Natural Wonders: Recent Episodes
WDRT
In the summer of 1972, I wandered out of a newly rented farm house, looked up, and saw 2 red-tailed hawks soaring over woods and pasture. They were so beautiful, so other-worldly, I was overcome with a desire to know everything about them.
Years later I became a wildlife rehabilitator and a falconer and was able to have close hands-on experience with them. Today that desire to learn about the natural world has only broadened and intensified. I'll read some of my favorite biologists' writings and occasionally include my own thoughts.
Carl Safina's book The View From Lazy Point holds today's reading. We travel with him to Southeast Alaska and learn about streams with high concentrations of bears and salmon swimming uphill and eagles, all contributing to salmon ecology of the temperate rainforests of Alaska.
"Defying gravity and all good sense, salmon flow uphill. From the heart of the ocean, salmon beat upstream and inland like flowing blood, until lodged in a thin film of water in a tiny tributary, each is a corpuscle in a capillary. This upstream influx, this invasion creates extra ordinary effects. Salmon are energy. They are matériel. Follow that thought uphill; the trees are made largely of salmon."
More about prairie chicken research in the Central Sands of Wisconsin during the 40s and 50s; I'm reading parts of My Double Life; Memoirs of a Naturalist by Frances Hamerstrom; today the chapter 'Evolution of the Chicken Blind'. She and her husband Frederick were students of Aldo Leopold and pioneers in research on sharp-tailed grouse and many raptor species and prairie chickens. Luckily for us she wrote 10 books with great humor and style.
More adventures with the Hamerstroms; I'm reading from My Double Life; Memoirs of a Naturalist by Frances Hamerstrom.
The focus today is the work they did feeding, housing and teaching volunteers ('boomers') who arrived at their farm house each spring to watch and document the mating activity of the prairie chickens. These boomers provided data to the research for decades.
This is one of 10 books Fran wrote and they give insights into the hard work and ingenuity it took (and still takes) to be ground breaking wildlife researchers. They were students of Aldo Leopold.
I'm reading from one of the 10 books that Fran Hamerstrom authored, My Double Life, Memoirs of a Naturalist
It's been awhile since we've been on adventures with Fran. You can find my previous readings online under -podcasts -archives. Great stories are always guaranteed to be found in her books.
From the Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame (wchf.org) about the Hamerstroms;
Married in 1931, the Hamerstroms forged one of the most remarkable wildlife ecology teams. Research fellows under Aldo Leopold, the Hamerstroms have become best known for their work with prairie chickens at the Central Wisconsin Game Project near Neenah and the Prairie Grouse Research Unit in Plainfield. Their work was the basis for the conservation effort which saved the prairie chicken from extirpation in Wisconsin.
Together and individually, the Hamerstrom published over 100 professional papers and many reviews of ornithological literature. Frances also published 10 books. Frederick was a highly skilled technical writer and editor. He edited the books that Fran wrote – the last one only two days before his death. He also edited technical papers for several journals and was the Principal Referee for Raptor Research.
I'm reading from the great book Amphibians and Reptiles of Wisconsin published in 2022 by The University of Wisconsin Press and edited by Joshua Kapfer and Donald Brown. It’s a comprehensive reference that covers all of Wisconsin’s frogs, toads, salamanders, skinks, lizards, snakes, and turtles, and it is a delight to read. I'll read selected parts of the chapter by Richard Sajdak about our grey rat snake. Commonly called the black rat snake, I’ll bet many of us have had encounters with this animal and it has a fascinating life that includes having favored home trees. This is one of the largest snakes we have in Wisconsin. They are calm snakes, and (once I get over the startle response,) they are beautiful! They only occupy a small part of Southwest Wisconsin.
We will delve into some of the mysteries of 2 bird species that nest late in the summer season, the cedar waxwing and the goldfinch. The cedar waxwing is one of the most beautiful birds we have, in an understated way. It sports the most amazing bright waxy tips on the ends of its secondaries. Both these birds go against many 'truisms' in the bird world.
A rebroadcast of Exquisite Hours , an essay by Ken Lange, who died in November of 2024. Ken was, for 30 years, the naturalist at Devils Lake State Park, and dear friend to many. Of note, in this essay he refers to Loren Eiseley's great book, The Unexpected Universe, and a story about a small fox.
Going deer hunting this November? This is all about switching to lead-free ammunition and all the reasons why. You've got plenty of time to purchase some copper ammunition before November.
Radio interview, Dave Clausen DVM and Dr. Susan Davidson (high risk obstetrics physician)
about 14 minutes. Thanks to WUWM Milwaukee 89.7FM
North American Lead-free Partnership
The Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota
raptor.umn.edu
They have a great film, 'Lead It Go'
The Peregrine Fund
Peregrinefund.org
Sources of copper ammunition
Ammo.com
Remington.com
The Raptor Center list
A shorter interview with David Clausen DVM and Dr Susan Davidson
thanks to WUWM Milwaukee Public Radio.
Two fun topics today, how to build a simple effective turtle nest protector, something very important to have on hand even if you think you'll never need it. The need is so great because the raccoon population is soaring and they love nothing more than to dig up freshly laid turtle eggs for a meal. It's a fun easy project. Check out turtlesfortomorrow.org for lots of information by Wisconsin's experts on turtles.
And have you ever wondered which woodpecker you hear drumming? Here are nifty tips and audio about telling the difference between the downey and hairy, and the flicker, sapsucker and pileated are sounded out here too. After hearing and reading this from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, I think I can tell these birds by their drumming.!
The black-billed cuckoo and yellow-billed cuckoo are marvels of the bird world, I am besotted~! and then a fun way to enjoy bees in a pile of wood and rocks in your garden, bee hotels.
The birds we see so many of in summer, the cliff swallows, fly long distances to come to North America to raise their young. They nest under bridges and culverts and have many fascinating secrets. I'll read from a wonderful book, Swallow Summer by the researcher who has studied these fascinating birds for many decades, Charles Brown.
This is the last reading of Eye of the Albatross, Visions of Hope and Survival by Carl Safina. We are with the people who love and study these many species of the ocean and we see them through their eyes. What a gift Safina has given us with this book!
Reading more from Eye of the Albatross, Visions of Hope and Survival by Carl Safina; we are back on Tern Island with a new group of researchers. The weather is hard on people and birds and chicks alike.
"Visibility closes to a few hundred feet, and sudden thick rain drives down upon us. The pelting raindrops sting, as though it's raining frozen peas. The albatrosses turn their faces up into the rain, biting at the air, gulping at the raindrops, swallowing precious freshwater that they've been losing for weeks."
We will learn about sharks and rays and their unique senses of electrical fields, the amazing ways they maintain their neutral buoyancy, and how tube-noses (albatrosses, shearwaters and petrels) have lovely musky sweet smells.
We are in a cabin cruiser 40 miles east of Midway Island over the Ladd Seamount that rises 21,000 feet from the ocean floor,,the top is 200 feet below and this spot is a magnet for fish and birds. We are with a lifelong fisher whose life is devoted to studying tuna for the purpose of promoting sustainable fisheries. Reading segments from Eye of the Albatross with the great writer and biologist Carl Safina.
