September Conservation Forum

Seeking common ground and opportunities to build partnerships, representatives from local conservation organizations and sportsmen's clubs attended a workshop sponsored by the Friends of the Black River. The half-day forum was held at the Black River Falls Middle School, Saturday September 6th and began with Andy Ellingson, President of the Friends of the Black River, outlining the goals of the forum. "Black River Country is blessed with beautiful land and water resources and a wide diversity of local groups organized to help protect those resources. We hope that this forum will help identify common ground and build relations among the groups", noted Ellingson.

Next on the agenda, Rick Remmington from the Western Wisconsin Land Trust, shared the many different ways to protect important natural resources. Remmington said the most successful projects are those projects with multiple partners including lake districts, sportsman clubs, conservation organizations and local governments who come together with a common cause. Remmington addressed the crowd saying, "Partnerships among groups like yours are so important because you can do so much more with your combined efforts."

The next piece of the agenda was facilitated by Kathleen Wolski from the Department of Natural Resource. She asked participants to identify their organizations' mission and key successes. Many of the groups had common visions and goals but perhaps targeting slightly different resources or locale within the region.

The keynote presentation featured George Meyer, current director of the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation and former Secretary of the Department of Natural Resources. Wrapping up the forum with an inspiring discussion of how local Wisconsin groups and Wisconsin citizens are critically important to conservation and environmental protection in the State. "Local groups and local citizens are an integral part of Wisconsin’s strong conservation heritage and that heritage begins with the work of groups just like yours," stated Meyer. He closed his presentation with these words: "This is the time to bind together birders, anglers, sportsmen and conservation groups to preserve the Black and its watershed."

Participants shared a lunch provided by Subway Sandwiches of Black River Falls, agreeing to gather in the future to continue building on the partnerships formed.

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