Welcome to the
Bruce B. Purdy Nature Preserve and the "Zeroes to Heroes"
naturalist cache collection, a series of puzzle caches that
highlights some of the most influential Naturalists either from
Wisconsin or with many ties to the state. Our hope is that you will
come to learn a thing or two about Wisconsin's rich progressive
preservationist and protectionist history, spearheaded by these
incredible individuals who began their humble journeys with one
singular purpose: To pass on our rich natural heritage to our
offspring of tomorrow by doing our best to preserve it today.
The series is also an attempt to bolster the confidence of cachers
who may have never considered creating or placing a puzzle cache by
pairing them with some of the valley's most prolific puzzle and
traditional cache placers.
ALDO LEOPOLD
Leopold was born in Burlington, Iowa, in 1887, the son of a
middle-class manufacturer. As a boy he loved hunting and wild
nature, interests which led him to attend the Yale School of
Forestry, where he trained for work in the National Forest Service
and graduated in 1909. His early specialty was game management, and
by the 1930s he was a national authority on this subject.
In those days game was managed primarily for hunters, and the
principal means of increasing the stock was to control predators
and limit hunting seasons. Leopold and others began to realize that
habitat was even more essential to building game populations. He
had started to think as an ecologist. Consequently, in 1935, when
he and his wife Estella bought a run-down farm along the Wisconsin
River, in Sauk County, they began to use it not only as a weekend
and vacation place for their five children but also as an
experiment in land restoration. The farm had last been occupied by
a bootlegger, who left it a barren sand flat with only a chicken
coop on it. The Leopolds named the farm "the Shack" and began to
plant trees, shrubs, grasses, and a garden. He also began to write,
reflecting on what he had been taught and started to question the
assumptions of his training as a ranger. He published these
reflections, essays, polemic and anthropomorphic stories in what
would come to be cites as one of the most influential nature books
ever published.
No other single book of American nature writing – with the
exception of Walden – has achieved such lasting stature as
Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac. In one famous episode, he
writes of killing a female wolf early in his career as a forest
ranger, coming upon his victim just as she was dying,
"in time to watch a fierce green fire
dying in her eyes.... I was young then, and full of trigger-itch; I
thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, no wolves would
mean hunters' paradise. But after seeing the green fire die, I
sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a
view."
Much has been written about Aldo Leopold the forester, Leopold the
wildlife ecologist, Leopold the conservationist, Leopold the
environmental philosopher and educator and so on – but little about
Leopold the writer. This is your opportunity to get to know Leopold
the writer and philosopher.
Your final coordinates are N44°
2A.LDO
WLE°OP.OLD
A “Red lanterns have lighted my
way on many a pleasant hunt in many a region, but I think that
blackberries must first have learned how to glow in the sand
counties of central Wisconsin.”
L “When dandelions have set the
mark of May on Wisconsin pastures, it is time to listen for the
final proof of spring. Sit down on a tussock, cock you ears at the
sky, dial out the bedlam of meadowlarks and redwings, and soon, you
may hear it: the flight-song of the upland plover, just now back
from the Argentine.”
D “The tamaracks change from green
to yellow when the first frosts have brought woodcock, fox
sparrows, and juncos out of the north. Troops of robins are
stripping the last white berries from the dogwood thickets, leaving
the empty stems as a pink haze against the hill.”
O “When school children vote on a
state bird, flower or tree, they are not making a decision; they
are merely ratifying history. Thus history made Bur Oak the
characteristic tree of southern Wisconsin when the prairie grasses
first gained possession of the region.”
L “At this stage the seedlings of
plants too numerous to count and too young to recognize spring to
life from the damp warm sand under the green
ribbon.”
E “The deer walk up and down in
it, apparently just for the pleasure of feeling it
underfoot.”
O “In 1871, within a 50-mile
triangle spreading northwestward from my oak, 136 million pigeons
are estimated to have nested, and some may have nested in it, for
it was then a sapling 20 feet tall.”
P “This same year of 1879 saw the
first planting of carp in Wisconsin, and also the first arrival of
quack-grass as a stowaway from Europe.”
O “It is an irony of history that
the great powers should have discovered the unity of nations at
Cairo in 1943. The geese of the world have had that notion for a
longer time, and each March they stake their lives on its essential
truth.”
L “Bur Oak is the only tree that
can stand up to a prairie fire and live. Have you ever wondered why
a thick crust of corky bark covers the whole tree, even to the
smallest twigs? This cork is armor. But oaks were the shock troops
sent by the invading forest to storm the prairie; fire is what they
had to fight.”
D “Each year, after the midwinter
blizzards, there comes a night of thaw when the tinkle of dripping
water is heard in the land. It brings strange stirrings, not only
to creatures abed for the night, but to some who have been asleep
for the winter.”
To this day, we are still struggling to grasp and embrace what came
out of these reflections and narratives, the Leopold Land Ethic, as
we move into the second decade of the 21st century when more and
more land continues to be taken by large scale agriculture
operations, recognizing that it once again falls to the small scale
family farmer, the recreationist and the private property owner to
pick up the Almanac and look to our future.
Difficulty and terrain set for winter conditions at the time of
cache placement. Both should be slightly less in summer
months.
Geocaching Check-in Procedures:
All geocachers must sign-in at the Apple Creek YMCA (2851 E. Apple
Creek Rd- just across the road from the preserve) before geocaching
on the preserve. A guest sign-in book is located at the front desk.
You do not need to speak with staff to sign in nor do you need to
sign out after you are done caching. The sign in log will be
checked against the on-line logs to verify that this procedure is
being followed. If geocachers do not follow this procedure, all
geocaches will be removed from the Purdy Preserve. The Apple Creek
YMCA is open M-F 5:00 AM-9:00 PM, Sat 5:45 AM-4:00 PM, and closed
on Sundays. Geocaching must take place during these same
hours.
Preserve Rules as follows; Trails open dawn to dusk, Hike on
marked trails only, Carry-in and Carry-out, Respect property
boundaries, All users must possess a YMCA membership, guest pass,
or reside in Apple Hill Farms. The following are prohibited; Pets,
Bicycles, Motorized vehicles, Cross-country skiing, Smoking,
Drugs/Alcohol, Camping and Removal or destruction of plant or
animal life. Please enjoy the preserve responsibly while respecting
wildlife and other preserve users. All questions regarding this
preserve may be directed to the Apple Creek YMCA at 733-9622