Reading segments from Eye of the Albatross by Carl Safina; We leave the long-line fishing vessel Masonic, in SE Alaska, and head to Midway Island, the remotest part of the Hawaiian Chain; but, tourists may visit Midway and the history is fascinating. Hundreds of thousands of Laysan Albatrosses nest here along with the more rare Black Footed Albatrosses and approximately 17 other species of birds.
"Virtually no island is more distant from the peopled continents. Or more worth the trip...Midway feels like small town U.S.A. plus two million seabirds." We will meet David Itano who is researching two species of tuna in a pristine part of a Pacific seamount.
We make a run to port ahead a blow off of Kodiak Island on board the Masonic. Being with this crew and author is an eye opening experience, very few of us will ever experience first hand;
reading segments from Eye of the Albatross by Carl Safina.
More time on the deck of the Masonic; I'm reading segments from Eye of the Albatross, visions of hope and survival by Carl Safina, published in 2002. The danger and rigors of longline fishing are clear today, as is the toll taken on unwanted ocean species, especially in shrimp trawling.
We are aboard the Masonic, a bottom longline commercial fishing vessel, off the coast of Alaska near Kodiak Island. The owner captain is Mark Lundsten.
I'm reading segments from Eye of the Albatross, Visions of Hope and Survival by Carl Safina.
"As Mark is explaining, the main threat to albatrosses now, the longlines, could be solved on boats worldwide. All it takes is a willing captain - as I'm here to learn. Soon we will see what success looks like."
We'll learn about long line drift commercial fishing methods, and how this lethal method of fishing to seabirds can be changed for the better. I'm reading segments of Carl Safina's book Eye of the Albatross.
We will hear the story of the beautiful huge Short-tailed Albatross whose north Pacific range extends from the eastern Pacific around the islands of Taiwan and Japan all the way north to the Aleutians and south along the west coast of NA down to the Baja Peninsula. Their population plunged from millions to just 50 individuals because of the vicious and efficient slaughter of the feather trade. This marvelous bird has returned from near extinction, due largely to the efforts of one man, Dr Hiroshi Hasegawa. We will also hear about the travels and exploits of Georg Stellar (the steller's jay, the steller's sea cow, stellar's sea eagle, stellar's eider) and Vitus Bering (the Bering Sea) and lots more today.
We snorkel with Carl Safina and Ray Boland off Laysan Island and see the brilliant colors and habits of the fish there, and learn about Ray Boland, who with his team, is working to get commercial fishing netting untangled and off of the reefs and shores of the remote Hawaiian Islands. I'm reading segments from Eye of the Albatross by Carl Safina, published in 2002. I also found a recent article about scientists testing a vaccine that may protect the tiny population of Hawaiian Monk Seals from the highly pathogenic avian flu (HPAI) which has ravaged seal populations around the world.
Another enchanting glimpse through Carl Safina's eyes of Pacific Ocean birds and people , now we are on the even more remote Laysan Island, no buildings here, but a tent camp of workers and researchers.
Reading from Eye of the Albatross, Visions of Hope and Survival.
This reading of Eye of the Albatross takes us to the very remote Laysan Island in the western chain of Hawaiian Islands,,and the sobering damage even one odd seed stuck on a shoelace from a visitor or one ant hiding in a box of supplies, can do to an isolated ecosystem. I have some seasonal observations to add during this beautiful month of September about the southward migration of birds. Be sure to tune in to hear in person, Laura Erickson on Sept 17th during the Fall Fundraiser, at 8AM. Dave Krier and I will be with her on the air in the studio, so mark your calendars!
With ocean and seabird expert Carl Safina, we ride in a vessel headed to the most remote parts of the NW Hawaiian islands with biologists and interns who will replace those who have been working there the past 5 months.
This work isn't for everyone; if you fall ill it can cost more than $80,000. to be rescued, akin to working in Antarctica in winter.
And we find out why all brand new clothing, shoes to underwear, that have been frozen, is required before you can disembark onto these remote islands. I'm reading selections from Eye of the Albatross, Visions of Hope and Survival.
I'll be hosting a special program coming up Monday Sept. 8th, at 9:30 AM. Don't miss Dr. Stanley Temple, Beers-Bascom Professor Emeritus in Conservation at UW MadisonandSenior Fellow at the Aldo Leopold Foundation. He will be my guest to talk about Aldo Leopold and his Shack Journals which are now transcribed online, and also the myriad phenology observations Leopold made during his life, which have been continued by Dr Temple. Each year a new Phenology Calendar is published by the Aldo Leopold Foundation.
The Shack Journals
https://grow.cals.wisc.edu/tag/aldo-leopold
Phenology Calendar
https://www.aldoleopold.org/products/2026-phenology-calendar
In this reading of Eye of the Albatross by Carl Safina,
Amelia, the Laysan albatross, is dangerously hungry and thin, having given all the food she can find to her robust thriving chick, she knows she can find many squid in much colder temperatures of the subarctic zone, well over a thousand miles from her chick on Tern Island in the tropics. The long trip is necessary , so her hunger can be alleviated and her own survival is assured. "She strikes north. Directly north. Absolutely north. Straight as an arrow: north."
We are on Tern Island in the French Frigate Shoals of the Hawaiian Island western chain of atolls; reading Eye of the Albatross by Carl Safina. Understanding the feather moult patterns of albatrosses is essential for researchers to understand their lifetime reproductive potential, as these huge birds have to take a complete year off from breeding to have enough energy to replace their feathers. We hear about moult in birds today and then linger looking up at the night's starry sky after a beautiful day keeping up with the biologists and their work.
The landscape of the ocean surface is better understood after today's reading , including the effect of the seafloor miles deep with its mountain ranges and its valleys and slopes, eddys and currents . We will glide and soar with the female Laysan albatross, Amelia, in Carl Safina's book Eye of the Albatross, Visions of Hope and Survival , as she searches over hundreds of miles for food for her newly hatched chick.
Another trip to the remote Pacific; Tern Island, part of the French Frigate Shoals, part of the western Hawaiian islands, where thousands of pelagic birds breed. I'm reading Eye of the Albatross by Carl Safina. We fly off for hundreds of miles, with Amelia, a Laysan albatross, to find food for her chick, food that is found with her keen sense of smell; an unusual sense, to say the least, in birds. I will also briefly discuss the earthquake and tsunami of July 29th 2025 and its effect on these low lying atolls that are so vital to these birds.
From the prologue of The Nature of Oaks, The Rich Ecology of Our Most Essential Native Trees by Douglas Tallamy, published by Timber Press, Portland Oregon; Tallamy writes,
Oaks support more forms of life and more fascinating interactions, than any other tree genus in North America.
Reading further excerpts (November December and January) from the book The Nature of Oaks by Douglas Tallamy. The fact that follows contains multitudes.
From the prologue;
Oaks support more forms of life and more fascinating interactions than any other tree genus in North America.
I’ll be reading excerpts from the book The Nature of Oaks by Douglas Tallamy, published by Timber Press, Portland Oregon in 2019. I became aware of Tallamy when his book Bringing Nature Home was published in 2007; the main lesson from that book was the importance of planting native trees and shrubs, flowers and grasses in order to provide needed host plants for our native insects. Oak trees host hundreds of insects, more than any other tree, and The Nature of Oaks goes month by month through the seasons in an oaks life and investigates the creatures that rely on these trees for their survival. We start with the month of October.
