Celebrate Earth Day and a Great Read
By Bruce Urben, WWA President
This article originally appeared in Wisconsin Waterfowl Association’s April, 2023 Newsletter edition.
Wisconsin has been blessed with some of the most influential conservationists in history. Wisconsin’s Increase Latham was the father of the conservation movement back in the 1850’s. John Muir was Wisconsin’s greatest environmental philosopher in the 1860’s and, of course, Aldo Leopold, the father of of wildlife ecology, conservationist, forester, scientist, scholar, teacher and gifted writer.
Based on Wisconsin’s historic conservation influences, it is not surprising that a Wisconsin Senator named Gaylord Nelson created “Earth Day” in the spring of 1970. Wisconsin has always been a leader in conservation issues and your WWA continues to lead in Wisconsin conservation issues.
The author in front of Aldo Leopold’s Shack
A little more about Aldo Leopold…
Aldo was born in 1887 and later attended Yale University, where he obtained one of the first degrees in Forestry. He worked for the US Forest Service until 1928. He taught at the University of Wisconsin from 1933 to 1948, was the Director of the Audubon Society and founder of the “Wilderness Society” in 1935. He wrote the text book, Game Management, in 1933, which wildlife officials around the nation still use in guiding their wildlife management decisions. Probably his most famous work, A Sand County Almanac, was published in 1949, a year after his death!
Leopold’s Sand County Almanac called for the preservation of ecosystems and the concept that everything is included in a community and needs to function with all members of the community. His land ethic was an important tool to that function.
Leopold was a great writer, which some believe was strange for a scientific researcher. His “Almanac” begins with short, month by month stories of his observations from an old abandoned sand farm he purchased near the Wisconsin River close to Baraboo, WI. He lived with his family in a slightly remodeled existing chicken coop shack on the property during his weekends away from the concrete jungle in Madison.
The second part of the Almanac, titled “Sketches Here and There” are short essays of his observations of environmental changes occurring while at the Shack and ends with the Chapter, “Upshot”. This chapter explains what he sees that needs to be changed to conserve our ecosystems while working with all interests. Many of the concepts and needs he outlined in 1948 were confirmed to occur in the 21st century.
I am proud that our own WWA incorporates Leopold’s principals in our habitat improvement projects right here in Wisconsin.
While I worked at WDNR, I had the opportunity to spend many a lunch hour each spring with a number of interested conservationists looking into Leopold’s research findings and advice – sometimes chapter by chapter in his Almanac writing. I enjoyed having WDNR Wildlife Biologist Jeff Pritzl leading the discussions and taking sections of A Sand County Almanac apart to understand his observations and predictions. I am pleased to say that I have made a point to re-read A Sand County Almanac each spring for the last 12 years and still find new principals in his writing.
This year I would challenge all of our “conservationists” to celebrate our environment; get involved in Earth Day activities on April 22nd, clean up your part of the landscape, plant a tree or even pick up a copy of A Sand County Almanac and give it a read. You won’t be disappointed!
Thank you for all of the hard work you do to support WWA missions and thank you for your conservation ethic. Enjoy the wonders of nature this spring as everything wakes up from Wisconsin’s winter interlude.