That talk can be seen at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RICTPEFbRh8
The talk introduced an optimistic community of eco-stewards.
Trying to fit the story into TED format, I was shocked by how much needed to be glossed over.
Below is some of the best stuff that was left out.
This post - "Part 1" - covers the first 22 slides of this 80-slide talk.
Under the photos in bold, are my approved TED words - that I was asked to memorize. (If you check the talk, you'll find that I flubbed many of them.)
The words underneath the bold are this post's additions,
clarifications, tidbits, apologies, etc.
On August 6, 1977, a dozen of us newly authorized volunteer stewards gathered our first rare seed. |
A little book of photos with an essay by Professor Robert Betz convinced me of the prairie's plight, needs, and some "how to". I gave speeches to any audience that would listen - and tours of these little. deteriorating prairie gems. Many people wrote letters to the officials supporting the idea of restoring these prairies. Finally, a phone call authorized us to go ahead. For our first "workday" - we gathered rare prairie seeds on a semi-abandoned military installation.
For our second "workday" on August 13th, (which is what's shown in the photo above), we planted those seeds in the three struggling "prairies" that were now under our care. We also pulled some weeds. We were off to a start.
Does "coast to coast, and across continents" (in bold, above) seem like self-puffery? That's what was said in the New York Times, TV specials, etc.
We initially called ourselves the North Branch Prairie Project. The dozen people who rose to the occasion that first day were responding to the 2.5-minute announcement I bargained to be permitted to deliver at a Sierra Club meeting. (I had begged for 5 minutes.) In the early years, we were just the handful of people who showed up weekly to work. But that would change - as the science developed - and we got our message right.
In time, the seeds we gathered and planted came to symbolize something new about this planet: we hold the future of its ecosystems in our hands. |
By the mid eighties, hundreds of prairies, woodlands, and wetlands would have groups of stewards doing what the North Branch folks had pioneered. We helped launch new initiatives in California, Massachusetts, Florida, Alaska, and many places in between. (The "across continents" part would come later.)
We now know that the natural richness of an ancient prairie Nature Preserve like this one at Somme – without skilled care … |
… would get blotted out and replaced entirely, by invasive brush. |
The pathetic photo above is what's left of a fine original prairie. Fire
had been withheld for so long that there was nothing left but buckthorn. This prairie had been prized by scientists - and strategized about by officials of the Forest Preserve District that owned it. But no one stopped its slide into invasive chaos. Back when the progressive degradation was noticed and provoked concern, officials seemed to think that irresistible natural forces were at work. Fire was considered by forest preserve staff (and most of the scientific community) to be bad for nature.
Or, to look from a little more hopeful angle, this invasive-choked woods, thanks to years of good work by generous stewards, could be and was … |
… restored with the diverse plants and animals that for eons constituted oak woods biodiversity, its ecosystem services, and its very “nature.” |
Here bur and scarlet oak and shagbark hickory trees have a shrub understory of hazelnut, plum, blackberries, and raspberries. The most obvious wildflowers in bloom are Joe-Pye-weed (purple) and woodland sunflower (yellow). Not obvious in this photo, these taller species are mixed on this site with more than 400 other uncommon or rare wildflowers and grasses.
Here, the TED talk sticks with this slide as I summarize the beginnings of the Volunteer Stewardship Network, sponsored by the Illinois Nature Conservancy and Illinois Nature Preserves Commission. I said:
"Six years after we began our mission, politics eliminated the entire budget of the Illinois Nature Preserves System. (Director George Fell and staff were fired in August 1982 because Fell wouldn't play ball with the bureaucrats and politicians.) Suddenly without staff to protect approximately 100 important preserves, the commissioners asked us to organize a volunteer program. Within a year, little fellowships like the one at Somme were protecting more than 60 preserves. These communities sprang up like mushrooms, because some people cared a lot.
