Youth embrace the wild at Leopold Nature Center
More than 100 years ago, the land where the Aldo Leopold Nature Center is located in Monona was a tuberculosis sanatorium. It was the first facility of its kind in southern Wisconsin, located out in what was then pasture and fields east of Madison.
Back then, I imagine, white-gowned patients may well have wandered paths on the grounds of the 20acre hospital as part of treatments to regain their health. These days, though, visitors are more likely to see scores of schoolchildren learning about conservation and the natural world. It’s something Aldo Leopold, who died in 1948, nearly half a century before this nature center was founded, certainly would have appreciated.
I walked the grounds recently with staffer Cara Erickson, who led me through a prairie landscape of tall grasses and purple-flowered New England astors, by several busy beehives and past sumac plants that were beginning to show their flaming autumn foliage.
We crossed a small bridge and proceeded on over some logs through a wetland to an island surrounded by what was once a farm pond. (But not before I slipped and got my calves and Keen sandals splattered with mud, which, I figured, is all part of being a travel writer with a bent for the outdoors.)
The trail led to a stand of tamarack trees and a big willow that Erickson said children who visit the nature center love to climb. We then walked on through an oak savanna and into a basswood forest filled with logs that she said kids use to build forts, ending up in a meadow where a docent was leading a “Wonder Bugs” class of preschoolers.
Before we returned to the nature center’s 16,000square-foot main building, we passed an old shag bark hickory that was missing its top. The tree is popular with kids, too, and has been growing for more than a century, Erickson guessed.
Mike Strigel, executive director of the nature center, said the grounds are adjacent to a web of additional trails in the Edna Taylor Conservation Area and Woodland Park, bringing the total acreage of prairie, wetlands and forest accessible to visitors to 100.
Strigel said when the tuberculosis sanatorium closed, director L.R. Head acquired the land in the hopes of creating an arboretum with examples of plants from around the region. It became a park and was often visited by schools, similar to today, he noted.
Over time the organization Head created evolved into the Sand County Foundation, named for Aldo Leopold’s seminal work, “A Sand County Almanac,” which dealt with life of the land around his shack on the Wisconsin River in Sauk County. Leopold is also known for his passion for phenology, the science of observing and recording events such as bloom times and migrations as they occur in the natural world.
By the 1980s, Strigel said the foundation wanted to sell the land so it could it could pursue its mission of spreading the word about Leopold’s vision “to advance the understanding, stewardship and restoration of land health; and to cultivate leadership for conservation.”
Monona residents raised a ruckus about the planned sale, he said, and voted to impose a tax on themselves to raise two-thirds of the money needed to buy the land. The other half came from the state’s Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund to preserve natural areas and wildlife habitat. The city then leased the land back to the Aldo Leopold Nature Center, which was incorporated in 1994.
Erickson said Leopold’s descendants have been involved with the nature center starting with his daughter, Nina Leopold Bradley, who died in 2011. Her daughter, Trish Stevenson, who lives near Black Earth, now serves on its board.
Visitors can pick up backpacks at the main building that have small nets and containers for gathering samples, Erickson said. They can stroll the paths by themselves or go on naturalist-led walks.
But Strigel said the majority of the 60,000 people who come to the nature center each year are students, from preschoolers up to 14 years old, who take part in a variety of programs.
“We’re lucky to be tucked in here in an urban area next to Madison and in the City of Monona with highways all around us with all the natural ecosystems of southern Wisconsin,” said Strigel, a former intern at the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo.
“Our motto is engage, educate and empower,” he said. “Our main mission is teaching Leopold’s message
that each of us has a personal responsibility to care for the land.
“Nearly all of the children who come here will become something other than biologist,” he mused. “But through our programs, we hope they gain an understanding of the interconnections of the natural world. Regardless of how you view things like climate change, we all depend on clean air, clean water and clean land. These kids will become lawyers, bankers and insurance agents, and they need to help make good decisions.”
On the way back out, Erickson took me to a threequarter-size replica of Leopold’s shack on the banks of the Wisconsin River that the nature center uses in its teaching programs. The rustic building has a special meaning to environmentalists around the globe.
Even more so for Strigel, who got to know Nina Leopold Bradley when he was a student and was able to spend a night in the original Leopold shack. It was in April, the fireplace was smokey and mice scurried about the cabin.
“I was one of the lucky ones,” he quipped. “I got the full Aldo Leopold shack treatment.”
Please note: The Aldo Leopold Foundation, established by his children, is based in Baraboo. It manages the Aldo Leopold Shack and Farm, open for both guided and self-guided tours when weather permits. The Leopold Center, less than a mile from the Shack, is one of the country’s greenest buildings, earning a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design honor from the U.S. Green Building Council: www.aldoleopold.org.
Getting there: The Aldo Leopold Nature Center,
330 Femrite Drive, Monona, is 80 miles west of downtown Milwaukee via Interstate 94, Highway 12 and Femrite Drive.
More info: See aldoleopoldnaturecenter.org. Special events this fall include the Fall Fest on Oct. 26, a free and family oriented event that celebrates creatures of the night with a costume parade, spooky stories in the haunted shack, nature bingo and “sweet science experiments” using Halloween candy.