Friends of the Arboretum to give new awards

An individual and a group whose efforts have restored native landscape in Dane County have been chosen for the Friends of the Arboretum‘s two new Leopold Restoration Awards.

Wayne Pauly will receive the John T. Curtis Award for career excellence in ecological restoration. The Curtis award, named after the UW botanist whose work resulted in the Arboretum’s 50-acre Curtis Prairie, is for individuals whose work has shown better ways to do restoration and to share that with the public.

The Sisters of Saint Benedict in Middleton will receive the Virginia M. Kline Award for excellence in community-based restoration. The Kline Award, named after the first UW ecologist, recognizes a group that has dedicated its efforts to bringing back natural communities.

Pauly and the Sisters of Saint Benedict follow in the footsteps of Aldo Leopold, after whom this award program is named. Leopold, author of Sand County Almanac, espoused his belief that people are a part of the land community as well as stewards of the land.

Pauly, Dane County Parks naturalist, has developed one of the most respected natural areas programs anywhere based on his knowledge and dedication to natural processes and native plant communities. During the past 25 years with Dane County, he has planted nearly 300 acres of entirely new prairie restorations and restored hundreds of other acres of woodland, wetland and other natural areas. He has also appeared on television programs, spoken at public seminars and written about prairie folklore.

Working from the Saint Benedict Center in Middleton, which overlooks the northern shore of Lake Mendota, the Sisters of Saint Benedict environmental restoration project helped improve the watershed. Their activities eliminated downstream siltation and chemical runoff from 200 acres of land that had been a major problem. This served as a catalyst for the Town of Westport to re-do the drainage ways through the Fox Bluff Subdivision, greatly reducing erosion problems. The sisters developed partnerships with civic, community, governmental and environmental groups and organizations to provide physical and financial assistance and expertise.

A distinguished panel of judges, representing a variety of areas of expertise in land restoration, selected the award winners based on nominations from across Wisconsin. Friends of the Arboretum board member Lyman Weible will present the $2,000 awards at a dinner Oct. 10. Tickets, $60, are available from Friends of the Arboretum, 263-7760.

The Aldo Leopold Foundation is a co-sponsor of the awards and Xcel Energy of Wisconsin is the corporate sponsor of the program. Proceeds will support Arboretum environmental education and outreach programs.