Accent on Natural Landscaping

Donna VanBuecken

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.

 

 

   Send article as PDF   

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.

   Send article as PDF   

Remembering

During our last walk around the hunting property, my brother Dave and I found the Purple Fringed Orchids (Platanthera psycodes) he had discovered the previous year. It was the perfect memory for our last adventure.

This week is the fifteenth anniversary of my oldest brother Dave’s passing. Dave was my turkey hunting partner. We shared the joy of being at our hunting property — hiking and exploring, learning about all the different plants, watching how the hydrology changed what we saw from one year to the next, watching the birds and listening to their different calls, catching sight of the various animals as they stealthily picked their way through the underbrush…

And learning how to hunt turkey together. Oh the stories I could tell about our fun times — about the ones that scared us “half to death,” about the ones that got away, and about the ones that didn’t!

He died much too young, of course, and our family has felt his loss immensely. The brain tumor that took him from us has taken many other heroes also. Senator John McCain for one. I pray the researchers will find a cure for this horrible disease soon.

Note: Coincidentally, 9/11 happened just three years earlier — another day to remember!

   Send article as PDF   

September 9th is the 100th Anniversary of Lorrie Otto’s Birth

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

Today, September 9th would have been Lorrie Otto’s 100th birthday. Lorrie Otto — Queen of the Prairie. Lorrie Otto — the inspiration for Wild Ones.

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 6’4″ 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.

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.

LORRIE OTTO SEEDS FOR EDUCATION PROGRAM

Lorrie in her library in her home at Bayside, Wisconsin. Photo from Wild Ones Tapestry of Learning video.

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. Because of all her efforts to save the natural landscape, her desire to save it for the children was the greatest.

As part of that education program, grants are offered each year to non-profit organizations planning to develop an outdoor learning area. Grant applications for the Seeds For Education Grant Program are due October 15th of each year.

Let’s make this year special when remembering the 100th anniversary of Lorrie’s birthday.

 

   Send article as PDF