Welcome!
Present and Past Board Members at Ceremonial Ground Breaking for PEVS.
Back row, l-r: Phil Smith, Don Luker, Ray DiIulio, Warren Dewalt, Al Schneider, Jim Rheberg, Judy Rheberg, Merlie Cox, Marc Savard, Jan Mielke. Front row, l-r: Mary Fales, Jack Travis, Tom Wilson, Rolliana Scheckler, Bill Scheckler, Bruce Mielke.
We are the Newport Wilderness Society [NWS], the official friends group for Newport State Park.
NWS was incorporated in 1985 as an independent 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization to assist Newport State Park in carrying out its mission according to its Master Plan of 1974.
We volunteer in various ways as requested by park management. We provide qualified guides from our membership for interpretive nature hikes about natural history of trees, ferns, wildflowers, birds, butterflies and about human history of this area. In teams, we pull garlic mustard and phragmites. We manage blue bird trails and help monitor monarch butterfly migration. We write and publish informational pamphlets and brochures, offer presentations on the meaning of wilderness, light candles and serve refreshments for the February candlelight ski, put on Newport Wilderness Day in September, manage this web site and more. Over the past 5 years, we have raised funds to pay for construction and outfitting of the Hotz Wilderness Room, a part of the new Public Entrance and Visitor Station [PEVS] now being built. We are a voice of appreciation for keeping Newport State Park a wilderness area developed minimally, only as is essential for visitor education and safety.
Al Schneider, NWS volunteer and professional geologist, leads a hike.From about 15 members at its start, NWS has grown today to some 500 members across the country. You are cordially invited to join us. By becoming a member, your dues financially support NWS and, through it, Newport State Park, you can participate however you wish in NWS activities, you get a wonderful newsletter and you add your voice to ours promoting preservation of wilderness.
Members of the current NWS Board of Directors, meeting the first Friday of every even-numbered month, are:
| Bill Scheckler, President | Jeffrey Berger | Warren Dewalt | ||
| Ray DiIulio, Vice President | Marcia Eischen | Dan Fetterley | ||
| Mary Fales, Secretary | Marilyn Hansotia | Marc Savard | ||
| Don Luker, Treasurer | Al Schneider | Phil Smith | ||
| Jack Travis, Fifth Officer | Tom Wilson | Michelle Hefty, Park Manager, ex officio |
Past NWS Board Members were: Don Buchholz, Merlie Cox, Don Detmer, Dick Glueckert, Steve Grutzmacher, Fred Hankwitz, Jacqueline Holland, Jan Pfannenstiel, Carol Kreml, Lon Kopitzke, Roy Lukes, Tom MacDonald, Jan Mielke, Bruce Mielke, Beverly Njaa, Judy Rheberg, Jim Rheberg, Phil Saperstein, Rolliana Scheckler, Don Thompson, Olivia Traven, Lee Traven, Steve Uglinica and Bob Yeomans.
Please notify web smith if she has inadvertently omitted anyone.
Photos of the new PEVS. Read more about it.
NWS will hold a PEVS Grand Opening Celebration and Dedication, July 26, 2008.
Dedication Day Special Activities are listed on the July events page.
Catered Lunch, noon at Beach Shelter for NWS members, building donors and invited guests only.
Lunch reservations are required. Email your reservation and entree choice [pig roast, chicken or vegetarian] to Mary Fales.
GOOD NEWS! Bluebirds To Benefit From State Grant Funds
The Newport Wilderness Society, the official friends group of Newport State Park, Ellison Bay, has been awarded a grant to refurbish and expand bluebird nest box trails at the state's first wilderness park.
The Natural Resources Foundations's C.D. Besadny Conservation Grant Program funded the project at 100% of the requested amount, $985 over three years. The funds will be used to place bluebird boxes on predator-proof poles in the park. During phase one in 2008, 22 boxes were placed along the Monarch Trail.
Weekly bluebird hikes will be held on Wednesdays at 9:00 A.M. during June and July starting at the new Nature Interpretive Center located in the entrance station at Lot 1. Marilyn Hansotia has been monitoring the bluebird trails at Newport for the past three years and was instrumental in updating them to better reflect the current information on successful bluebird nesting. Hansotia will lead the monitoring hikes providing information about bluebirds and how to establish nesting areas.
The grant also provided funds for resource materials found at the Nature Interpretive Center.