Today we will hear writings of Mary Linton (poetry and an essay on leeches) and Mary Oliver today, the first, a wetland biologist and poet, who taught at UW Whitewater, and the second, a well known Pulitzer Prize winning poet who loved Thoreau and Whitman, she is known for her clear and poignant observations of the natural world.
They have both passed on, but their legacies live on in their keen observations put to pen.
Another great essay by David Krier, he calls "Invasion". Dave explores how and why so many invasive species have moved across the globe, why do we care about their impact, and some solutions too.
Another essay by Dave Krier: Have you ever thought you'd love to be more involved with observations of birds, plants, insects, or anything in the natural world, but wonder how what you are noticing might be useful? Here are many ways that non scientists can help with our understanding of nature. Don't ever think the general public isn't making valuable contributions to real scientific study. Here's how you can get involved.
I have the pleasure again today to read an essay by Dave Krier, Viroqua’s own master naturalist who works for Valley Stewardship Network.
He calls this "Name Calling". What could be wrong about calling the Common Grackle 'common' or the horrible spreading thistle , "Canada" thistle?
Reading for the last time from Eager, the Secret and Surprising Life of Beavers, and Why They Matter by Ben Goldfarb,,we will learn about innovative, creative ways concerned people, private companies and nonprofits they found, are lessening and eliminating the conflicts between beavers and people and their property, all without killing the beavers. Nothing like good win-win-win stories! This chapter is called "Deceive and Exclude". If you have problems with beavers, there's a wealth of information that will help on the internet.
My second reading of Ben Goldfarb's book Eager The Surprising Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter. Close your eyes and imagine a stream in North America in 1500 before beavers were extirpated. Let Ben enlighten us about what that looked, smelled, and sounded like.
For the next 3 Tuesdays, a repeat of selections from Ben Goldfarb's terrific book,
Eager,
The Surprising Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter. If you don't love wetlands now, I sure do hope to nudge you with these readings. As Ben writes in Eager, "Trying to mitigate floods or improve water quality? There's a beaver for that. Hoping to capture more water for agriculture in the face of climate change? Add a beaver. Concerned about sedimentation, salmon populations, wildfire? Take 2 families of beaver and check back in a year. "Ben also wrote the greast book Crossings, How Road Ecology is Shaping the Future of Our Planet. He has written extensively for High Country News and his writing has appeared in The Atlantic, National Geographic, Washington Post, NY Times, Science and many other publications.
He is a wonderful writer who dives deep and tells great stories.Today, we also hear Annie Proulx. I’ll be reading from a New Yorker article; Swamps Can Protect Against Climate Change, If We Only Let Them.
She is best known for her Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner The Shipping News, and her short story, Brokeback Mountain.
More stories from John Muir's The Story of my Boyhood and Youth.
Muir finds he cannot stop making amazing elaborate inventions, heretofore unknown to anyone. He carves them from wood with tools that he made. He will soon be at college in Madison.
Here are more stories from John Muir's The Story of My Boyhood and Youth. Muir moved here to Wisconsin when he was 11 with his family from Scotland. This part describes his family's move from Fountain Lake to new land his father moved them to that needed to be worked from the ground up. At Fountain Lake, there was a wealth of water, and they had built a framed house, out buildings and created tillable fields, so it was hard hard work all over again.
We'll hear his description of digging a well 90 feet deep in the higher drier land, that they called Hickory Hill, with a heavy hammer and chisels and almost died from gasses that accumulated at the bottom of the well. He plowed the prairie with 3 or 4 yoke of oxen, and he mastered the tricky setup of the huge prairie busting plow so that he could sit on the crossbar and ride with no trouble. All of his writings are available at sierraclub.org. I hope you will take the time to read more of Muir's stories.
We hear the 5th reading of The Story of My Boyhood and Youth by John Muir, written a year before he died in 1914. Farming the new wilderness through the seasons, the crops, the challenges, and the work it took, take center stage today.
This is my 4th reading from The Story of My Boyhood and Youth by John Muir written the year before he died in 1914.
This chapter, called A Paradise of Birds, describes his experiences as a boy at his Fountain Lake home, seeing bobolinks, bobwhite quail, and passenger pigeons, "of all God's feathered people that sailed the Wisconsin sky, no other seemed to us so wonderful", and I end by reading Aldo Leopold's deeply moving talk called On a Monument to the Pigeon, given at the dedication of the Passenger Pigeon Monument at Wyalusing State Park in May of 1947.
John Muir's The Story of My Boyhood and Youth, -part 3 of my reading,
Now settled in Wisconsin, he describes the wonderful animals he gets to know so well including the oxen that worked so diligently and are so wise, and his wonderful pony Jack, that he and his brother rode with no halter or bridle at breakneck speeds through the woods and kettles of his home. He describes vividly, as only he can, Fountain Lake (now Ennis Lake) and the fishes in it. We can visit this place today, called Muir Park, it has been preserved in Marquette County.
From the WDNR State Natural Area website; https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/statenaturalareas/MuirPark
Muir Park contains a variety of upland and wetland communities surrounding 30-acre Ennis Lake, a spring-fed kettle lake occupying a marshy pocket in the ground moraine. The seepage lake has a marl bottom and a maximum depth of 30 feet. The surrounding vegetation is diverse and includes a rich fen that lies along an outlet stream, sedge meadow, and open bog, a northern wet forest dominated by tamarack, southern dry forest, oak opening, and wet-mesic prairie.
The calcareous fen and prairie contain a diversity of unusual and rare species including grass-of-Parnassus, Kalm's lobelia, bottle gentian, and nodding lady's-tresses orchids. Big blue-stem, Indian grass, blazing-star, and prairie phlox are present in the low prairie, which grades into a spongy sedge meadow and tall shrub community. Tamarack, poison sumac, and bog birch, with numerous pitcher plants beneath, can be found in the bog near the lake's southeast corner.
The area was settled in 1849 by the Ennis and Muir families and was the boyhood home of John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club, who admired the natural beauty of the area. Muir Park is owned by Marquette County and was designated a State Natural Area in 1972
Today the second reading from John Muir's book The Story of My Boyhood and Youth, written one year before his death in 1914. This gives us delightful insight into life more than 150 years ago traveling to America from Scotland on a rolling "bluff bowed boat" and discovering, in Wisconsin, new species of birds, animals and plants to delight the senses.
Today the second reading from John Muir's book The Story of My Boyhood and Youth, written one year before his death in 1914. This gives us delightful insight into life more than 150 years ago traveling to America from Scotland on a rolling "bluff bowed boat" and discovering, in Wisconsin, new species of birds, animals and plants to delight the senses.
I am fascinated by John Muir and have gotten off the shelf, a too long neglected copy of his The Story of My Boyhood and Youth. I’ll share excerpts of his vivid recollections that he wrote, only a year before his death in 1914. We start out in Dunbar Scotland. He was born in 1838.
He describes a severely disciplined childhood, being forced to memorize all his lessons, "...by the time I was 11 years of age, I had about three fourths of the Old Testament and all of the New by heart and by sore flesh." And when he was (so rarely) free to run, he describes wild and daring play with his friends. When he is 11 we travel with him and his family to settle in Wisconsin, where the landscape fills him with joy. I've read many of his stories about Ontario, Alaska and California, which are all archived here on this page.
