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Published in The Spectator, the student newspaper of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire;
Monday, February 9, 2001
Earth Week brings environmental awareness
By Bill Olson
Wolves, litter cleanup and land
preservation will be part of the Outdoor Recreation Center’s Earth
Week celebration at UW-Eau Claire starting after the April recess.
Activities will begin on April 17 with a cleanup of the Chippewa River
bank.
“We’ll supply the garbage bags,” said Daniel Langlois, assistant
director of recreation for the university. “Then we’ll walk to the
river and go up and down the banks picking up what we find.”
There’s always plenty of litter each year, he said.
The Outdoor Recreation Center is sponsoring this activity with the
Residence Hall Environmental Action Group, Langlois said.
RHEAG’s president, sophomore Kathy Lubin, said the group also
participates in the adopt a highway program, which cleans up litter and
plants trees.
“We could do so much more if we had more members,” Lubin said.
Lubin said she joined the group because she had been involved in
environmental activities in high school.
People helping with the Chippewa River bank cleanup will meet at 4 p.m.
on April 17 behind the Hilltop Recreation Center.
All campus and city residents are invited to help with the cleanup, as
well as attend the other events, Langlois said.
One of the events is a presentation by Adrian Wydeven, the wolf
biologist for the Department of Natural Resources in Park Falls. He will
discuss timber wolves in Wisconsin at 6:30 April 19 in Hilltop’s
basement.
According to Wydeven, wolves disappeared from Wisconsin in the late
1950s and were able to return in the 1970s.
Wydeven said he will explain how the wolf population expanded, where
they live, their biology, ecology and future in Wisconsin.
“I’ve been the wolf biologist for the state since 1990, and since
then, the wolf population has grown from 34 when I started to about
250,” Wydeven said. “It’s been a pleasure to see the population
expand.”
Some people and groups don’t like wolves, he said, so the state has
tried to balance the concerns of both supporters and opponents while
allowing for a healthy wolf population to exist in the state.
Wolves could help control the deer population in heavily forested areas,
such as the north woods, Wydeven said.
“But if they were living in highly agricultural areas, they probably
would be killing livestock and pets, along with deer,” he said.
Wild wolves, however, have not killed people in North America in the
last two centuries, he said.
There have been cases in which wolves in Canada have bitten people,
Wydeven said.
“This happens in camping areas where people are throwing food scraps
out to the wolves,” he said.
Land preservation also will be discussed.
Two families will speak about their decision to preserve their land for
future generations instead of reaping huge profits by selling it to
developers, Langlois said.
The Catherine Wolter and Martin Castleberg families will explain how and
why they decided their land should be part of conservation efforts
rather than shopping malls. They will speak at 5 p.m. April 19 in
Hilltop’s basement.
Earth Week is a celebration of Earth Day, which former Wisconsin Gov.
Gaylord Nelson founded in 1969 while serving in the U.S. Senate,
according to the Wilderness Society’s Web site, http://www.wilderness.org.
The first Earth Day was April 22, 1970.
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