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Ornamental Grass can be a Huge Problem for the Park
Ornamental grasses, including non-native phragmites (also called common reed), pampas grass, miscanthus grass (also called maiden grass) can become a huge issue for our State Parks. Each year, volunteers and DNR rangers try to address various invasive plants (such as buckthorn, honeysuckle, black locust, Japanese barberry, etc) and now ornamental grasses have become an increasing threat. Non-Native Phragmites (or common reed) is a perennial wetland grass that grows as high as 15-20 feet tell. It […]
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Backpacking Campsite Renovated
Thanks to the Friends of Wisconsin State Parks for the “Incentive Grant” they awarded us with! With this, volunteers from the Friends of Lapham Peak and our local DNR staff, renovated Lapham Peak’s backpacking campsite! Updates include: a new fire-pit with movable cooking surface 2 new benches a new / refurbished picnic table a chopping block and new paint on the outhouse that is close by You will also see that we are working on […]
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2019 Volunteer Hours
In 2019, about 327 people volunteered at Lapham Peak at various times, for a total of 11,897.9 hours! Those hours are broken down by area of focus, as follows — Snowmaking: 6,202.2; Conservation: 2,977.5; General Friends Activities: 2,582.2; Nature Center: 136.0; TOTAL: 11,897.9 Hours
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Backpacking Campsite at Lapham Peak
Find Your Adventure, Go Wild In Wisconsin Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources: NEWS RELEASE MADISON, Wis. – People are connecting with Wisconsin’s great outdoors more than ever as the state continues to navigate the COVID-19 public health emergency. For those who need a place for space, Wisconsin has lots to offer. With 49 state parks, 15 state forests, 44 state trails, 84,000 miles of rivers and streams, and roughly 15,000 lakes, Wisconsin offers residents and visitors innumerable opportunities […]
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Giant Swallowtail at Lapham Peak
A rare butterfly for Wisconsin, the Giant Swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes), has been seen at Lapham Peak recently. The Giant Swallowtail is the largest species of butterfly in North America! Apparently, we’re at the northern edge of its normal territory. Our wildflowers and butterfly garden attract a lot of interesting and sometimes unique species each year. One map, shows this for this butterfly’s normal territory / range. Here’s a photo taken by at our Butterfly Garden, […]
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Site Prep for New Winter Equip Storage Building has Begun
Work began Monday, Aug 3, 2020 on site preparation for access and footings, for the new Winter Equipment Storage Building at Lapham Peak! The new building will house our new Snowcat (Pisten Bully 100) and other winter related equipment. Please help us with the final funding for the snowcat and new building so that the Friends of Lapham Peak won’t have to take a loan out to pay the balances that will be due upon completion. […]
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Vote for Wisconsin State Parks 2020 Gold Seal Awards
The Friends of Wisconsin State Parks are asking for your vote in this year’s contest categories. If you are a camper, biker, hunter, hiker, angler, or park visitor, cast your vote for your favorite state park, forest, trail, or recreation area in the categories below. The winning parks, forests, trails, or recreational areas will be honored with a Gold Seal Award at the Friends of Wisconsin State Parks Awards Banquet. The statewide Friends of Wisconsin State Parks organization runs […]
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FLP are still VERY Active!
We keep going and going, carefully, but we keep going! The Friends of Lapham Peak have continued to support the Park this spring and summer with fundraising, memorials (bricks & benches), with grants for our Habitat work – prairie and woodlands, grants for our Butterfly Garden, for flowers, for new fire pits, and tables, for snowmaking, and more! Significant work for our upcoming snowmaking season is also underway, see below for some updates- Snowmaking: a […]
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Nearly 600,000 Visitors to Lapham Peak
The Lapham Peak Unit of the Kettle Moraine State Park continues to be a very popular park year round! We’ve had over 2.7 million visitors during the past 5 years. During the past 12 months, even with being closed for a short time due to COVID-19, we’ve saw a record 589,343 people at our Park. We thank the DNR’s Park Personnel, and the Friends of Lapham Peak with dozens of volunteers, for the work that’s […]
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Banner Year for Garlic Mustard
2020 has been an awful year for garlic mustard in SE Wisconsin (maybe all over). Within Lapham Peak, we try to pull the Garlic Mustard (in selected various locations) when it’s flowering, and at times we also spray some of it with herbicides. Most of this work is headed up by Holly S. This year, with COVID-19, we were not able to use crews of volunteers to work on the plants when they were growing […]
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