Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge, named after Register cartoonist, focuses on hurricane recovery

At the J.N. "Ding" Darling Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island, Florida, Iowans are family.

The Hawkeye State sends hundreds — maybe thousands — of visitors each year to the 6,500-acre refuge named after conservationist and former Des Moines Register Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Jay Norwood Darling.

The 1,500-mile trip from Des Moines is well worth it to experience the southwest Florida barrier island's natural beauty and wildlife. But when the refuge's "favorite visitors" — how Birgie Miller, executive director of the “Ding” Darling Wildlife Society, refers to Iowans — return, the refuge may seem like a completely different place.

Hurricane Ian sheared mangroves, flattened observation platforms and littered the park with debris in late September. Nearly a month later, the refuge is still closed indefinitely while damage assessments and cleanup efforts continue.

"I just can't believe what has happened out here," Toni Westland, the refuge's park ranger, said.

Westland said the aftermath of Ian is unlike any other storm she has witnessed throughout her 20 years as a park ranger in southwest Florida. The 155 mph winds tore apart roofs, snapped telephone poles in half and blew around mountains of debris. Then the up to 10-foot storm surge engulfed the island and its surrounding coastal areas in the sea, flooding homes, businesses and wildlife habitats and leaving behind a trail of dead fish in its wake.

Despite the devastation, Miller and Westland both have hope for the future. While surveying the refuge, Miller said she saw a sliver of life. A mother raccoon darted by on a nearby tree, holding its baby in its mouth.

“The beauty of wildlife is that they are resilient,” she said.

This moment gave Miller confidence that Darling’s vision will persevere on Sanibel Island.

Who was 'Ding' Darling?

Darling was born in 1876 in Michigan to parents Clara Woolson Darling and Marc Warner Darling and moved to Sioux City in 1885 when his father, a minister, took over a new church. As a boy, Darling dreamed of becoming a doctor. He was also a talented artist who carried sketch pads and pencils wherever he went.

After graduating with a biology degree from Beloit (Wisconsin) College in 1900, he took a job as a reporter for the Sioux City Journal; shortly thereafter he switched to editorial cartooning.

In 1906, the same year he married Genevieve Pendleton of Sioux City, Darling began a long association with the Des Moines Register, with only a brief departure to live and work in New York City from 1911 to 1913. He preferred living in Des Moines and worked for the Register until officially retiring in 1949.

As an editorial cartoonist, Darling had few equals. Two of his cartoons — among the 20,000 produced in his long career – brought him Pulitzer Prizes in 1924 and 1943. Darling's nickname was originally a contraction of his last name: D'ing. Beginning in 1917, Darling's cartoons were syndicated by the New York Tribune and eventually were carried by as many as 150 newspapers.

Darling started work each day by reading half a dozen newspapers "to digest the spirit of the world." He had a sharp wit and was politically astute. Darling is perhaps best known for his cartoon of Jan. 7, 1919, "The Long, Long Trail," at the time of Teddy Roosevelt's death.

Later in Des Moines, the Darlings lived in a showplace home at 2320 Terrace Drive with their son, John, and daughter, Mary, but spent winters at their home on Captiva Island in Florida.

In 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt tapped Darling — an ardent conservationist — to run the U.S. Biological Survey, the predecessor of the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service. During his tenure, Darling designed the country’s first Federal Duck Stamp, which to this day remains the only stamp used as a tool for wildlife conservation. Darling, often credited with founding the national wildlife refuge system in the United States, helped obtain $20 million for wildlife projects and worked to buy and set aside 4.5 million acres for national refuges, of which now there are over 560 across the country, according to the FWS.

“[He] understood and valued the importance of conservation,” Miller said.

The much-honored Darling died of a heart ailment in 1962 and was buried in Sioux City. Following his death, the Sanibel National Wildlife Refuge, located near the Darling family's home on Captiva Island, was renamed in his honor.

