October 8, 2025
Midwest Climate Adaptation Science Center researchers, students, and partners will share perspectives on actionable science, capacity building, and climate adaptation approaches across a spectrum of natural resource issues at an upcoming regional conference.
The Midwest Climate Resilience Conference, hosted by the University of Minnesota Climate Adaptation Partnership, will take place in Milwaukee, WI on October 20-22. MW CASC community members will participate in sessions, present posters, and connect with other members of the regional adaptation community. Many of the conference’s cross-cutting themes align with the MW CASC mission, including actionable climate science and collaborative climate action.
One special session, “Climate Adaptation Science Delivery - A Case Study from the University of Wisconsin - Madison,” will showcase the innovative science, student engagement opportunities, interdepartmental and interorganizational collaborations, and other unique benefits of the CASC model of partnership driven science.
The session will be moderated by Ryan Bergstrom, University of Minnesota-Duluth Assistant Professor and Postdoctoral Program Lead with the MW CASC. It will feature diverse perspectives from the University of Wisconsin, including Sarah Ramirez and Ivy Widick, postdoctoral research associates in the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology; Michelle Homann, doctoral student in the Department of Integrative Biology; and Zachary Feiner, assistant scientist at the Center for Limnology. Topics covered during the session will include plasticity of physical traits of select wildlife species and implications to fish and wildlife managers, considerations for prairie restoration and management under a changing climate, strategies for protection of land and conserving bird species, and community shifts from coolwater to warmwater aquatic species impacting recreational fishing.
Several more MW CASC-affiliated researchers and students will share their work at the conference. Consortium Leadership Team member Rob Croll (Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission) and Tribal Resilience Liaison Sara Smith (College of Menominee Nation) will speak about braiding Indigenous Knowledge with institutional science. Postdoc advisor Melissa Kenney (University of Minnesota) will lead a breakout session on advancing natural resource adaptation. Program Manager Elissa Welch (University of Minnesota) will facilitate a panel on Midwest models for connecting practitioners with actionable climate science. Graduate Fellow Whitney Samson (University of Minnesota) will present a poster on her research into urban green space’s impact on wildlife.
Learn more about the Midwest Climate Resilience Conference.
Planning to attend and want to connect with the MW CASC team in Milwaukee? Please get in touch.