Research by botanists at the UW-Madison has revealed a disturbing secret lurking in Wisconsin’s forests.
Suspecting that increasing development might be affecting forests in ways we cannot see, UW-Madison botanist Don Waller led a study of plants on the floor of forests throughout the state. Comparing those surveys with data collected in the 1940s and 1950s, the researchers found far fewer species of the shrubs, grasses and herbs that have traditionally been found in the understory of Wisconsin forests.