A well known John Muir story this week; we climb with him to the top of a Douglas Fir during a terrific windstorm to get everything he can from the energy and beauty of the winds. This is called “A Wind Storm in the Forests of the Yuba” and was published in Scribner’s monthly in 1878.
"Instead of camping out, as I usually do, I then chanced to be stopping at the house of a friend. But when the storm began to sound, I lost no time in pushing out into the woods to enjoy it."
His descriptions of this experience are priceless. Visit sierraclub.org to find all of John Muir's writings.
This is the time of year to be looking for hawks on their southward migration. I have tips for seeing them, where you might go and what kind of weather systems bring larger numbers, as they use favorable north winds. There are many places to go and enjoy being in some of the most beautiful places on earth, the north shore of Lake Superior and the Great River nearby, the Mississippi River.
Today an essay about the many benefits of installing prairie strips in row crops by Dave Krier of Valley Stewardship Network. These buffer strips next to row crops save soil and nutrient runoff and provide rich habitat for insects and birds.
This is a repeat from about a year ago, but this is such a winning strategy that it is well worth exploring again.
Easy search words for more information are "Iowa State U prairie strips", and also visit the Valley Stewardship Network website for the work they are doing helping farmers design and install strips, valleystewardshipnetwork.org.
Dave can be reached at dave@valleystewardshipnetwork.org
Today I'm repeating the reading of the July Chapter of A Sand County Almanac, (Great Possessions and A Prairie Birthday), by Aldo Leopold. In this unforgettable part of the book, we learn of a compass plant that Leopold loves to see as he drives by. Because of its corner location in a graveyard, it has been unaffected by the plow or the mower blade. I dedicate this reading toThe Prairie Enthusiasts, who have taken on the work of saving our native plants in 4 midwest states, and giving all of us the joy of seeing, smelling and reveling in the beauty of our heritage. Now is the time to visit a Prairie Enthusiasts prairie. Look at their website, theprairieenthusiasts.org for detailed directions to many prairies they have saved and go visit. This is the prime time of the year.
This week, part 3 of my reading from the extensive interview with George Knudsen, born in 1922, near Easton Wi., from the book Afield, Portraits of Wisconsin Naturalists, Empowering Leopold's Legacy, Vol 1. by Sumner Matteson. I’ve read about many people from this book. It is available on Amazon and published by Little Creek Press, Mineral Point Wi. in 2020.
Here are stories about his research on bears, his deep artistic interest, and work as our state naturalist in our state parks, where he combined public education, ecology and art with labeled trail design to enhance our visits to our beautiful parks. And last, a deeply moving coincidence, during a visit to the cemetery where Frank Lloyd Wright was buried, (for a time), not far from Taliesin.
Sumner conducted this interview in 1984
Another great chapter about George Knudsen, from the book Afield, Portraits of Wisconsin Naturalists, Empowering Leopold's Legacy, by Sumner Matteson and published by Little Creek Press and Book Design, Mineral Point, Wisconsin, in 2020.
This is the second reading about Knudsen, born in 1922, who I think of as a Renaissance naturalist. He loved and studied all creatures great and small and took any and all opportunities to teach others. In this part we will hear mention of Frederick and Fran Hamerstron who George's father thought were fine young biologists working in the Necedah area, and we'll hear a story about his conversation with Frank Lloyd Wright, at his home called Taliesin, who loved nature. We have Knudsen to thank for abandoned railroad beds becoming walking and biking trails.
Another great chapter from the book Afield, Portraits of Wisconsin Naturalists, Empowering Leopold's Legacy, by Sumner matteson and published by Little Creek Press and Book Design, Mineral Point, Wisconsin, in 2020
This is the first part of Chapter 3 about George Knudsen, who I think of as a Renaissance naturaist, who loved and studied all creatures great and small and took any and all opportunities to teach others. Matteson's interview and his own thoughts about knowing Knudsen, let us in on the great stories about his life and his work.
Dry sand prairies are the home of Ornate Box Turtles in Wisconsin. This turtle is the only completely terrestrial (upland) turtle we have in the state, and in my humble opinion, the most beautiful. We will learn about the decades-long efforts, ongoing today, by scientists and volunteers working with an organization called Turtles For Tomorrow, to keep this beautiful animal with us. It's my honor to read about their work today.
Zapus- In a repeat with some updates, We have the fun of hearing Ben Johnston's description of rescuing a small meadow jumping mouse, zapus hudsonius, from the Kickapoo River after it fell from the cliff above into the water current. And an update on the invasive poison hemlock plant, which is very poisonous to humans and animals alike. We do not want this plant to get a foothold in our beautiful Driftless Area.
Today I read from Amphibians and Reptiles of Wisconsin -the chapter on the grey rat snake written by Dr Richard Sajdak. Commonly called the black rat snake, I'll bet many of us have had encounters with this animal and it has a fascinating life that includes having favored home trees.
This book is published by the University of Wisconsin Press and edited by Joshua Kapfer and Donald Brown and published in 2022.
It’s a comprehensive reference that covers all of Wisconsin's frogs, toads, salamanders, skinks, lizards, snakes, and turtles and it is a delight to read.
We will hear about the Peoples Garden Initiative, a program of the US Department of Agriculture, with the Xerces Society and others working as partner organizations. They are devoted to creating green spaces, gardens in urban areas that involve and educate students, fostering gathering places, community and friendship, as well as growing badly needed food and native plants for insect pollinators.
Today the second and last part of chapter 15, about the life of Joseph Martin Rose Sr. born in 1935 and died in 2021. I'm reading from the book AFIELD, Portraits of Wisconsin Naturalists, Empowering Leopold;s Legacy, Vol. 1, by Sumner Matteson. If you didn’t hear part one of this chapter, I hope you will listen to it and learn much more about this man, who became an elder of the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa and a professor at Northland College.
Once more from the the rich pages of Afield, Portraits of Wisconsin Naturalists, Empowering Leopold's Legacy by Sumner Matteson, I'll read the first part of the 15th Chapter about Joseph Martin Rose Sr. He was an Elder of the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, and a professor of Native American Studies at Northland College. He was born in 1935 and died in 2021. Next week, the final part of the chapter.
A story about a pair of Baltimore orioles fighting their own reflections in our windows, and how to bring that to a stop, introduces another 2 chapters from Frances Hamerstrom's wonderful book, Walk When the Moon is Full, the May and June chapters, about the children watching a food-begging young great horned owl and fireflys over a marsh on a still moonlight night.
The final reading today from Chapter One of Sumner Matteson's wonderful book, Afield, Portraits of Wisconsin Naturalists, Empowering Leopold's Legacy; Volume One
We follow Increase Lapham during 10 days in the Penokee Iron Range, on foot, surveying for ore, his observations on Madeline Island, and then to Oconomowoc Lake, where he bought land ("Minnewoc") for his family.
In part 3 of my reading about Increase Lapham, from Sumner Matteson's book Afield, Portraits of Wisconsin Naturalists, Empowering Leopold's Legacy, we will travel with Lapham to the Dells of the Wisconsin, "one of the most interesting and remarkable localities in Wisconsin" and to his family home west of Columbus in Ohio, and up to Lake Superior and the Apostle Islands, heading toward the Penokee Hills.
Reading for the second time about Increase Lapham from the book AFIELD, Portraits of Wisconsin Naturalists Empowering Leopold's Legacy.
