WISCONSIN'S ADOPTED SONS: CONSERVATIONISTS JOHN MUIR & ALDO LEOPOLD

This lecture is FREE to PLATO members and their guests. No registration is required.

Professors Craig Davis and Bill Eisinger will speak about John Muir (1838-1914) and Aldo Leopold (1887-1948) during the times each conservationist lived, studied and worked in Wisconsin.

Davis calls John Muir the "Wondering Wanderer" due to Muir's intense need to see what lay over the hill or around the bend.  Without the benefit of much formal education and training, Muir was able to observe and write about natural and industrial systems as he wondered how and why they worked.

Aldo Leopold was very different from Muir, notes Eisinger, but they shared many visions and goals. For example, Muir was a poor kid with little formal education, but Leopold was a rich kid who earned two degrees from Yale. Leopold’s recognition of the complexity and inter-relatedness of natural systems led to his writing the first game management text that changed how we think about relationships between nature, farming and hunting.

Craig Davis is Professor Emeritus of Environment Studies at The Ohio State University. 

Bill Eisinger is Professor Emeritus of Biology, Santa Clara University. 

They both now live in the Madison area and co-presented the PLATO course "Wisconsin Origins of the Modern Environmental Movement" in Fall 2016.

Free parking is available in designated spaces at Oakwood Village - University Woods outdoors and underground.  To access underground parking:

ŸEnter at the stoplight on Mineral Point Rd.; take the left fork & go to the SECOND driveway on the right.  Look for the sign indicating parking.  Press the button located next to the garage door to speak to attendant; say you are there for a PLATO Lecture. Park in any available Visitor space.

Questions? contact Aleta Murry at 608 276-8531 or a-murray@sbcglobal.net