Note: There's an UPDATE of this history here.
It seems there’s nothing else like it on the planet – a thousand experts and activists getting together for nature.
It seems there’s nothing else like it on the planet – a thousand experts and activists getting together for nature.
These days it’s called “WILD THINGS – a Chicago Wilderness conference
for people and nature.” But it goes back to the mid seventies
and, under various names, has been run with volunteer leadership every two
years ever since, decade after decade.
Two students of Aldo Leopold and Jens Jensen started this treasured biennial “happening.” (These early leaders, Doug and Dot Wade, also happen to
have been the first people to advocate for what’s now called Nachusa Grasslands
– the subject of this year’s keynote.)
Doug Wade carried on the Leopold legacy as director of
Northern Illinois University’s “Taft Field Campus” near Oregon, Illinois. He liked
the North American Prairie Conference (also first held in north central
Illinois) but thought it was too academic and removed from the public. So in
1975, he and a few others launched something humbly called “The Northern
Illinois Prairie Workshop.” They gave it a modest name on purpose. Wade and
friends did not want it to be an exercise of lofty professors reading papers.
They did want both professors and people with dirt under their fingers thinking
together. They sought give and take among whoever had the most to offer.
It was a time when people like Robert Betz and Ray Schulenburg
were inspiring people with “prairie fever.” Activists were motivating colleges,
public schools, forest preserves, and individuals to find, save, and plant
prairies.
Wade convinced his field campus to sponsor the first one –
but they hit a snag with the administration on projected numbers. The price was
designed to just break even- and include lunch – but the administrators said that
then he had to promise at least fifty participants. He was nervous about whether
anyone would come, but made the commitment, and when the registration reached
150 people he was told to close registration. That was all the lunches the facility
could handle. Wade then broadcast the news: “Registration is still open. But from
now on, bring your own lunch,” and a phenomenon began.
But it the real breakthrough came with the third workshop,
held at Fermilab in 1978. This was the first one held in the Chicago region and
the first to combine the Wade volunteers with the Betz and Schulenburg crowd.
Part of the magic was the fancy Fermilab amphitheatre and facilities. The
spirit of the day was as ancient as nature and as new as smashing electrons.
Floyd Swink gave the keynote – learned, hilarious, filled with local expertise,
and given urgency by how fast the prairie was being lost.
One key to the spirit of the workshops was the coming
together of communities. Dot Wade had established Illinois’ first prairie
nursery and bookstore. She and many dedicated volunteers sold the books,
erected displays, and made new people feel welcome. Another motive force
carried on from the first meetings was the participatory “workshop” mentality.
It worked. It inspired and changed lives. Every two years
thereafter, Doug campaigned in the planning committees (and others picked
carried on that spirit) that we needed discussion, creativity, interchange in
the sessions. And the workshops did creatively change with the times and
focused on the cutting edge. One celebrated the newly completed the Illinois
Natural Areas Inventory and the campaign to save those last 610 natural areas,
which now included not just prairies but also wetlands, forests, and sand
savannas. This workshop was called “The Precious Few” starting a pattern of
name changes as needed.
(I wonder if anyone has a complete collection of
“Proceedings” and programs. It would lend itself to some interesting analysis.
I suppose I may, but how long would it take me to find them.)
When some people figured out that our tallgrass savannas and
open oak woodlands had been misunderstood and largely missed by the Inventory,
the conference for one biennium became the Midwest Oak Savanna Conference.
Another big change came when The Nature Conservancy hired
some of the leaders and began to provide staff help. Crucially, the staff
involved came out of the Wade-inspired movement, and the biennial
workshops/conferences continued in the same format. That is, after one big
“keynote” – we would divide into many (these days a dozen) simultaneous “concurrent
sessions” that allowed discussion and interaction.
One challenge came when the Conservancy’s grass roots staff
mostly moved to Audubon and Chicago Wilderness was being encouraged to take
leadership. But CW turned out to be more interested in conferences for
professionals on weekdays. Those are good, but the events that served both pros
and volunteers – and nourished the community and constituency – were still
important. During those times, Audubon staff and others scrambled to hold
together the volunteer stewards groups, educational programs, intern support,
and many other components of the broader community, including the big grass
roots conferences. Audubon renamed them “Wild Things – a Chicago Wilderness
conference for people and nature.” And on they went.
This year is the first time in many years that the
conference didn’t have staff support from Audubon or the Conservancy. But many
of the people who’ve organized everything in recent years rose to the occasion.
They found Friends of the Forest Preserves to be the fiscal agent, and we’ll
see the result this Saturday, January 31, 2015.
There’s a lot more of this history that’s worth telling, but
perhaps this is a start. Here’s hoping for continued creative initiative – as
we look toward 2017 and beyond.
I am still hoping for printed or videoed info shared at these sessions when the conference is over. maybe articles for Chicago Wilderness magazine reinvention. i just recently reviewed info I gathered from two years ago and find it pertinent during the no-work bad weather days.I still have my Midwest Oak Savanna mug! Jacqui
ReplyDeleteJacqui, I hear you. (And my savanna conference mug is one of my favorites.) Some years there have been excellent proceedings and/or videos. It all depends on how many effective volunteers there are on that part of the team. But sometimes we could do better at spreading the word on what's needed and how this community works. That is another challenge for after the conference.
ReplyDeleteThis history is valuable. I have run into and studied online materials from some of the earlier incarnations, but never realized the common thread ran from there to Wild Things. Here's to the next forty years of advocacy and stewardship!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Mark. I like your spirit.
ReplyDelete