Briefly I want to return to a topic we discussed during the recent pledge drive with ornithologist Laura Erickson, who is the host of For The Birds. — and that is, bird friendly coffee, In her book 101 Ways to Help Birds she lists buying bird friendly coffee as the number one thing, that’s not an accident that she put that at number one.
I'll read again from AFIELD Portraits of Wisconsin Naturalists, Empowering Leopold's Legacy by Sumner Matteson. The first chapter is devoted to Increase Lapham. Sumner writes, "Apart from Native Americans who were the first to know Wisconsin's natural history, there was one who many argue was Wisconsin's premier naturalist - Increase Allan Lapham, - the first to promote the state's natural history well beyond the state's borders. Wiry, quiet and unassuming, this self trained scholar possessed an inexhaustible passion to understand and catalog the natural world."
This is a story well worth hearing, a mild mannered, deeply curious scientist born in 1811, who studied effigy mounds, was a founder of the National Weather Service, and had a botanical collection of more than 3 thousand plants, and did so much more.
Today I'm reading ornithologist Laura Erickson's writing. She is heard regularly during Tuesday's 8 o'clock hour "Second Cup of Coffee", "Speaking for the Birds" and tomorrow she will be live on the air during our fundraiser. I read part of the introduction and closing of her book 101 Ways To Help Birds, with some thoughts of my own on what we have control over and what we don't. We do have control over bird strikes on windows of our houses, and in her book Laura provides many many ways to remedy this problem that kills millions of birds each year. Be sure to look at lauraerickson.com where she has provided all of her 16 (!) books online to be read or purchased..she is a generous soul.
I read the April Chapter of A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold, followed by Fran Hamerstrom's Walk When the Moon is Full, also the April Chapter, both talk lovingly about watching and hearing the skydance of the American Woodcock. We'll hear the distinctive sounds the woodcock make during the skydance. Leopold also writes about the benefits of Come High Water, when floodwaters keep one from obligations in town and no one can visit, and he talks about the tiny flower of spring, the draba, "a small creature that does a small job quickly and well.", and he writes about the storm troops of the forest, the bur oaks, standing against the fires of the prairies, and the changes that occurred on the landscape when Europeans arrived and started to extinguish prairie fires.
David Krier has written a fascinating essay about our water quality in our area. David works to gather interesting facts, not just opinions.
He touches on history of the Clean Water Act , history of land use in this area after European farmers arrived, and the resulting movement of soils from the ridges to the valleys, burying RR tracks , bridges, and farms below.
He describes Aldo Leopold’s work in this time to save soils, and the history of management of our trout streams. And describes the volunteers who monitor the quality of our surface stream water, what they measure, and ways today we are working to combat soil runoff- and lots more.
For the last reading of Eels, An exploration from NZ to the sargasso of the world’s most mysterious fish”, by James Prosek, published in 2010, we’ll return to the weir on the East Branch of the Delaware River in the Catskills of NY, and to Ray Turner who has devoted his life to reading the river and the weather and the seasons, and makes his living by trapping native NA eels on their migration to the sea.
Reading again from Eels, An Exploration, from New Zealand to the Sargasso, of the World's Most Mysterious Fish, by James Prosek. Today, parts of Chapter 4, More Tales of Taniwha, and then pivot to a parallel subject in NZ to here in our Driftless Area streams, and a good change that might be on the horizon. Then I will move back to parts of Chapter 5, The First Taste of Freshwater, and then discuss some of what I've learned about the commercial exploitation of glass eels and elvers, (the early juvenile stages of freshwater eels lives), overharvested as tiny young, before they have any chance to reproduce.
Today we will travel with author James Prosek to New Zealand, to see and hear stories about the largest freshwater eel, the longfin eel, anguilla dieffenbachii. These eels can live more than 100 years and weigh over 80 pounds. The longfin eel is only found there. These stories are from Prosek's book Eels; An Exploration, from New Zealand to the Sargasso, of the world's most Mysterious Fish.
I'm reading from the book Eels, an Exploration from New Zealand to the Sargasso of the World's most Mysterious Fish by James Prosek. In Chapter 2, we will go to the East Branch of the Delaware River where an ancient huge weir is being maintained by one man, for the yearly and brief migration of freshwater eels to the sea. He is one of the few people in the US, who are allowed to legally trap adult eels on their migration to the ocean, and we will learn more of the life history of this amazing fish.
Freshwater eels are today's topic, a truly awe inspiring fish that breeds in the Atlantic and lives inland among us in our rivers and streams, sometimes for decades, then as mature eels, they move down and out back into the ocean to find their breeding gyre, the Sargasso Sea.
Travel back in time, year by year; we are so blessed to be able to read his words, Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac on the 75th anniversary of its publication, 2024. This is one of my favorites, The February Chapter, Good Oak. "Rest! cries the chief sawyer, and we pause for breath."
I read the March chapter of Sand County Almanac, The Geese Return, and discuss the virtual speakers during Aldo Leopold Week, March 1 through 10.
This year, 2024, is the 75th anniversary of the publication of A Sand County Almanac, by Aldo Leopold, and the 100th anniversary of the Gila Wilderness which was designated the world's first wilderness area on June 3, 1924. Aldo Leopold was a forest service officer in New Mexico and recognized the need to preserve this beautiful area of more than 558,000 acres in SW New Mexico and worked for its preservation.
David Krier, a Wisconsin master naturalist, writes about his life growing to love birds. He has suggestions on how all of us can enjoy birds more, including how to get involved with looking for chimney swifts in Viroqua this summer.
Ed Holahan sits in for Maggie and talks with Forrest Jahnke of the Crawford Stewardship Project.
Have you seen nighthawksrecently in the early evening, on the wing soaring and darting after insects, accompanying the migrating dragonflies?
These 2 species migrations are 2 separate events happening in the same airspace and time, —perhaps like me you assumed the birds are eating the insects but it seems this isn’t true. I'll have Northern rough-winged swallows, nighthawks and dragonfly stories today, with observations that are a delight from 1914 on the Tennessee River.
Today, chimney swifts; this is another contribution from David Krier. Dave is a gifted thoughtful naturalist, with an engineer's sharp observation skills. I know both Dave and I are very grateful to the people of the Vernon County Historical Society Museum for making sure that their chimney has been preserved and protected for the sake of the swifts and for the community to enjoy for many years to come.
This is a story of a grand discovery cloaked in a small unassuming form, (much like the little blowsand loving plant Draba, that Aldo Leopold wrote about in S.C.Almanac). This is about a small worm eating snake, called the Lined Snake, which had never before been found in Wisconsin until Viroqua’s own Corey Raimond in September of 2011, decided to go out to explore. The chapter in the terrific new book Amphibians and Reptiles of Wisconsin about the Lined Snake is written by Corey and Jeffrey Lorch who works at the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison. We'll explore the work they do there that benefits not only wildlife, but all of us.
Dave Krier has many reasons for all of us to pay attention to the lights we have on at night, which can be disrupting to insect life, birds and bats, and keep our neighbors from enjoying their view of the Milky Way. We all need to pay attention and think about the impact our outdoor lights have on the life around us. And there are many ways to remedy this problem. Thank you Dave for this thoughtful essay.
