One of Madison's jewels is showcased, in a brand new interactive website. Professor Bill Cronon says UW Madison's Lakeshore Nature Preserve is a unique natural attraction in the heart of the city; "I don't know of any other campus that has quite this relationship to a lake, and to a greenspace." Cronon notes that the preserve includes nearby a half square mile of undeveloped land right on campus, as well as four miles of shoreline, including the popular Picnic Point.
Now, thanks to the generosity of donors Eleanor and Peter Blitzer of Fort Myers, Florida, visitors to the preserve's new website can access a vast amount of information. Cronon says there's "a lot of cool stuff" on the site, including an interactive map. The map, says Cronon, is "really unlike any map I know of, for a natural area anywhere, including natural areas like Yosemite or Yellowstone or Central Park in New York."
Cronon says Eleanor Blitzer grew up in Shorewood, adjacent to the Lakeshore Nature Preserve, and wanted to help protect it from development. The website, says Cronon, can do that by allowing people to know the preserve better, and become better advocates for it.