Pheasants Forever's education
If you are not receiving the Leopold Education Project’s Strides e-newsletter and would like to, please send your email address to criley@pheasantsforever.org. The Winter Strides will be coming out the first of December. If you do not want to receive it directly, but still want to check it out, come back to this website after December 1. Happy Thanksgiving!
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.
Exploring the Outdoors with Aldo Leopold CD
Now available in LEP Merchandise. The latest and greatest new LEP resource is “Exploring the Outdoors with Aldo Leopold,” an activities guide on CD. All activities are organized by themes, and through hands-on experiences teach about observation skills, stewardship, plants and animals, management and outdoor skills. The 16 easy-to-use activities include background information on the subject, a list of needed supplies, procedure cards and appropriate handouts. Also included is a power point on teaching digital photography. All of the activities relate to the writings of Aldo Leopold in A Sand County Almanac. This activities guide can be used by interpreters, naturalists, park rangers, zoo educators, teachers, youth group leaders, PF and QF chapter volunteers and others who want to offer a learning experience in an outdoor setting. The CD sells for $15 or $20 with a copy of A Sand County Almanac.
Product Number: 920100000
Ken Blomberg is a freelance writer and longtime resident of Eau Pleine, Wisconsin. He has been a scholar of Leopold and active with our Leopold Education Project. A 1976 graduate of UWSP in Resource Management, he is currently Executive Director of the Wisconsin Rural Water Association. Ken gave us permission to reprint a column he wrote recently.
We hope you’ll take some time in March to read or reread A Sand County Almanac – it is ageless! Please post your thoughts and/or actions regarding the teachings of Leopold.
By Ken Blomberg
If you have read my column long enough, you know that on occasion, I quote, or mention Aldo Leopold – philosopher, wordsmith, hunter, naturalist, scholar and poet – whose legacy remains in his words and the people he has influenced over the years. His book, A Sand County Almanac, published in 1949, continues to impact a new generation of conservationists across the country.
Since 2004, the first Wisconsin weekend of March has been dedicated to Aldo Leopold’s memory and marks the anniversary date of the Almanac’s “Foreword”, in which he wrote, “There are some who can live without wild things, and some who cannot. These essays are the delights and dilemmas of one who cannot.”
I got to talking to a high school kid about camping while I was in line at the grocery store the other day. It was like I was talking another language. He asked me if I ever went camping. I told him yes and that some of the best memories of my life have been spent camping. He laughed and said his computer connects him with all he needs outdoors..
That is why PF does what it does. The people, the volunteers care about what happens to land and simply our environment and more importantly, they care about making those connections with our future generations. This isn’t an option in my opinion, this is a necessity.
Left the store, just a little sad… felt bad for that kid… he sure is missing out…