Draba, a tiny plant stimulates the mind and heart of those who love the unassuming among us. I read a wonderful essay about Draba, and why it means so much to so many, written by Leah Beiniak, a Program Associate at the Aldo Leopold Foundation in Baraboo, and then I read part of the April Chapter of A Sand County Almanac by Aldo leopold . My thanks to the Foundation for their generous permission to read these essays.
A sweet essay about a close encounter water rescue of a little jumping mouse ( Zapus), written by Ben Johnston.
And a brief warning and description of a plant no one wants to live anywhere near; Poison Hemlock, making its way into our landscape. But we will prevail! Forewarned is forearmed!
We get a rare look at the pre-settlement Blue Mounds landscape and
the thoughts of a Tory in the Wisconsin Wilderness as he must re-enter society approaching Dubuque after long travels along the river courses. "I should soon be in the vortex of a white frontier population, must abandon my canoe, exchange the peaceful tent, pitched on the clean bank of an interesting river, for dirty accomodation at some filthy tavern, and make up my account to pay in money for every act of civility I might receive."
We finish Mike Mossman's essay about an Englishman geologist's travels, published in the quarterly journal of the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology, The Passenger Pigeon, Vol. 50 no. 4, Winter 1988.
Another historical perspective takes us along the old Wisconsin river routes in the 1830s. Along the Fox, the Wisconsin and the Mississippi Rivers, we travel with the first geologist hired by the federal government, a British Tory, to explore parts of our new country. We are in what was then, part of the Michigan Territory which will become Wisconsin, with George Featherstonhaugh (pronounced fen-shaw!). This essay is part one of A Tory in the Wisconsin Wilderness by Mike Mossman, published in the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology quarterly journal the Passenger Pigeon Vol. 50, no. 4, Winter 1988.
Another contribution from Viroqua's own David Krier about his experiences with bats, and how he is contributing today to gathering data on bat populations. Learn how we can all help bats.
Maggie reads from the last chapter of Fran Hamerstrom's book Is She Coming Too? Memoirs of a Lady Hunter; the chapter called Biography of a Dancing Ground about the sharp-tailed grouse. This is one of her most memorable essays.
Part 2 of Mike Mossman's essay on John Muir's years growing up in Wisconsin is continued today. We hear selections of Muir's book "The Story of my Boyhood and Youth" written just a few years before his death. It's an eloquent portrait of Wisconsin in the 1850s. This is from the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology's quarterly journal, the Passenger Pigeon, Volume 50, No.2, Summer 1988.
In 1988 The Wisconsin Society for Ornithology introduced a series of essays called "In the Words of Ornithologists Past" in their quarterly journal, The Passenger Pigeon. We will hear the introduction to the series, and first part of Mike Mossman's essay- John Muir: Reveling in the Wisconsin Frontier.
Muir arrived here from Scotland at age 11 in 1849 and reveled in our wonderful state for his formative years.
We hear an essay called Embracing the Dark, Insects Need the Night—and So Do Wefrom the quarterly publication WINGS; Essays on Invertebrate Conservation, Spring 2023, a publication
of the Xerces Society. (Xerces.org) They are working to protect the natural world by conserving invertebrates and their habitat.
This essay was written by Richard Joyce, an endangered species conservation biologist with the Xerces Society.
We hear from Sara Woody again. She was a Fellow at the Aldo Leopold Foundation, and reflects on the quality of her experiences there and the dream job that she got as a result of the many skills she developed while at the Foundation. This essay is called "How my Fellowship Helped me Land my Dream Job".
The birds we see so many of in summer, the cliff swallows fly long distances to come to North America to raise their young. They nest under bridges and culverts and have many fascinating secrets.
I love our cuckoos, the yellow-billed and the black-billed, and I hope you will too, after hearing about their surprising lives. Today the amazing sounds and habits of our 2 beautiful and distinctive cuckoos.
Another essay by Viroqua's own Dave Krier. He talks about the changes made to his lawn and area around his house, making it more and more insect friendly by adding native plants and shrubs especially for the insects that birds love to eat.
Maggie shares the wonderful world of WDRT and Community Radio on The Spring Pledge Drive edition
The measure also would limit advertiser and outsider access to a minor’s account, prevent direct messaging from individuals who are not pre-approved by the account holder and bar social media companies from most targeted advertising and marketing efforts directed toward accounts held by minors. Many social media companies, such as TikTok, Snapchat and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, make a large portion of their revenue with targeted advertising.
Woodcocks do their skydance displays in April and today we read 2 biologists' stories about this enchanting natural wonder. First, Aldo Leopold from 'April' in A Sand County Almanac, then Fran Hamerstrom from her book Walk When the Moon is Full.
Woodcocks do their skydance displays in April and today we read 2 biologists' stories about this enchanting natural wonder. First, Aldo Leopold from 'April' in A Sand County Almanac, then Fran Hamerstrom from her book Walk When the Moon is Full.
I'm reading from a "new" book published in 2002, after the Hamerstroms were gone but their many friends, family, colleagues, and former gaboons got together and wrote stories about their time with them, Hamerstrom Stories.
As a 14 year old boy, Dale Gawlik started working on a Harrier research project with Fran and Frederick Hamerstrom. His reflections on his time spent there with them are fascinating. Today Dr. Dale Gawlik is HRI Chair for Conservation and Biodiversity at the Harte Research Institute at Texas A&M in Corpus Christi and a Professor in the Department of Life Sciences. Enjoy-
A great 'locally sourced' reading today, Dave Krier, reflects on part of his work for Valley Stewardship Network, helping people create soil saving and diversity creating prairie strips. The smells and sights and sounds of the diverse plant life fill the senses.
We travel with a single atom within a watershed, becoming part of living things in many forms. Aldo Leopold calls this atom 'X' which slowly makes its way, over centuries, to the sea.
Reading from A Sand County Almanac, Sketches Here and There, Wisconsin, The Odyssey.
Exploring native plant restoration possibilities of your land can make a meaningful difference in increasing the diversity of life around us.
I'll read The Potential of Pastures and Oak Woods by Dan Carter, PhD. Dan is an ecologist with The Prairie Enthusiasts.
This was published online Oct 4th 2022 on The Prairie Enthusiasts website, theprairieenthusiasts.org.
We will visit wetlands again today, and some deep history, with Aldo Leopold. His A Sand County Almanac was published in 1949, not many months after his sudden death at age 60. He dedicated this book “To My Estella”. This is Part II, Sketches Here and There; Wisconsin, Marshland Elegy.
I'm so grateful to the Aldo Leopold Foundation for permission to read this timeless book.
Exploring native plant restoration possibilities of your land can make a meaningful difference in increasing the diversity of life around us.
I'll read The Potential of Pastures and Oak Woods by Dan Carter, PhD. Dan is an ecologist with The Prairie Enthusiasts.
This was published online Oct 4th 2022 on The Prairie Enthusiasts website, theprairieenthusiasts.org.
I’ll return one last time, to the book EAGER, the Surprising Secret life of Beavers and Why They Matter, by Ben Goldfarb to read from the 3rd chapter,, Deceive and Exclude. We'll learn about problem solvers who have started successful businesses mitigating beaver problems with many types of ingenious devices that lower pond levels and allow coexistence between people and these persistent rodents.The website beaversolutions.com has a wealth of information even if you don't live in Massachusetts.
