Accent on Natural Landscaping

Donna VanBuecken

Helen Reddy

Helen Reddy

Australian-born singer Helen Reddy, whose hit “I Am Woman” became a feminist anthem in the 1970s and is still popular among suffragists today, died in Los Angeles on Tuesday afternoon. She was 78 years old.

To me, those ideals mean just as much today as they meant yesterday. Yesterday, feminism answered a cry for help to maintain my personality. Today it answers my cry for help to overcome the problems caused by my stroke.

I met Helen Reddy indirectly one time. This is my account of that moment.

Helen Reddy

The concert started at 8:00 p.m. It was a sell-out crowd. The audience applauded loudly when the curtain went up. It was supposed to be Ike and Tina Turner. All was quiet; they never showed up. The crowd waited and waited. Then the promoter stepped out and told the crowd that the band was delayed because the flight was delayed. He promised it would just be a little while longer, and he promised an excellent concert.

About a half hour later, the promoter appeared and said it would still be a little while longer, but they had arranged for entertainment in meantime. There was a singer from Australia who was making a tour and playing at the Lost Cork and Bottle (Las Cruces, New Mexico) and would graciously perform for us during the time we had to wait. The singer was Helen Reddy. She sang non-stop for forty-five minutes, but the crowd having none of it. They yelled insults at her and threw cups of soda. The promoter stopped the show and admonished the crowd for being rude and told them they should just sit there until the concert started.

The concert started about a half hour later. Ike and Tina played for an hour and then abruptly left. The promoter explained that Ike and Tina had fulfilled the contract, and went on to say that we were wrong to have been so rude to the artist (Helen Reddy), and that was why Ike and Tina had left.

Twenty-five years later, realizing that the incident had been a stain on the school, New Mexico State University sent an apology to Helen Reddy, recognizing the millions of dollars she had raised for Democratic political candidates, her role as Administrator for California’s Department of Parks and Recreation, and the way she had caught the unstoppable mood of the women’s liberation movement. (She became a naturalized American citizen in 1974.)

I remember the songs: “I Am Woman” 1972, “Delta Dawn” 1973, “Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress),” “Keeping on Singing,” “You and Me Against the World,” “Angie Baby,” “Ain’t No Way to Treat a Lady,” and  “Somewhere in the Night.”

I Am Woman

I am woman, hear me roar In numbers too big to ignore
And I know too much to go back an’ pretend
‘Cause I’ve heard it all before
And I’ve been down there on the floor
No one’s ever gonna keep me down again

Oh yes, I am wise, But it’s wisdom born of pain
Yes, I’ve paid the price, But look how much I gained
If I have to, I can do anything
I am strong; I am invincible
I am woman

You can bend but never break me
‘Cause it only serves to make me
More determined to achieve my final goal
And I come back even stronger, Not a novice any longer
‘Cause you’ve deepened the conviction in my soul

Oh yes, I am wise, But it’s wisdom born of pain
Yes, I’ve paid the price, But look how much I gained
If I have to, I can do anything
I am strong; I am invincible
I am woman

I am woman watch me grow
See me standing toe to toe
As I spread my lovin’ arms across the land
But I’m still an embryo With a long, long way to go
Until I make my brother understand

Oh yes, I am wise But it’s wisdom born of pain
Yes, I’ve paid the price, But look how much I gained
If I have to, I can face anything
I am strong; I am invincible
I am woman
I am woman

NPR has written a nice overview of her life Helen Reddy.

 

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Lorrie Otto’s Birthday Anniversary September 9th

Queen of the Prairie (Filipendula rubra) grows in sunlight or shade, preferably in moist soils, but will grow in any soil. Its flowers are hermaphroditic, but the plant is also pollinated by many other insects. This is a tall, sturdy plant, and its spray-like pink flowers give it a regal appearance. Photo by Steve Maassen

September 9th would have been Lorrie Otto’s 101st birthday. Lorrie Otto – Queen of the Prairie. Lorrie Otto – the inspiration for Wild Ones. Lorrie Otto – an American Hero.

LORRIE’S STORY

Lorraine “Lorrie” Stoeber was born in 1919 near Madison, Wisconsin. She lived on a farm where she learned to love the soil and the biodiversity of the landscape. As a young woman who was tall and smart, she got involved in many things – from modeling evening gowns for wholesale houses to preparing to be a pilot in the World War II Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) program.

She graduated from the University of Wisconsin and married her six foot, four inch tall boyfriend, Owen Otto, son of Max Otto who was a pioneer of contemporary humanism. They moved to a north Milwaukee suburb near Lake Michigan and a twenty-acre ravine called Prairie Chasm. In the 1950s when the chasm was to be sold for development, Lorrie worked with The Nature Conservancy to save the ravine.

In the 1960s, she took on DDT, and by now you know the rest of the story. See also Banning DDT.

