Badger Apple Corps tree dedication & reception at Sauk Prairie Healthcare

September 12th, 2024

Apple tree dedication.

On September 12th a small group of folks gathered on the Café Patio of the Sauk Prairie Healthcare for an apple tree dedication, light snacks, and to learn more about the efforts of The Apple Corps. Wrannock, a family trio of musicians composed of Mike, Lisa, and Angus Mossman, performed Celtic music. The former Badger Army Ammunition Plant, once part of the Ho-Chunk Nation's ancestral lands, saw Sauk Prairie farmers displaced in the 1800s to make way for the plant. Today, the Ho-Chunk Nation, the State of Wisconsin, and the USDA Dairy Forage Research Center are reclaiming the land. Volunteers from the Sauk Prairie Conservation Alliance are preserving historic apple trees from the Badger Lands, some of which have found a new home at the Sauk Prairie Healthcare campus.

Curt Meine and Dan Bussey, coordinators of the Sauk Prairie Conservation Alliance’s Badger Apple Corps Project, spoke about the history of the group, and shared their passion for these once forgotten strains of fruit. Every additional tree planted brings what was once lost to time into our present so they may be enjoyed once more.

Apples grown through the program.