and ushering in waves of migrating species. As climate rapidly warms today, species are always moving and adapting.

Thanks to our guests

Rob Croll, Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission 
Hannah Panci, Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission 
Sara Smith, College of Menominee Nation 
Jerry Jondreau, Dynamite Hill Farms 
Jack Williams, University of Wisconsin-Madison 

Read more

GLIFWC’s Climate Change Program
GLIFWC’s Phenology study
Dibaginjigaadeg Anishinaabe Ezhitwaad – A Tribal Climate Adaptation Menu
More on climate change impacts in Wisconsin