Here, the TED talk sticks with this slide as I summarize the beginnings of the Volunteer Stewardship Network, sponsored by the Illinois Nature Conservancy and Illinois Nature Preserves Commission. I said:
"Six years after we began our mission, politics eliminated the entire budget of the Illinois Nature Preserves System. (Director George Fell and staff were fired in August 1982 because Fell wouldn't play ball with the bureaucrats and politicians.) Suddenly without staff to protect approximately 100 important preserves, the commissioners asked us to organize a volunteer program. Within a year, little fellowships like the one at Somme were protecting more than 60 preserves. These communities sprang up like mushrooms, because some people cared a lot.
"For example, recent college graduate John Sheerin signed up to be steward of a thousand-acre preserve southwest of Chicago. He requested $100 for tools. We offered 50 – if he could raise a match. John organized a fund-raiser beer party in his parents’ basement. He raised his match, and now, with 100 bucks and momentum, he asked the forest preserve to match that. They bought him $200 worth of tools, and let him keep his initial 100 for gloves, newsletter and other start-up costs. This is entrepreneurial America.
"Jean Farwell volunteered for McCormick Ravine in Lake Forest. A long-standing problem there had been massive garbage dumping. Jean quickly got the village to clean it up. We asked, “After all these years, how’d you convince them?” She replied, “My husband’s the mayor.” This is the suburbs.
Thus the Volunteer Stewardship Network was born.
Soon, we volunteers were being coached and inspired by some of the region’s most-respected ecosystem scientists and creative conservation officials. |
The photo above shows a meeting called by Eisenbeis after the Maintenance Department (a supervisor of which stands, back to the camera, in the foreground, above) unexpectedly mowed all the prairies we were restoring (and Eisenbeis had committed to protect) in 1978. Also in this photo are the Chief Forester (obscured, right) and me, taking notes, on the left.
We cut invasive brush, we pulled aggressive weeds and safely conducted controlled burns. |
For years, well qualified and supervised volunteer teams conducted much of the region's ecological burning over eight counties. No fire ever got out of control or did damage to any adjacent property (not through fire, smoke, nor any other impact). We may not have worn what are now considered proper uniforms, nor did we have advanced equipment. But we were smart and careful.
A new avocation, a new profession, and a new community began to take shape.
In time, many brush patches that had looked like this … |
Many volunteers learned a lot, made names for themselves, and were hired into this growing profession.
Many others preferred to "keep their day jobs" and do this work as an inspiring and peaceful hobby or avocation.
I chose the place we now call Somme Prairie Grove as the preserve where I’d be volunteer steward. |
But whenever I could get free, I was at Somme, pulling invasive weeds, gathering seeds, noticing failures and successes, struggling with off-road-vehicle challenges and development proposals, trying to figure out many levels of priorities, and empowering other volunteers to join the team. It was an important relationship to me.
Now – not just prairies - but savannas and woodlands that had been choked with buckthorn … |
... began to regain their richness and health. |
The hundreds of species of formerly-vanishing plants now, once again, support thousands of species of animals that are rare or uncommon in the modern landscape. |
Most of those thousands are insects. |
But many are species that the average visitor would be inspired by. For example, before we started ... |
... none of these birds built their nests or raised their young in the deteriorating Somme Woods. |
Indigo bunting, female carrying material for nest.
Eastern bluebird. This bird was so common in open woodlands, orchards, and around homes - decades ago - that it became the state bird for many states. It's much less common now - but breeds annually in both Somme Prairie Grove and Somme Woods.
Now – year after year – all of them do. |
This concludes notes on the first quarter of the TED talk (22 slides of 80). Part 2 should be ready in a week. Thanks for your interest.
More technical notes on this same talk are at http://woodsandprairie.blogspot.com/2017/06/ted-talk-tech-notes-1-discovering-eco.html
Photo credits:
Lisa Culp Musgrave took all those outstanding bird, dragonfly, and salamander photos.
Larry Hodak took the photo of Betz, Eisenbeis, etc. mentoring us.
Gloria Fountain took the photo of the "Somme Prairie Grove" sign and people.
1 comment:
Thanks for this great summary of the early years of the North Branch in this post, the TED talk, and the woods and prairie post. So important to record this history! A great read.
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