By Bruce Urben, WWA President
This article originally appeared in Wisconsin Waterfowl Association’s May, 2022 Newsletter edition.
Quoting from Aldo Leopold in his “Sand County Almanac” written in 1930… “I have read many definitions of what a conservationist is, and written a few myself. The best one is not written with a pen, but with an axe. It is a matter of what a man is thinking about while chopping or deciding what to chop. A conservationist is one who is humbly aware that with each stroke of his axe he is writing his signature on the face of his land. And signatures are different.”
I believe that most of our members of WWA are in a group known as “conservationists” because of your advocacy and concern for the environment and wildlife in Wisconsin. Some because of your passion for wildfowl, others because of the need for wetland habitat improvement and still others because of youth education, just to name a few!
On April 22nd, we were joined by millions of people (conservationists) around the nation and around the world in celebrating “Earth Day”!
Earth day was established 52 years ago through legislation written by Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin. His legislation was passed with non-partisan support for environmental protection and advocacy! It took ten years for conservationists to gather support and pass this historic legislation… all due to a massive oil spill in 1960. Senator Nelson’s historic legislation brought rise to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, passage of the Federal Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act… all within twelve months of passage of Nelson’s legislation in 1970.
A wild rice site that WWA seeded last year is part of how WWA invests in our planet.
Senator Nelson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition for his work on this legislation. Some say Earth Day was born in Wisconsin; I can’t disagree. Each year on April 22nd Earth Day is celebrated worldwide to demonstrate support for environmental protections.
WWA celebrates “Earth Day” every day through our programs, events and activities. All of WWA accomplishments could not be done without your help and support. Hundreds of acres of wetlands are improved each year, hundreds of nesting structures are installed and maintained and many an axe or chainsaw improves our public lands through our Adopt-a-Wildlife projects.
This year’s theme for Earth Day was “Invest in Our Planet”. Please take a few minutes to think about how you can invest in our planet – and leave your “signature” on your land; our land!
Happy Earth Day!