Scott and Susan Freeman on their land
Carl Leopold
Photos courtesy Scott and Susan Freeman
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When scientist Aldo Leopold bought a derelict Wisconsin corn farm in 1935 and began to restore the land, he didn't know that his project would inspire future generations of conservation scientists. Nor did he realize that he was starting a family tradition of caring for the land that his children would carry forward. Or that a granddaughter born five years after his death would eventually bring that passion for restoration to her own family's land on the continent's west coast.
Last month we reported on the North American Migratory Bird Joint Venture Conservation Champion Award received by Aldo's granddaughter, Susan Leopold Freeman, and her husband Scott Freeman, for their work as private landowners in the Tarboo watershed on Washington's Olympic Peninsula. In this article we explore Scott and Susan's experience as private landowners engaged in a larger conservation and restoration effort.
Aldo Leopold's legacy
Scott and Susan met in the 1970s at the Aldo Leopold Reserve in Wisconsin, where Susan was painting from the shack where her grandfather wrote A Sand County Almanac, and Scott was a Leopold Foundation intern. "My grandfather bought a corn farm gone bust in 1935," says Susan."The farmhouse had burned down and the land was just corn stubble and blown, sandy soil."
Over the years, Aldo and his family restored the original prairie, woodlands and wetlands. Aldo's children, including Susan's father Carl, established the Leopold Foundation in order to preserve the setting and continue the work of exploring humanity's relationship to the land. "I didn't think much about it when I was growing up," said Susan. "Working on the land this way was just part of our family life."
Private landowners: key conservation partners
Susan and Scott eventually married and moved to Washington state. Over the years they dreamed of being able to do restoration work on some land of their own. In 2004 they were ready to begin the search, looking all over the northwest before deciding on a parcel in the Tarboo Creek watershed. "The lynchpin for our decision," says Scott "was that we could be part of a larger effort. There's a nice community of private landowners, nonprofit organizations and public agencies working in the watershed and the estuary, and lots of support at the local, state and federal level."
"In Tarboo, the public agencies and non-profits really see the possibilities for synergy with private landowners," he says. "Susan and I and our sons are working in one short section along the creek, but we know that others are working up and down the watershed and in the estuary, so it's exciting to be part of something larger."
Scott notes that private landowners often wonder, "What will happen to our land after we are gone?" Outreach is important: letting them know they can be part of a larger effort by including them in tours of conserved land, informing them about conservation easements, and especially building trust through clarity and open communication.
"Private landowners don't always know how to tie in to efforts like this," says Susan. "It really helps when there's an effort to bring all the landowning entities—public and private—together in the collaborative effort." Scott adds, "Private landowners often feel most comfortable hearing about conservation options from their friends and neighbors."
Revisiting the legacy
Susan's dad, Carl Leopold, loved visiting the land on Tarboo Creek. "One day," says Scott, "he and Susan were standing by the newly restored creek, and Susan said ‘the salmon ought to be returning here one of these days.' Just then a big coho swam by, as if to say, ‘Yes, we're here!'" Several years later, looking at the trees that Scott, Susan and their sons had planted, Carl said, "you know this, is exactly what we did 60 years ago as a family in Wisconsin. What we started is being carried on."
The conservation cooperation in the Tarboo watershed and estuary is exactly the kind of effort that joint ventures promote—bringing together diverse partners to accomplish what would be difficult or impossible for any single group to achieve alone. Susan recently reflected on the experience of attending the Migratory Bird Joint Venture 25th Anniversary celebration in Washington D.C., and accepting the Conservation Champion Award. "Aldo would have been so pleased to see all of these people engaged in doing the work he saw as so important."
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Newly completed Hawaii Wildlife Center
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"Ultimately what the Hawai'i Wildlife Center will do is create a place of hope for all of us who love and care so deeply about Hawai'i's beauty. This isn't just a refuge for native wildlife, this is a refuge for all of us, our spirit, our hope that we can help to reverse the destructive impacts we've had on Hawai'i's wildlife, its environment and ecology." (Nainoa Thompson,Polynesian Voyaging Society Director)
So opens the website of the new Hawaii Wildlife Center, the first treatment facility in the Hawaiian and Central Pacific Islands to offer emergency response for catastrophic events affecting native bird populations. November 19, 2011 marked the opening ceremony for the Center's state-of-the-art treatment facility. At this new treatment facility the mission to protect, conserve, and aid in the recovery of Hawaii's native wildlife through hands-on treatment, training, research, science education and cultural programs will be carried out.
The $3 million, 4,500 sq. ft. treatment facility contains a wildlife intake & treatment room, several holding and isolation areas, washing and drying rooms, food preparation area, research lab, and laundry center, and is accompanied by an outdoor recovery yard and community outreach and interpretive area. The lobby provides education materials with videos and posters to inform the public of the need for native bird protection and critical care in Hawaii. The center is located on Hawaii Island, in the northern-most district of Kohala at the community of Kapa'au.
Meeting the needs of Hawai'i's native wildlife
In the opening ceremony, Jim Kraus of the Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge expressed his heartfelt thanks for the facility and its crucial role in aiding the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages 22 national wildlife refuges within the Pacific Islands. As stewards of important bird nesting habitats throughout the Pacific, the Service welcomes the partnership that the Hawaii Wildlife Center provides as respondent to catastrophic events such as oil spills, avian botulism epidemics, and natural disasters. With all but one of Hawai'i's native bird species federally listed as either endangered or threatened, population numbers are already critically low. When catastrophic events hit, increased risk of extinction is imminent. A mobilized recovery facility that can respond quickly is potentially a species-saving asset.
Funding and support: the next challenge
Providing care for sick, injured, contaminated and orphaned native wildlife (birds & bats) is no casual business and will demand trained staff and emergency funding sources. This is the next challenge for Center Director Linda Elliott, who has already dedicated well over a decade of work in preparation for the opening of this facility but has more hurdles to cross to actually open the doors for bird rescue and treatment. Staffing the facility comes next and that challenge requires a dedicated funding source to retain the highly skilled and qualified professionals necessary to effectively treat injured and traumatized wildlife.
Once the HWC begins taking in wildlife, birds will receive individualized care based on their own recovery treatment program, a process that could last for a few weeks or up to several months. When a sick or injured native bird is reported, it will be stabilized, set up in a travel kennel and transferred by car or by air from anywhere in the Hawaiian archipelago to the Center, utilizing the services of volunteer drivers and aircraft pilots and other available transport options. In emergency situations getting to the facility will be facilitated by helicopter access at the back door of the compound. By road, trucks as big as eighteen-wheelers can access the intake room via a paved entry ramp area.
Once the birds arrive at the facility, they will go through intake exams, stabilization, decontamination, and rehabilitation, all leading up to their eventual release. In addition, the Center will continue enhancing the quality of wildlife care throughout the Hawaiian archipelago through partnerships with both state wildlife agencies and other animal care groups.
Linda, a dedicated and skilled rehabilitation specialist herself, has extensive experience with bird care and recovery. She originated native wildlife rehabilitation programs for the state of Hawaii and has worked 18 oiled wildlife responses worldwide. Linda has been the driving force behind establishing the Hawai'i Wildlife Center non-profit status, building its successful community support, designing and constructing the facility, and will now address the mobilization of the facility with staff.
Those interested in contributing to the needs of the Hawai'i Wildlife Center can visit their website and check out the wish-lists, donations, and volunteer sections. Or just go to the center to learn more about the non-profit and its work. You can also view segments of the November 19th opening ceremony.
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