After that, “Otto began encouraging suburban homeowners to maintain biological diversity and wildlife habitat. She taught natural landscaping classes at nature centers, colleges and technical schools, businesses and museums in the Milwaukee area. After hearing an Otto lecture in 1977, a group of nine women began meeting monthly to share information about natural landscaping. They called themselves the Wild Ones. Otto became their philosophical compass.” (WCHF)

The Wisconsin Historical Society has a collection of all her writings.

THE LORRIE OTTO SEEDS FOR EDUCATION PROGRAM

In 1996, Wild Ones Natural Landscapers, Ltd. honored Lorrie with a celebration and a program in her name – The Lorrie Otto Seeds for Education Program. Such an honor was so fitting. In all her efforts to save the natural landscape, her desire to save it for the children was the greatest and most important to her.

As part of that education program, grants are offered each year to non-profit organizations planning to develop an outdoor learning area. Applications for the Lorrie Otto Seeds for Education Program will be on hiatus for the remainder of 2020, due to uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Please revisit this Wild Ones site in 2021 for a grant application and for information on the new deadline.

Lorrie became the heart and soul of the natural-landscaping movement, and many of us remember her each year by donating to the Lorrie Otto Seeds for Education Program administered by Wild Ones.

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Monarch Numbers Dropped to 2016-2017 Levels

Monarch Status

Something unbelievable has happened to the Monarch population. Due to the cold spring in the upper Midwest and the dry fall in the southwestern states, the Monarchs’ status dropped to below the 2016-2017 levels.

Scientists estimate 2.83 hectares of North American monarchs overwintering in Mexico during 2019-2020 … by WWF- Mexico and the Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas (CONANP). The forest area occupied by monarch butterflies represents a 53.22 percent decrease compared to last year. Eleven (11) monarch butterfly colonies were located and assessed during late December 2019; three of these were located in Michoacan and eight in the State of Mexico. Most of the area occupied (2.46 hectares) was located within the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve with only 0.37 hectares outside. (Photo by Wendy Caldwell; caption from Monarch Joint Venture)

The monarch migration is comprised of three or four generations. In other words, the individual butterfly moving through Wisconsin in the fall was the grandchild or great grandchild of the adult that left the wintering areas in Mexico in the spring. According to Chip Taylor Jr, “growth rates of populations decrease as age to first reproduction increases. Because most first-generation monarchs migrate north in May and early June, the conditions during that time are critical. In 2019, those conditions — mostly lower temperature — delayed the  recolonization of the summer breeding area north of 40°N. Delayed arrivals can ripple through the rest of the breeding season, resulting in a later migration,” coupled with the drought in Texas.

What can you do to help?

Reference The Amazing Monarch Migration. Monarchs need milkweed for the spring, and during the summer and fall migration, the adults need nectar. They use asters, meadow blazingstar, coneflowers, black-eyed Susans, beebalm and other native flowers (as well as some non-native ones).  The efforts to create, maintain, enhance and protect habitat for monarchs and pollinators can make a difference. Creating and maintaining habitat,  educating others, contributing data to citizen science programs and advocating for the protection of wild spaces are things we all can do.

A Side Note

The senseless killing of the environmentalist Homero Gómez González and tour guide Raúl Hernández Romero, two of the activists naturalists who worked at Mexico’s El Rosario monarch butterfly sanctuary, leave much to be concerned about. Although the Mexico government wishes to promote ecotourism and the largest and most visited sanctuary is the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve — despite the  biosphere reserves designation — the illegal logging continues. Though conservationists persist in trying to stop the logging, if it is not kept in check or stopped, the monarch butterfly and the forests will cease to exist.

 

 

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WCHF Announces 2020 Inductees to Hall of Fame

The Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame (WCHF) has announced the selection of three conservation leaders for induction into the Hall of Fame on April 25, 2019 at the SentryWorld (the Atrium) in Stevens Point. The 2020 Induction Ceremony will celebrate our 100th inductee into the Hall of Fame.

The Inductees – Stephen Born, Jens Jensen and Stanley  Temple

The inductees this year will be Stephen Born, a well-known UW-Madison professor who specialized in environmental planning and worked on almost every aspect of water management, from the Great Lakes to inland lakes to groundwater and rivers and watersheds, and is an expert fly fisher; Jens Jensen, a landscape architect who developed many of our Midwest parks, focusing on indigenous plants and ecological processes of this region’s prairie landscape, and also founded the “school of the soil” in Door County known as The Clearing; and Stanley Temple, a UW-Madison professor who worked in the areas of habitat fragmentation, invasive species and other factors leading to species declines, and now serves as a Senior Fellow with The Leopold Foundation, researching, writing and speaking about Leopold.

The Induction Ceremony

The public is invited to join us in the day’s events held at SentryWorld. SentryWorld is located at 601 Michigan Ave N, Stevens Point, Wisconsin

9:00AM Social Time & Coffee Reception
9:45AM Welcome
10:00AM Induction Ceremony
1:00PM Luncheon

The Induction Ceremony and Coffee Reception are free. There will be a fee for the luncheon of $25.00. Reservations for lunch can be made online or by calling Schmeeckle Reserve at 715-346-4992.

