Very Nice Time Last Nite at the RGS banquet...

Around the late 1970's... finishing up my studies

at UW-Green Bay, a returning student from my stint

serving in the Navy and on GI-Bill...in the

benevolent wisdom of a city alderman and the Army

Corps of Engineers, it was decided that Atkinson's

Marsh would be drained and turned into an industrial

park and the Tower Bridge built to divert traffic

flow.

I was personally outraged...and together with a

some lifelong hunting friends of mine loving the
outdoors and knowing what was about to be
destroyed...lost ...we helped amass an attempt to
thwart this disastrous plan. Meetings at the WBAY
channel 2 building where hundreds ofsportsmen
showed up. Working with help of the DNR fronting
information, and speaking on the Kathy Hall

Program on television out of Kentucky, aired in 29

states.

I posted example after example where destroying the

wetlands in the lower state's Mississippi river

valley were causing major flooding, sand bagging.

How Lake Okeechobee in Florida created a wetland

for the purpose of saving their lake's purity. On

and on. That it takes 5,000 years for nature to

create a marsh, and that these are nature's natural

filtration system for purification.

The end judgment on the city council was that marshes

are only good for crazy duck hunters, ducks, muskrats

and the breeding of mosquitos!

In finding a picture of the Tower Bridge above, I

tried googling for a picture of Atkinson's Marsh, and

sadly...couldn't even find a reference for such. In

looking for a picture of skies darkened with ducks

so that the light of day was over taken, I could find

no pictures...and yet, this is what it was like as a

teenager in Green Bay.

In those days...looking up the major flyways of

migration flights, the bay of Green Bay and Great

Lakes was a major flyway. From nearly 4.5 million

ducks per year, reduced for a long long time to a mere

125,000....!

Think I didn't laugh when shorelines were flooded for

a number of years, and sandbagging became common?

Now...the whole area is built up...vast shorelines

developed. Private communities built up around man

made lakes...and long gone the sign that once what

was wild, once what held awe, the sublime...is gone.

Forever gone.

I am not against the free market...nor am I a tree

hugging touting save the planet type, but I am for

responsible good science stewardship.

So...what that experience did for me back now several

decades made it apparent that as my part of "WE the

People"...I could make a difference. Even if it is

small. By using my talents...donating works of art

to raise money for Ducks Unlimited, Whitetails

Unlimited, Trout Unlimited and the Ruffed Grouse

Society...I can in someway slow down this trend of

modernity to destroy.

I am glad to say that a very fine family partnered

with me in that effort last night as I was once

more honored and privileged to be the attending

guest artist for the Ruffed Grouse Society.

By their winning bid on this work, greater opportunity

for the survival, the health of ruffed grouse, woodcock

and a song bird is assured. Habitat improvements,

needed tree cuts, management.

Bad science and fringe mania would prevent the cutting

of forests, however old growth tree forests are less

efficient in purifying air (for one), and prevent life

sustaining light from hitting the forest floors, meaning

that the floors become barren...not providing the foods

needed for thriving wildlife.

We're not talking clear cutting here...we are talking

controlled managed over-site, creating new growth of

aspen, popples...and fruit bearing trees that support

many wildlife species.

It is not my intent to boast when I say over the

years my contributions have raised tens of thousands

of dollars so that my children's children might see

and experience the wonder of nature, but if I as one

individual can make some difference how be it small,

then what is possible for anyone reading this as well?

Together...WE THE PEOPLE can make a much bigger

difference, and perhaps save the Atkinson marshes of

tomorrow!

For all my artist friends perhaps reading along, consider
this-

"It is Beauty that magnetizes the contemplative, and

it is the duty of the contemplative to give beauty away

so that the rest of the world may, in the midst of

squalor, ugliness, and pain, remember that beauty is

possible"   Joan Chittister

Those interested in learning more about the Ruffed

Grouse Society...here is their home website-

Ruffed Grouse Society

and others-

Ducks Unlimited
Trout Unlimited
Whitetails Unlimited