Carroll College established the Greene Field Station in 1069 as an outdoor laboratory for teaching and research by the students and faculty at Carroll College. The 60-acre Station is part of a primary environmental corridor in Waukesha County. Significant ecological resources include a calcareous fen, a class I trout stream, native wet prairie, and a large cattail marsh. The diversity of aquatic habitats the Greene Field Station particularly important for studies of wetland ecology. The Greene Field Station Advisory Committee is engaged in a strategic planning process to produce a management plan for the Field Station. The goal is to enhance the effectiveness of the Field Station as a resource for researches and educators from Carroll and throughout the region. Carroll College wishes to ensure that this process will maximize input from both current and prospective of the Field Station. The two strategies to accomplish this goal are: 1) to convene a conference on Natural Areas Management Planning, and 2) to solicit critical analysis of the strategic plan through a focus group of current and potential Field Station users. The Natural Areas Management Planning Conference will bring together students, faculty, and professionals from throughout the upper Midwest. At the conference, participants will share results of research relevant to the management of natural areas. Proceedings from the conference will be distributed to all conference participants and other interested parties. Participants will also be engaged in discussions of the critical elements of natural areas management planning, using the Green Field Station as a case study. This will provide the Greene Field Station Advisory Committee with input from a wide variety of experts to ensure a comprehensive strategic plan for the Field Station. The conference will also increase exposure of potential users to the Field Station as asignificant regional resource for education and research. The Fie ld Station Advisory Committee will use input from the Conference to develop the strategic plan for the Field Station. The Committee will then circulate the plan to twelve critical readers selected from current and prospective users of the Field Station. These readers will meet with the Committee to discuss specific recommendations. Suggested revisions will be incorporated into the final management plan, which is expected to be completed by the spring of 2000.
