We wanted to share a few of the fun images, videos and sounds from the Building a Land Ethic conference!
Video Highlight: Owl Calling
We knew we had a wealth of talent in the lineup of speakers for the Building a Land Ethic conference, but we didn’t know that we’d be treated to expert bird calls alongside expert knowledge! All told, three of our speakers treated the group with a glimpse of the auditory wonders of nocturnal birds, but we only caught two of them on camera.
Featured below are the Barred Owl calls of J. Drew Lanham and Estella Leopold- both incredible! Unfortunately we missed Jed Meunier’s impressive American Woodcock imitation, which was part of the (non-recorded) Friday afternoon panel discussions. It seems abundantly clear that we need to plan for a bird calling symposium of sorts at the 2017 event!
There will be more video from the Building a Land Ethic conference shared soon- we’re getting it all ready for you and will post it on our YouTube channel in the coming weeks.
We do have a really nice collection of photos that we’d like to share- with special thanks to Ed Pembleton and lisa eddy, who helped us capture the magic of the conference experience.
Thursday: The Land Ethic– Toward Common Ground
Thursday’s program recognized that for Leopold’s vision of a land ethic to be successful, it will need to embrace, and be embraced by diverse constituencies across the U.S. and beyond. We were welcomed to the program with an incredible presentation on connectedness by David Greendeer of the Ho-Chunk Nation. See his incredible presentation entitled Renue, on Prezi. Wisconsin’s 2015 Poet Laureate Kimberly Blaeser followed with a poetry reading including selections from her latest focus on picto-poems, which combine her photographs and poetry. Aldo Leopold Foundation board member J. Drew Lanham offered a keynote presentation on home ground, common ground, and moving toward a more inclusive land ethic. Small group discussions following the conference opening allowed attendees to discuss and process the day’s theme in a more intimate setting. A panel discussion on common ground concluded the day with commentary from Leslie Weldon (Deputy Chief for the National Forest System with the USDA Forest Service), Cynthia Martinez (Chief of the National Wildlife Refuge System), and Nicole Jackson (E.E. Capacity / Outdoor Afro). The evening wrapped up with a welcome dinner and performance of Jim Pfitzer’s one-man Leopold performance, A Standard of Change. Photos from Thursday are below. Click the white arrow to the right to cycle through the slides. Enjoy!
[slideshow_deploy id=’2948′]
Friday: Leopold’s Evolving Legacy
Conferees took part in field trips to the International Crane Foundation and the Aldo Leopold Shack and Farm on what ended up being one of the hottest days of the summer in Wisconsin! Cool relief was welcomed with presentations at the campus, including a keynote talk from Estella Leopold featuring a reading from her forthcoming book on her time growing up at the Shack with her family. A panel of Leopold scholars including Curt Meine (Aldo Leopold Foundation and Center for Humans and Nature), Stan Temple (Aldo Leopold Foundation and University of Wisconsin), Susan Flader (Aldo Leopold Foundation and University of Missouri), and Jed Meunier (Aldo Leopold Foundation and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources) looked at how Leopold’s legacy continues to grow and intersect with a multitude of disciplines in 21st century society. You can read the #livetweet of the Friday presentations here! In the evening we welcomed everyone to an open house reception at the Leopold Center to dedicate the new Leopold Memorial site. You can listen to a story on Wisconsin Public Radio about the new Leopold Memorial site, reported by Chuck Quirmbach. Photos from Friday are below. Click the white arrow to the right to cycle through the slides. Enjoy!
[slideshow_deploy id=’2971′]
Saturday: Empowering Thinking Communities
The day began with a meeting called by the newly formed Leopold Education Project Leadership Team (Marc Hirrell, Luann Sewell Waters, Treva Breuch, and in spirit, Mike Jabot) to invite educators to come learn about opportunities to become more involved with LEP. We also featured an incredible selection of concurrent session presentations led by conferees on Saturday morning, touching on the implementation of Leopold’s land ethic idea in practical, applied ways in various contexts including classroom teaching, environmental education, community-based conservation, art, science, and community engagement. We closed the conference with a keynote lecture on the challenges and opportunities of implementing a land ethic at the community level by David Orr of Oberlin University. Photos from the Saturday program are below. Click the white arrow to the right to cycle through the slides. Enjoy!
[slideshow_deploy id=’3003′]
You can also check out lisa eddy’s full album of conference photos on Facebook.
The Next Building a Land Ethic Conference
We hope to convene the conference biennially, so stay tuned for an announcement of our 2017 dates! We hope to see you there.
