Searching the almanac : !`` Rogers library dedicates day to reading the works of a conservationist and author.
Posted on Sunday, March 2, 2008
ROGERS — “ A dawn wind stirs on the great marsh. With almost imperceptible slowness it rolls a bank of fog across the wide morass. ”
With those words from the late Aldo Leopold’s “ Marshland Elegy, ” an essay included in Leopold’s book, “ A Sand County Almanac, ” Jason Luscier began the day-long tribute Saturday to the conservation author at Rogers Public Library.
A doctoral student studying wetlands, Luscier said Leopold has figured heavily in his career preparations, the author standing as the epitome of the field.
“ His essay ‘ The Land Ethic’ — that’s the way wildlife conservation should go, ” Luscier said.
And Mina Marsh read from “ On a Monument to a Pigeon”:
“ We have erected a monument to commemorate the funeral of a species. It symbolizes our sorrow. We grieve because no living man will see again the onrushing phalanx of victorious birds, sweeping a path for spring across the March skies, chasing the defeated winter from all the woods and prairies of Wisconsin. ”
With 40 years experience in the field of conservation, Marsh said the passage spoke to her, reminding her of a friend, the last to see a prairie chicken in Arkansas.
And Ron Duncan read from “ The Adler Fork”:
“ We found the main stream so low that the teeter-snipe pattered about in what last year were trout riffles, and so warm that we could duck in its deepest pool without a shout. ”
In a nearby room, Gordon Bradford had the children sawing wood and crafting from the gifts of nature, tributes to Leopold and the goals he espoused.
And Aland Bland read from “ Smokey Gold”:
“ Hunts differ in flavor, but the reasons are subtle. The sweetest hunts are stolen. To steal a hunt, either go far into the wilderness where no one has been, or else find some undiscovered place under everybody’s nose. ”
Bland, a park ranger at Beaver Lake, still chuckles at Leopold’s “ very clever, very dry humor. ” He hadn’t read the book for many years, but he found it still stirred deep remembrances.
“ Just to read the book again brings back fond memories, ” he said.
And Betsy Reithemeyer read from “ Prairie Birthday”:
“ He who steps unseeing on May dandelions may be hauled up short by August ragweed pollen; he who ignores the ruddy haze of April elms may skid his car on the fallen corollas of June catalpas. ”
While others were pursuing wildlife conservation, Reithemeyer was seeking conservation of another sort: of reading and learning, of the written word, of the city’s library.
“ This library’s really important to me, ” she said.
And Jenny Harmon read from “ 65290 ”:
“ I hope that in his new woods, great oaks full of ants ’ eggs keep falling all day long, with never a wind to ruffle his composure or take the edge off his appetite. And I hope that he still wears my band. ”
And with those words, the first — and hopefully, said the participants, annual — Rogers Reads Leopold event.
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