We'll enjoy more of the introduction to the book Eager, The Secret, Surprising Life of Beavers and Why They Matter by Ben Goldfarb. Imagine our valleys here in The Driftless Area 350 years ago with rich wetlands and bountiful wildlife thriving in the lush ecosystems created by beaver dams.
The Environmental Protection Agency website says,
Wetlands are among the most productive ecosystems in the world, comparable to rain forests and coral reefs. An immense variety of species of microbes, plants, insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds, fish and mammals can be part of a wetland ecosystem.
I'll be reading today from Eager, the Surprising Secret Lives of Beavers and Why they Matter, Ben Goldfarb
Come with me and let's get our feet wet.
We will go with Fran Hamerstrom and her 2 children and Walk When the Moon is Full on 2 cold winter nights and hear foxes in the distance, and see a weasel up close.
Maggie reads from the introduction to Vesper Flights, a collection of essays by Helen Macdonald, and then discusses the winter breeding habits of great horned owls and bald eagles.(This is a re-broadcast of the very first episode from January 2022).
We take a winter trek on a "January Thaw" day tracking a skunk with Aldo Leopold in the first chapter of A Sand County Almanac. I then take a hint from Leopold and expand on a hawk he sees that day, the Rough-legged Hawk, a winter visitor from the Arctic tundra summering grounds.
We climb to the top of a huge maple tree with Kass Urban-Mead to study forest bees that come to forage for pollen,. In spring, many species of trees flower and produce billions of protein rich pollen grains.
Thanks to the Xerces Society for their permission to read from their Fall 2022 publication "Wings" and their dedication to saving insects and other invertebrates.
As well as the myriad of things The Professor did, Aldo Leopold was a bird bander. The December chapter of
his book A Sand County Almanac ends with a part called 65290, the band number of a chickadee.
I will then talk about the first bird I thought of when reading about bird banding, an ocean traveler with a seven foot wingspan. She has amazed people for decades; a banded bird called Wisdom.
We will again enjoy Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac. I'll read his December chapter segments called Home Range and Pines Above the Snow.
"Like people, my animals frequently disclose by their actions what they decline to divulge in words."
and about his pines, "There is much small talk and gossip among pines. By paying heed to this chatter, I learn what has transpired during the week when I am absent in town."
Fran Hamerstrom's story about the caper involving secretly moving Aldo Leopold's office, led me to reading about one of the other Leopold grad students, Art Hawkins, which led me to a great dog story and thence to The Aldo Leopold Foundation's blogs, where I found more thoughts on dogs and their role in
Leopold's life, in an essay by Sarah Woody. Enjoy!
"Every farm woodland, in addition to yielding lumber, fuel, and posts should provide its owner a liberal education. This crop of wisdom never fails but it is not always harvested. I here record some of the lessons I have learned in my own woods." Aldo Leopold
Again we will enjoy a Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold published in 1949.
This part of the November chapter called Axe in Hand, delves into our biases when we walk into the woods with our axe, or more often now, our chainsaw. We choose what to cut and what to leave, what we favor and what we do not. Why do we make the decisions we do, working on the land?
What I love about this chapter, and Leopold generally, is that he reveals his own thought processes. We are privy to his inner self, weighing many different ideas and perspectives.
My thanks to the Aldo Leopold Foundation for permission to read this wonderful book. Please visit their website, Aldoleopold.org for some treats. They have a blog with many contributors that you will enjoy reading and the Phenology Calendar for 2023 is ready for mailing and packed with wisdom and observations for the whole year.
But It’s Already Done
I'm reading again from My Double Life; Memoirs of a Naturalist. Fran Hamerstrom tells a story that reveals the love and respect Aldo Leopold’s students had for him. They used the dark of night to pull off a youthful student stunt that would make all their lives much better on the UW Madison campus.
We hear more from Fran Hamerstrom, born in 1907, from her book, My Double Life, Memoirs of a Naturalist.
This chapter is called A Letter from My Mother-in-Law, and finds her in the beginning of her time as a field biologist, with her life long partner Fredrick, moving into a farmhouse that their professor, Aldo Leopold, had arranged for them to live in. This is in Waushara County in the middle of winter, with no running water, no heat except the wood stove, no electricity and no phone.
We learn from Aldo Leopold about the bur oak and its history on the southern Wisconsin landscape from the April chapter of a Sand County Almanac.
"Thus, he who owns a veteran bur oak owns more than a tree. He owns a reserved seat in the theater of evolution."
I add some things I've learned about our forest ecology today and how forest succession has changed in the 80 years since Leopold wrote his deep historical picture of the oaks.
Sand County Almanac, Soundscapes and Wildlife
This week, soundscapes, specifically the sounds that Aldo Leopold heard, sitting outside the Shack, watching and listening in the early dark hours. The sounds that he heard have changed dramatically since he was listening and scientists have reconstructed them. And because sounds of wildlife are often directly related tolight intensity, both topics are intertwined. I will also talk about sounds that sturgeon make here in Wisconsin, and the Sound Forest Lab at the University of Wi at Madison, studying sounds of tropical forests.
two links:
https://news.wisc.edu/aldo-
https:// www.soundforestlab.org
We take another walk into the sand country with Aldo Leopold, celebrating the glory of October. We read from A Sand County Almanacthe last part of the October chapter,Too Early and Red Lanterns. "Getting up too early is a vice habitual in horned owls, stars, geese and freight trains", then wander from one red lantern to another, "the lanterns are blackberry leaves, red in the October sun"
Smokey Gold
Today the memorable introduction Aldo Leopold wrote in 1948 for "A Sand County Almanac" after we slip into a chapter called Smokey Gold.
We travel afoot with Aldo Leopold in Adams county on a grouse hunt, but more to the point, we observe in detail the trails and tracks, smells and colors of many dwellers of the scrub wetlands in Fall.
"The Tamaracks change from green to yellow when frosts have brought woodcock, fox sparrows out of the north."
Drifting Down the Yellow
Another gem of a short story from Fran Hamerstrom's book, Is She Coming Too? Memoirs of a Lady Hunter ; the chapter called "Drifting Down the Yellow". The book is illustrated by Jonothan Wilde who was a close friend of the Hamerstroms and he is my very favorite artist. His pen and ink drawings are charming, so beautifully rendered, a perfect compliment to the stories.
It's Fall and many of us yearn to get out and hunt. We venture out with Fran Hamerstrom, who always tells delightful stories; these are about two outings, each a dog story with a twist. This chapter, Dog Days, is from her book Is She Coming Too? Memoirs of a Lady Hunter. My sincere thanks to Elva Hamerstrom Paulson for permission to read from Fran's books.
tura
We hear the third and final reading from the Sigurd Olson chapter in Sumner Matteson's book Afield. Olson describes the difficult work preserving the wilderness areas north of Lake Superior. We owe so much to so many for what we may take for granted when we plan a canoe trip into the Quetico or the Boundary Waters. We anticipate the peaceful serenity, seeing moose, hearing wolves, swimming in the clear water and having great fish meals. Without the work done over so many decades by people like Sigurd Olson we would not have those wild places to cherish. I hope this story is an inspiration to you. The book Afield is full of first person stories of naturalists and biologists who have helped preserve the beauty and biodiversity of Wisconsin. It's published by Little Creek Press, available on Amazon
We get a special window into the friendship between wilderness writer, guide and advocate, Sigurd Olson, and Sumner Matteson and his family, in part 2 of this chapter in Matteson's book Afield.