An exhibit dedicated to Darling in the refuge’s visitor center was unharmed during September's hurricane, Miller said, though the building sustained notable damage and is still without power and air conditioning. The society’s office space located on the building's first floor was left completely flooded.

As the refuge recovers, Westland said Darling’s mission to protect and conserve remains at the forefront of their efforts.

“I think he would be happy that his legacy continues. The wildlife is resilient, it’s unbelievable, and so are we to be able to rebuild,” she said.

More:Do you know these famous Iowans? From Elijah Wood to characters like Hawkeye, there's a quite a few

Iowa Red Cross volunteers help in Florida

Before Hurricane Ian hit southwest Florida's shores in late September, Leslie Schaffer and her team of volunteers at the Iowa chapter of the American Red Cross were already preparing to help. Schaffer was one of 25 volunteers from the Iowa-Nebraska region to head down to southwest Florida to provide shelter and food to people affected. Since then, she said 53 Iowans have responded to the call for help, with more on the way in the coming weeks.

Schaffer helped run two shelters in the Fort Myers metro area, helping to provide shelter and food to over 1,000 people, many of whom lost everything in the storm. In addition to running the shelters and communicating with local officials, Schaffer helped lead special missions to ensure the health and safety of people in the area, which included a trip to the then-isolated Sanibel Island.

Schaffer is a veteran of the Red Cross, who has deployed to countless disaster areas over her 17 years of service, including after Hurricane Ida in Louisiana last year. But riding along the debris-ridden roads of Sanibel with the local fire department, Schaffer described a scene of "total devastation," unlike anything she had seen before.

"This was definitely the most devastating that I have seen and it really wiped out total neighborhoods, total communities, to the point where it will never be the same," she said.

While on Sanibel, Schaffer said she caught a glimpse of the Darling Wildlife Refuge, and thought back fondly to the original Darling cartoon created as a tribute to the Red Cross that hangs on the wall of their office in Des Moines.

Looking ahead, Schaffer said the region has a long road ahead to recovery, and she encourages any Iowans interested in volunteering to visit redcross.org.

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Preserving the past while looking to the future

Standing in the ruins of the former offices of the Darling Wildlife Society on Sanibel, Westland holds a pile of Darling’s original cards and drawings that he sent to friends over the holidays, now damp and stained.

But Westland refuses to dwell on the negatives. Instead, she is thankful for all the history that did survive.

Three months prior to the storm, Westland said she sent many of Darling’s original works and artifacts, including his drawing desk and his glasses, to the FSW’s National Conservation Training Center to be archived.

“I’ve worked here for 20 years and I love him and his family," she said. “... Thank God we got that stuff out and now it will forever be saved.”

Both Miller and Westland said that the island and refuge may take months, or even up to a year, to recover and reopen to the general public. Yet, they are both determined to live out Darling’s vision and continue to promote conservation across southwest Florida.

This week, the society will restart its “mission critical work” through the Wildlife on Wheels initiative, which brings a 36-foot mobile trailer classroom to schools across five counties in southwest Florida. Westland said the society also plans to move forward with its annual J.N. Ding Darling cartoon contest, in which elementary school students submit their own cartoons inspired by Darling’s.

Westland said the refuge and its volunteers are also curating mindfulness and meditation programming for residents of Sanibel, many of whom have spent the past weeks tirelessly cleaning out their homes and helping their neighbors.

“That's what Ding would want — that we continue to educate,” Westland said.

As for the refuge itself, Miller said she is confident it will survive and will one day soon welcome back visitors from around the world to take in its serene natural landscapes.

“One day, it will ... again be an amazing place for people to go to understand the importance of land and conservation,” she said.

More:Iowa companies send help to victims of Hurricane Ian in southwest Florida

Information from USA Today and the Des Moines Register archives was used in this article.

Francesca Block is a breaking news reporter at the Des Moines Register. Reach her at FBlock@registermedia.com or on Twitter at @francescablock3.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Register cartoonist's passion for conservation lives on in Florida