This is a ONE TIME DEAL event: You may bring 3 people for the price of ONE if you are willing to share the resources. (In this tough economic time, OSA is looking to help interested folks get trained in the Leopold Education Project. Grab two buddies, split the $35 charge and share your books and you can join us for this training. Getting the message out is the most important part!) Hurry, spaces are filling fast.  This deal is restricted to 1 group per agency/organization, unless we have space left over.

Call Teri Rogoway at (408) 224-7476 to reserve your space now. (If you want your own books and can pay the $35,  let me know and I will order them for you.)

Start Date: 2010-11-6
Start Time: 10:00
End Date: 2010-11-7
End Time: 15:00

Model Magic Santa Sighting!

Photo U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

“The drama of the sky dance is enacted nightly on hundreds of farms, the owners of which sigh for entertainment, but harbor the illusion that it is to be sought in theaters. They live on the land, but not by the land.”    – Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac

By Celeste Prussia, Missouri LEP Coordinator

Finally. I’ve been listening for years. I even shot one 20 years ago from the daylight sky of an eastern Connecticut woodland when I knew very little about the “Timber Doodle” tumble. My self-imposed, lifetime bag limit for that species ended with that bird.

Last month, while Janice Greene (former Missouri LEP state coordinator and my current boss) was at the Bull Shoals Field Station with her Winter Ecology class for an overnight, I stepped outside my home just after sunset and heard the peents, twitters, and twips that always turn my head with eyes skyward. After trying to spot the elusive “Big Mud Snipe” for about five minutes, I thought to call Janice and suggest she get the class, about 50 miles away to the southwest, outside to listen and watch for “Big-headed Snipe.” Neither of us saw “Woodhen” in flight although I heard at least eight “Hookum Pake” being quite vocal during my half-hour vigil. Since that night, February 20, 2010, I’ve continued to hear numerous “Wood Snipe” every few nights when I happened outdoors near dusk. I’d hear “Whistler” continue to peent on these moonlit nights during the waning-to-full and now-waxing moon.

“Tonight’s the night” played in my brain as my eyes and ears feasted on the music and sky dance of the “Labrador Twisters” that are making Possum Ranch their haven and dance hall. Once I saw the first “Bog-bird” streak across the rosy-peach glow above the sunset horizon and through the filigreed silhouettes of intervening walnut trees, I understood the beginning pattern of the upward flight. It was much more horizontal than vertical which I didn’t expect. The first flight I saw was magnificent and, oh, so exciting! I caught a couple more flights before losing about every-other “Bogsucker” beyond the tangle of the overhead branches. As each “Whistling Snipe” began its wide upward-curving flight, I found that if I lost sight of the flyer on its first turn through the walnut branches above me, I could not again pick up its path even though I could clearly hear and believed I’d pinpointed its vocal location. Just try making a sound map of these babies!

At least four male “Night Partridge” were taking turns in the air, sometimes synchronously at different locations. On one occasion, a pair of “Night Peck” passed by me within 20 feet and about four-to-five feet above the ground heading for the horses’ pasture. Wow! Two other “Big-eyes,” independent of one another, passed in a similar manner from different directions. Wow, squared! Just as I started to rise from my garden seat to call it a night, another flight plan was filed and undertaken. Like a good passenger, as advised by the captain, I took my seat and fastened my seat belt for the duration of the flight. Wow, cubed!

Thus I mark this calendar day, not only that of my brother’s birth, but for 2010 I shall count today, March 3rd, as the first day I ever saw the sky dance. Had Aldo Leopold not described the flight of the American Woodcock as seen through his eyes in the frequent company of his family, I might not have been so compelled to persist in my pursuit of the sky dance vision as performed by the “Blind Snipe,” Though my ears have frequently perceived the music, only tonight have I conjoined my senses of hearing and sight to behold the beauty of the Sky Dance.

Landscape Scene Investigators from Exploring the Outdoors with Aldo Leopold CD.

This outstanding collection of activities is a wonderful tool to share with your students, scout groups, nature centers, parks, zoos and chapter youth gatherings. Specifically designed for those working with youth and families in a non-formal educational setting, LEP’s new activities guide is a great way to get your audience connected to nature while passing on Aldo Leopold’s concept of land ethics.

This guide features a number of hands-on outdoor activities in addition to a lesson/cd on digital photography. Don’t hesitate, order now and share the great outdoors with your audiences!

Click here to download a sample activity “Landscape Scene Investigators” from the Exploring the Outdoors with aldo Leopold CD.

Exploring the Outdoors with Aldo Leopold CD now available in LEP Merchandise.

Leopold bench instructions.

This past summer we found the Leopold bench to be an excellent fundraiser and service project. As a fundraiser, a bench was used for a raffle at both the National LEP Conference in Wisconsin and the Focus on Forever Workshop for PF/QF chapter leaders in Nebraska. In Nebraska, the raffle raised $645 for Nebraska’s LEP programs. Raffle tickets were sold for $10 or 3 for $20.

The National Youth Leadership Council built six Leopold benches as a service project for the Norris School District in Lincoln, Nebraska. Each bench had a plaque (donated by Awards Unlimited in Lincoln) and the benches were placed around the school. Before building the benches, the 14 youth learned about Aldo Leopold and his legacy to wildlife management and conservation. Afterwards, they read one of his essays while sitting on the benches.

Click here to download the directions pdf.

Just a thought…

Leopold has been an influence on conservation and his legacy should be continued.

I look forward to taking Leopold’s legacy and sharing it with other children and educators.

I want to teach in a way that will have a greater meaning and a greater impact.

I have learned so much more about Leopold and the importance of this man who came from my hometown. I want to teach what I have learned to the students so they have a better appreciation of this “hometown boy” who did good things!

Every experience we have to learn is our chance to teach the next person. This weekend has added to my “drive” to make moments “teachable moments”

Teachable moments possesses the magic of “ah-ha!”, the sparkle in the “students” eye and a glimmer of hope that we are making a difference. Being here this weekend has shown me there are people out there that are like-minded and will continue to educate others on the magic of nature.

I am also inspired to use Leopold’s lessons in teachable “moments.” We need to remember we “live with the land, not on the land.” To live on something is like being a parasite where you take without giving back. We need to be one with the land, as said by a “river rat” that lived with the Mississippi River. We need to act this out and be good mentors to the people we reach and come in contact with.

It is refreshing to see people with this amount of passion for the concepts behind LEP. I really think this is a snowball getting ready to roll down a hill, picking up countless people with a renewed “land ethic” along its path.

I believe it is great that people with a variety of backgrounds come to this and how all of us can take what we learned and give that knowledge to other people. I think the whole experience was wonderful!

This is my second time doing a workshop and every time we all learn something new from each other!

Learning and sharing ideas, experiences and love of nature is good for the soul and passing all of this on is good for the future…

…A future like Aldo would have envisioned.

Yes, these workshops are educational and at times can be pretty intense. After all, a lot of material is covered in a short amount of time. But above all, these workshops serve to inspire those who attend them, as evidenced here. And really, without inspiration, how effective is an education?

Cost for the workshop is $125 which includes food and lodging as well as a classroom set of LEP teaching materials.

For more information or to register for the workshop, contact Chris Lee, Iowa’s LEP State Coordinator, at (660) 216-2520 or via email at chrislee0515@yahoo.com.