Watch this blog post for more details during the next few weeks. Again, all activities are open to the public.

Inductee Biographical Summaries

Stephen Born

Stephen Born’s impact on conservation in Wisconsin and beyond is so broad and varied it almost defies description, except to say he has been tireless in his work.

A resident of Wisconsin since 1969, he was a faculty member in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at UW-Madison for 36 years, a director of State planning and energy offices and a founder of non-governmental conservation organizations like the River Alliance of Wisconsin.

An intrepid angler, he is also co-author of “Wisconsin’s Trout Streams: The Anglers Guide,” a seminal work which focuses not only on where to fish, but also on stream ecology and the story of how these cold-water treasures were saved and restored.

His broad range of services included co-chairing the Waters of Wisconsin Initiative of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters. He has served on national and State Trout Unlimited senior leadership boards, including presidency of Wisconsin Trout Unlimited. He was a chief advisor to former Governor Patrick Lucey on the decision not to dam the Kickapoo River in the 1970s, which lead to the creation of the 8,500-acre Kickapoo Reserve. He served on Gov. Tommy Thompson’s Blue Ribbon Stewardship Task Force. He also had key roles in development of policy on Wisconsin’s ground water and coastal resources.

These are but a few of his contributions to State and national conservation causes. Born is simply a force of nature when it comes to bringing people with differing views and ideologies together to forge unified and strong coalitions to protect Wisconsin’s natural resources. Since he continues to serve a number of non-profit groups as a board member or other volunteer, his resume is still under construction.

Jens Jensen

Danish born Jens Jensen was a landscape architect and a tireless advocate for conservation of our natural heritage. Aesthetics, in his work, always came second to protecting nature. Through his vocation and avocation, his aim was to bring people and nature together. Upon his death, the New York Times called him “dean of American landscape architecture.”

In 1913 Jensen initiated Friends of Our Native Landscape. There were chapters in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Michigan with several hundred members, including Aldo Leopold. Jensen was a persistent proponent for national parks, forest preserves, state parks, state forests, scenic areas, county parks, and sanctuaries with notable successes in Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota and Florida.

He was a strong proponent of urban planning and railed against urban sprawl, especially when it intruded on natural areas. He was instrumental in development of a plan for parks throughout Chicago and in establishing the Cook County Forest Preserve, a collection of dozens of wetlands, forests, and prairies, throughout greater Chicago. Jensen campaigned against urban sprawl along the southern Lake Michigan shoreline, leading to creation of Indiana Dunes National Park, contiguous with Indiana Dunes State Natural Area.

Jensen moved to Door County in Wisconsin in 1935, where he zealously continued his advocacy for protection of natural areas. He was a principal proponent of The Ridges Sanctuary, Cave Point county park, Whitefish Dunes state park, and Ellison Bay Bluff county park among others. One of Jensen’s many legacies is The Clearing, established on his Door County property in 1935 with the aim of immersing people in nature for “spiritual renewal.” Thousands have attended a short-course at The Clearing, now a non-profit school, where Jensen’s philosophy of working with nature is the pervasive theme.

Stanley Temple

Stanley Temple’s impact on Wisconsin’s natural resources has been wide. He has worked as a scientist, communicator and teacher. During his 32 years on the faculty of the UW-Madison Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, he worked on endangered species such as Peregrine Falcon, Trumpeter Swan and California Condor. His research on habitat fragmentation has helped manage areas such as the Baraboo Hills. Temple’swork has been instrumental in the areas of habitat fragmentation, invasive species and factors leading to species declines.

Now that he is re tired, he helps spread Aldo Leopold’s Land Ethic as a Senior Fellow for the Aldo Leopold Foundation, researching, writing and speaking about Leopold. Using Leopold’s original botanical records and more recent surveys, Temple co-published new research on climate change impacts on plant phenology through the paper “Record-Breaking Early Flowering in the Eastern United States.” He brought the Passenger Pigeon alive to Wisconsinites with presentations and articles during the 100th anniversary of the passing of the pigeons in 2014, and he has advised organizations such as The Nature Conservancy, International Crane Foundation, Wisconsin Society for Ornithology and Aldo Leopold Foundation.

Temple created and was the first editor of the peer-reviewed journal Bird Conservation published by Bird Conservation International, served as the editor of the Wisconsin ornithological journal The Passenger Pigeon published by the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology, and served as associate editor of the peer-reviewed scientific publication of the American Ornithological Society (AOS) The Auk and the scientific journal of the Ecological Society of America Ecological Applications.

Temple continues his life work today on behalf of Wisconsin’s natural resources. He is frequently cited as an expert not only on the State’s natural history, but as one who has worked to protect it.

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