Calendar

Feb. 13-14:
Leopold Southwest Conference

Mar. 26-27 and Apr. 2-3:
Intro to Prescribed Burning

The Woodland School

In the coming year, we are offering an array of Woodland School classes to advance your land stewardship practice, from the classics—chainsaw safety, prescribed fire—to new opportunities like birding the Leopold Memorial Reserve with experts. We hope you'll let one pique your curiosity and join us in the field! Register online today for any of our classes!

Support the Work of the Foundation

Become a key partner in helping us spread the land ethic, advance the science of land health, preserve the Leopold shack and farm, and train new leaders for the future of conservation. Join today!

Visiting the Leopold Center

We don't have tours in the winter, but you can still visit. Just give us a call to schedule a time! And check out our 2009 tour schedule, beginning in March.

The Outlook eNewsletter

February 2009

Leopold Shack Designated a National Historic Landmark!

The Aldo Leopold Shack and Farm outside of Baraboo has joined the ranks of some of the most well-known and beloved historic sites in the nation. Just before the change in administration, Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne designated nine new National Historic Landmarks, and expressed his personal pride that the Leopold Shack and farm is now formally among our country’s most important historic sites. "The historical and cultural developments reflected by these new National Historic Landmarks is tremendous," Kempthorne said. "As Secretary of the Interior, I am especially pleased to honor the place at which conservationist Aldo Leopold was inspired to write A Sand County Almanac." Read more about the designation, or listen to the story on Wisconsin Public Radio.

ALF Welcomes Two New Interns

We are excited to introduce you to our 2009 Stewardship Intern Crew, who joined us this week!

Kate Losey graduated in 2007 from University of Wisconsin - Madison with a double degree in Wildlife Ecology and French. She has worked for the Natural Heritage Corps (AmeriCorps), Whitefish Dunes State Park, The Nature Conservancy, the Door County Soil and Water Conservation Department and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Originally from Warsaw, Indiana, Kate enjoys hiking through forests and cities, spending time with friends and family, reading books with many pages, traveling to faraway places, and learning about history and new ideas.

Jen Mazalewski hails from the suburbs of Chicago. As a child, she enjoyed camping, boating and being outdoors with her family. It only seemed logical to pursue a career that related to nature and the environment, and she decided to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison to pursue a Forestry degree. With the increase of development, deforestation and the degradation of our forests and many other ecosystems, she wanted to be involved in the movement towards sustainability, restoration, conservation and environmental awareness. While working with the Aldo Leopold Foundation, Jen hopes to gain the experience, the skills, and the tools required to achieve these goals.

Last Chance to Join Us for the Leopold Southwest Conference!

We're gearing up to head to Albuquerque, and you can come, too! Help us celebrate the centennial of Aldo Leopold's arrival in the Southwest in 1909 by attending our multi-cultural conference. We have a great program lined up that will look at environmental ethics and the relationship between people and land in different cultural traditions. Join us for "A Cultural Conversation: Aldo Leopold, the Southwest, and the Evolution of a Land Ethic for the Future," held on February 13-14, 2009, at the National Hispanic Cultural Center. Download the full brochure and register online today!

Aldo Leopold Weekend is Coming to a Community Near You!

This year's Aldo Leopold Weekend is shaping up to be another wonderful celebration thanks to the dedicated Leopold Weekend planners and their communities. The first weekend in March will be full of community gatherings, with events planned all over the state, including Oshkosh, Mequon, Waukesha, Portage, Monona, Eagle, and more. Some of the activities planned this year range from banquets with speakers, nature hikes, Leopold bench building workshops, to traditional readings of A Sand County Almanac. There promises to be a wonderful variety of events to attend. To find out if a Leopold Weekend celebration is happening in your neighborhood please check the event listings for 2009! There is still time to plan your own 2009 Leopold Weekend event. Please check out our event planning resources and join our team of leaders that organize events nationwide. Thanks to the Boldt Company for their continued sponsorship of this program.

Announcing the 2009 Leopold Center Public Program Calendar

As our visitation grows, so too does our programming. This year, in addition to our classic self-guided and guided tour programs, we will be offering a series of “Expert” tour programs to the public. On the first Friday of every month between May and October, sign up to come out for an expert tour on topics ranging from a talk on the engineering of the Leopold Center led by UW Milwaukee Associate Professor Mike Utzinger, to an intimate talk at the Shack about the Leopold family experience, led by Trish Stevenson (Nina Leopold Bradley’s daughter) and perhaps even Nina herself. We will be announcing finalized tour dates and publishing the registration form in our March e-news, but consider this your official “Save the Date” notice! See a preview of the 2009 Public Program schedule (to be finalized by March 1.)

Looking for a way to become part of our team? Our education department is seeking applications for per-diem tour guides to help with the 2009 public program season. Per diem tour guides are scheduled as needed to help us accommodate tour groups, and are compensated with a half day or full day rate in exchange for providing tour guide services. Must be able to attend training on Saturday, March 28th. See the position announcement.

Leopold Education Project National Conference

This year the Aldo Leopold Foundation is partnering with the Leopold Education Project (LEP) to jointly offer a national workshop. The 2009 Leopold Education Project National Conference will be held at the Leopold Center in Baraboo, Wisconsin on June 26th and 27th with optional pre-conference workshops on June 25th. This conference will offer new skills to develop and lead conservation and environmental education projects in your home communities. Sessions will inspire attendees with success stories of projects that creatively link individuals and their natural communities to benefit both. They will also provide participants with practical skills to take home. This year's theme will be "Investing in our Communities," with topics to include: exploring relationship between natural and human communities, using Leopold's thoughts and words to connect people and their communities, practical methods for engaging community members, and a review of successful projects that connect people and nature while getting youth outdoors. If you are interested in being a presenter at the conference, check out our Call for Proposals.