Leading Lady

TARA BEAUCHINE

LAND MANAGER

In the three years that Tara Beauchine has been nurturing the flowers, trees and plants on the Mount Mary campus, she has brought a new understanding to the importance of her work, and has redefined the scope of her role. Tara has become the campus’ first land manager, signifying that this work of sustainability and mission encompasses more than simple groundskeeping. “I came to Mount Mary with a lot of knowledge and plant identification skills,” she said. She had worked at the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center in Bayside, Wis., as a land manager, where she also learned native plant restoration. There, she realized her reverence for the interconnectedness and abundance of life in a particular place. “I’m called to be a steward of the earth by recognizing and caring for the birds, insects, geology and geography by understanding the land and the inhabitants,” she said. Beauchine supervises seasonal crews during the growing season and during winter snow removal. Among her many fall projects was the planting of dozens of new trees along the U-drive –tulip, northern catalpa, Ohio buckeye, sugar maple, swamp white oak and Japanese tree lilacs – and planting around campus hundreds of disease-resistant native plants –raspberry wine monarda, troleus, catmint and phlox. She has mobilized volunteer gardeners, made up of employees, students, alumnae and community members, to adopt and maintain flowerbeds and garden plots. Thanks to a recent grant she acquired from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, she was able to hire a crew of students to clear buckthorn from the wooded area on the northeast side of campus. “The Wisconsin Forest Landowner Grant Program enabled us to clear the forest floor and give it light so our canopy trees could propagate and stay diverse instead of perpetuating the monoculture of buckthorn,” she said. The buckthorn branches went through a woodchipper and the chips are being used to pave walking trails through the woods. Beauchine also participated in an advisory committee on behalf of Trinity Woods, applying for the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewer District’s Green Infrastructure Partnership Program. This $1.3 million grant enabled Trinity Woods to install semipermeable pavers in the parking lot and three large bioswales designed to filter and divert water runoff from entering the storm sewers and nearby Menomonee River. The more time she spends caring for the land, the more she is inspired to do, even in winter. She plans to take advantage of the dormant season by pruning trees and shrubs, and writing more grants to further her vision for the Mount Mary landscape. “When you are surrounded by plants and trees, you become a better naturalist every day.” n