From the book Afield, we get a close personal view into the life of Sigurd Olson, writer, environmentalist, and tireless advocate for the protection of wilderness. Whether you have enjoyed a canoe voyage into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area or the Quetico-Superior wilderness in Canada, or not, we all benefit from wilderness preservation. Olson devoted 60 years of effort to “keep massive road building projects, hydro electric schemes, intensive logging and aircraft out of the Quetico-Superior.” Counted together, the BWCA and the Quetico, comprise more than 2,700,000 acres of wilderness preserved. We join Sumner Matteson, author of the book Afield, and learn about Olson’s life, and we hear his memories of his family's close friendship with the Olsons. This is part one of 2 parts.
Join me, take a break, go out into the back yard, and look up to the sky to search for migrating hawks during this time of great fall southward movement. For Broadwing hawks especially, September is the time they move through our state on their way to Central and South America. I describe visiting Duluth MN, and have some tips on visiting the Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory, a very special unique place there, where you can see large concentrations of many species of hawks, eagles, falcons and vultures on passage. No matter where you are, I hope you will take time to look up and enjoy the migration.
Dr Stanly Temple writes about his early life learning about birds and wildlife from mentor Rachel Carson. He writes,
"I didn't know it at the time but the kindly woman (on birding field trips), who took me under her wing on those outings would eventually become one of my personal inspirations and professional heros." We will hear Stan's essay about Rachel Carson.
One can never Walk When the Moon is Full too often.
We join Fran Hamerstrom and her children on 2 hot summer nights; we hear the July and August chapters of her wonderful book.
Wisconsin's Greenfire; Voices for Conservation, is an organization of retired natural resource professionals who have banded together to lend their considerable skills toward
promoting science-based management of natural resources; this, rather than politically expedient and short-term policies.We then hear Greenfire Science Council member Curt Meine's essay,The Prehn Decision; Backdrop to a Breakdown about the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and its governing board of directors, and its history. The Wisconsin Supreme Court recently handed down a decision allowing Fred Prehn to remain on the seven-member Wisconsin Natural Resources Board that oversees the state Department of Natural Resources. His 6 year term expired in May of 2021. The case came before the court because of Prehn’s unwillingness to step down, and the state senate’s refusal to hold hearings on Governor Evers’ nomination of a successor
I love our cuckoos, the yellow-billed and the black-billed, and I hope you will too, after hearing about their surprising lives. Today the amazing sounds and habits of our 2 beautiful and distinctive cuckoos.
What a gift to future generations this book is; Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac, contains images and feelings that live in our hearts. Today the July chapter, with 2 parts, Great Possessions and Prairie Birthday;
"...it is a fact, patent both to my dog and myself, that at daybreak I am the sole owner of all the acres I can walk over. It is not only boundaries that disappear but also the thought of being bounded." Thank you again to the Aldo Leopold Foundation for permission to read this book
We get a rare look at the pre-settlement Blue Mounds landscape and
the thoughts of a Tory in the Wisconsin Wilderness as he must re-enter society approaching Dubuque after long travels along the river courses. "I should soon be in the vortex of a white frontier population, must abandon my canoe, exchange the peaceful tent, pitched on the clean bank of an interesting river, for dirty accomodation at some filthy tavern, and make up my account to pay in money for every act of civility I might receive."
We finish Mike Mossman's essay about an Englishman geologist's travels, published in the quarterly journal of the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology, The Passenger Pigeon, Vol. 50 no. 4, Winter 1988.
Another historical perspective takes us along the old Wisconsin river routes in the 1830s. Along the Fox, the Wisconsin and the Mississippi Rivers, we travel with the first geologist hired by the federal government, a British Tory, to explore parts of our new country. We are in what was then, part of the Michigan Territory which will become Wisconsin, with George Featherstonhaugh (pronounced fen-shaw!). This essay is part one of A Tory in the Wisconsin Wilderness by Mike Mossman, published in the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology quarterly journal the Passenger Pigeon Vol. 50, no. 4, Winter 1988.
Part 2 of Mike Mossman's essay on John Muir's years growing up in Wisconsin is continued today. We hear selections of Muir's book "The Story of my Boyhood and Youth" written just a few years before his death. It's an eloquent portrait of Wisconsin in the 1850s. This is from the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology's quarterly journal, the Passenger Pigeon, Volume 50, No.2, Summer 1988.
In 1988 The Wisconsin Society for Ornithology introduced a series of essays called "In the Words of Ornithologists Past" in their quarterly journal, The Passenger Pigeon. We will hear the introduction to the series, and first part of Mike Mossman's essay- John Muir: Reveling in the Wisconsin Frontier.
Muir arrived here from Scotland at age 11 in 1849 and reveled in our wonderful state for his formative years.
From Afield, we hear A Gathering of the Voices, written by Curt Meine. It's the forward to the book
Afield.
Curt is a conservation biologist, environmental historian, and writer. It is an honor for me to read his part of Sumner Matteson's book.
In a reading from Sumner Matteson's Afield, Jim Zimmerman talks further about his great teachers, and the wide ranging positive impact they had, and his own methods of reaching people's minds and hearts. And we learn of Jim's creative work to save the unique canyons of the Kickapoo River from being damed and becoming a lake. "Regarding the land ethic, there's one fight to preserve land I'd like to mention. In the early 70s there was a proposed dam impoundment in the Kickapoo River Canyon of west-central Wi Driftless Area."
From Sumner Matteson's book Afield we hear more from his interview with botanist Jim Zimmerman, about his life as a student and his teachers, among them Aldo Leopold. He discusses four teachers who had a profound influence on his life and his approach as a teacher.
"Jim Zimmerman was a master at inspiring people, in leading his students to be better stewards of their land. Wisconsin today is a much better state because of all the things Jim did during his lifetime”
Roy Lukes
Scott Weidensaul is an eloquent writer who many birders love to read. We hear the preface to his classic book published in 1999, Living on the Wind , Across the Hemisphere with Migratory Birds, and the introduction to his new book A World on the Wing, The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds.
published by WW Norton in 2021.
Scott Weidensaul is an eloquent writer who many birders love to read. We hear the preface to his classic book published in 1999, Living on the Wind , Across the Hemisphere with Migratory Birds, and the introduction to his new book A World on the Wing, The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds.
published by WW Norton in 2021.
Helen Macdonald takes us to the top of the Empire State Building to meet a leading ornithologist and give us new insight into the fascinating vertical environment; "a tumultuous world teeming with unexpected biological abundance." The chapter is called High Rise from her book of essays, Vesper Flights.
The Passenger Pigeon Monument at Wyalusing State Park was dedicated in 1947. We hear Aldo Leoplod's speech from that day at the confluence of the Mississippi and Wisconsin Rivers. "Today the laden oaks still flaunt their burden at the sky, but the feathered lightning is no more." And we hear Dr. Stanley Temple's introduction to the reprinted booklet, Silent Wings, A Memorial to the Passenger Pigeon published by the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology.
Aldo Leopold writes about the ultimate bird of the grasslands ; the upland sandpiper, another reading from The Sand County Almanac, Back from the Argentine.
Venture out with Fran Hamerstrom and her children in a very different habitat. Let's take A Walk in the City; from Walk When the Moon is Full . What do they find?