Past Updates
Just learning about ALF? Check out what we've been up to in the last year below.
August 13, 2007
ALF Staff Explores Leopold Legacy
in Coon Valley
The Coon Valley watershed demonstration project encouraged contour farming and tree planting on steep hillsides. Many of the practices are still used.
In the 1930s, as the Dust Bowl drought set in across much of the nation and fertile topsoils continued to wash downstream, traditional farming methods began to be questioned. In 1933, the USDA Soil Erosion Service (today called the Natural Resources Conservation Service), a new federal agency formed as part of the New Deal, looked for a community willing to put new ideas into practice. They settled on the rural dairy farming town of Coon Valley in southwestern Wisconsin to serve as the first watershed demonstration project in the country. The SES enlisted the help of the leading land use experts at the University of Wisconsin at the time, including Aldo Leopold. Farmers were asked to voluntarily participate in the program, allowing changes to be made in their farming practices that would be funded with federal money and enacted using the available labor of the Civilian Conservation Corps crews. Full story...
August 2, 2007
Students Discover the Essence of Leopold on
Cross-Country Land Ethic Trip
Connecting people to land is a challenge in our modern world. Myron Blosser, a teacher from Eastern Mennonite High School in Harrisonburg, VA, answers that challenge with a 6,000 trip. His students take part in a 22 day tour across America under the theme of “developing a land ethic.” On July 27th and 28th, a group of 38 high school students arrived at the Aldo Leopold Legacy Center. En route, they'd had the opportunity to visit organizations and communities at the forefront of sorting out how to live more sustainably. Those sites included The Land Institute in Salina, Kansas; Village Homes, a planned sustainable community in Davis, California; and Glacier National Park for a discussion of climate change. By bringing the class to visit Leopold's Shack, Blosser hoped to expose students to "the essence and presence of Aldo Leopold." Full story...
A student studies a caterpillar he found while collecting native prairie seeds on the Leopold Memorial Reserve.
July 25
Leopold’s Legacy Leads Travelers to
a Green Wisconsin
Looking for a great destination to catch summer before it ends or to enjoy fall colors? Consider making a trip to Leopold country the heart of a green vacation.
“Visiting here, people really have a chance to re-connect with the land when they walk through the pines and prairie the Leopolds planted around the Shack,” said Buddy Huffaker, executive director of the Aldo Leopold Foundation. “At the Legacy Center, they can experience the comfort and beauty that can be found in a sustainably-designed building. They also begin to see connections between our modern lifestyle and the ways we influence thousands of unique places via our economy. We want them to go away with tools they can use to make positive choices.”
Full story...
July 18
Leopold Memorial Reserve neighbor recognized for conservation efforts
The Aldo Leopold Foundation is fortunate to have some very good neighbors. One of them is Phill Pines, who owns 2,300 acres of land directly across the Wisconsin River from the historic Leopold Shack. Over time, Pines has protected the farm and forest land from development and turned his land into a high quality nature preserve that serves as roosting habitat for thousands of cranes and geese during their fall migration. Full story...
July 11
Legacy Center applauded by nationally-recognized architects and educators
The Aldo Leopold Legacy Center gained national recognition at the recent Society of Building Science Educators Annual Retreat in Seattle, Washington. Members of the Legacy Center building team Mike Utzinger (UW – Milwaukee), Joel Krueger (The Kubala Washatko Architects) and Steve Swenson (ALF Ecologist) presented at the gathering. Annual Retreat participants are university educators and practitioners in architecture and related disciplines who support excellence in the teaching of environmental science and building technologies. Full story...
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