How a state grant could help Burlington honor father of wildlife management Aldo Leopold

Collin and Jessica Gehringer guided their son Archer along the leaf-covered rocks and tree roots of Burlington's Black Hawk Trail on Thursday as they made their way toward Black Hawk Spring.

The Mediapolis family had entered the trail system via an unmarked entrance near Crapo Park's Hawkeye Log Cabin and carefully made their way down a path marked only by fence posts spaced about six feet apart and connected by sagging cable cords.

Upon reaching the gully, the fence posts came to an end, and the Gehringers gingerly made their way forward, with Collin holding Archer's hand to help him around a tree and down a rock.

Archer held his mother's hand as he excitedly entered the cave and walked toward the back to discover the source of the water he nearly couldn't resist jumping in.

"He loves water," Jessica said with a laugh as she stopped her son from plunging his left foot into the cold, shallow water pooled near the entrance of the cave.

More than 100 years ago, a young Aldo Leopold, born in 1887, visited that same spring as he explored the wooded areas of Burlington near his childhood home. It was experiences similar to Archer's that inspired in Leopold the love for conservation that ultimately would make him known as the father of wildlife ecology and the wilderness system in the United States.

Black Hawk Trail is among a handful of sites in the Greater Burlington area that local conservation, tourism and history groups have included in a $3.1 million plan that would pay homage to Leopold and draw more visitors to southeast Iowa through the establishment of the Aldo Leopold Living History and Educational Sites.

"This is one of those things where, if funded, it's poised to put Burlington on the map through the lens of conservation and ecological restoration and Leopold heritage," Des Moines County Conservation Director Chris Lee told the conservation board on Thursday.

Days earlier, Greater Burlington Partnership President and CEO Della Schmidt had presented the plan to the Burlington City Council, whose members on Monday will decide whether to sign off on a resolution approving an application for a $1.1 million Destination Iowa grant.

"Aldo Leopold Living History and Educational Sites is what we have kind of themed this multi-faceted approach, which we anticipate would take about three to three-and-a-half years to fully implement," Schmidt said.

The Destination Iowa grant program is a $100 million investment to bolster quality of life and tourism in the state and is funded through the federal American Rescue Plan Act.

Per ARPA requirements, money awarded through that grant must be allocated by 2024 and spent by 2026. The rest of the money for the Aldo Leopold Living History and Educational Sites would come from leveraging existing projects, future budgets for city and county parks department work and additional fundraising.

What would the Aldo Leopold Living History and Educational Sites consist of?

Schmidt laid out three components to the plan, which is but a portion of a 300-page feasibility study carried out in 2011 on an Aldo Leopold Interpretive Center.

Museum at the Port of Burlington: The first would be the Leopold Living History Museum at the Port of Burlington, which is owned by the city and is managed by the Convention and Visitors Bureau.

"The idea would be to work with the Leopold Landscape Alliance and the (Des Moines County Historical Society) to make sure there is an appropriate center there that would tell the childhood story of Aldo Leopold, something interactive and something that would be appropriate for all ages," Schmidt said.

City Manager Chad Bird said there is a conference room on the south half of the port that could be turned into an interpretive center and that the Welcome Center itself could be redesigned or reconfigured.

Educational sites: The next component of the plan is to upgrade Leopold's childhood exploration sites, largely located along the Great River Road, to provide improved access and safety.

In addition to Black Hawk Spring would be Cascade Falls, Leopold Recreation Area and the Cascade ravine.

"Black Hawk Spring in Crapo Park is an area that Aldo Leopold explored," Schmidt said. "The trail system to get there, there are sections of it right now that quite frankly are treacherous and there are no interpretive signage up into the park at what I'll call the trail heads that say anything about Aldo Leopold or what this natural area is. So this would be one area that we'd like to see improved."

Councilman Robert Critser said he also would like to see the trail system improved.

"I love the idea of restoring the Black Hawk Trail a little bit and giving it some love," Critser said. "I walked those when I was a kid and was mesmerized, and I don't know that I've ever taken my kids there because the last time I went through, it was treacherous in spots and there was no clear indicator of where you're going to pop out of there. One time, I spent an hour walking, didn't know where I was and came up and was in the cemetery. So it would be nice to have some guide posts."

Schmidt said additional sites could be added.

"There's many places within the city limits of Burlington, there's places in West Burlington, too, that over time could be added to some of the places Aldo Leopold explored and experienced as a child that made such a deep impression on him that helped him become the person he was," Schmidt said.

More:Remembering Randy Miller, a newspaperman, preservationist, volunteer and friend to the trees

One such place is Bonns Hollow, a long, steep-sided valley stretching from the riverfront off Main Street southwest to Harrison Avenue and west nearly to Ninth Street. That area was the subject of a column written by the late Randy Miller, The Hawk Eye's former city editor.

"It's unique because it's a series of nature preserves, all in various degrees of usefulness, both to humans and wildlife due to its topography and sometimes tangled vegetation of fallen trees and vines, chunks of concrete infill and undergrowth," Miller wrote in a column calling for greater cleanup efforts at Burlington's pocket preserves. "But those hollows are also a natural nature preserve. I live on South Main Street and own a portion of the hollow behind my house. For 14 years, my family lived on the side of the bluff above the Case plant on the north side of the city. That, too, was a nature preserve of sorts and we enjoyed many hours exploring the side of the bluff, finding artifacts and observing nature."

Bronze statues: The third component of the plan involves eight life-size bronze statues placed along Riverfront Park, throughout the historic downtown district and other sites relevant to Leopold's childhood.

Schmidt said one statue could be of a young Leopold, while another could depict Aldo and his brother Frederick, who also was a conservationist, with a wood duck component.

A third statue could depict a young Leopold sitting on a bench and peering through a pair of binoculars, a concept from Christopher Bennett, a Bentonsport sculptor who designed the Nancy Neafie statue at Nancy Neafie Park.

"I understand that his first binoculars were actually theater glasses borrowed to him by his mother," Schmidt said. "People would be able to sit next to Aldo on the bench and take a picture or use their own binoculars."

Other statue ideas include sandhill cranes, perhaps flying out of a fountain area; Leopold and his grandfather, Charles Starker; Leopold and his hunting dog, Flick; a passenger pigeon inspired by Leopold's essay, "A monument to the pigeon;" a wolf with green eyes to reference Leopold's quote, "We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes;" and a bison, possibly embedded in the wall of a downtown building.

"Before and during Aldo's lifetime, bison were being hunted and killed to the point of extinction," Schmidt said. "He witnessed this mass killing in his lifetime and it's attributed to his love for protecting wildlife and ecosystem."

Each statue would come with a plaque displaying a quote from one of Leopold's many writings, as well as additional information.

More:Larger than life: The story of Nancy Neafie, the first woman to serve as Burlington's mayor

Cascade Bridge: A potential fourth component of the plan Schmidt outlined involves the repurposing of a portion or portions of Cascade Bridge once the structure is taken down.

Portions of the bridge could be moved either to somewhere in Crapo Park or could be used to span Flint Creek near the Leopold Recreation Area.

Other Aldo Leopold sites

Leopold's name is widely known and recognized in Burlington.

There's Aldo Leopold Intermediate School, which is complete with an outdoor classroom area and where school maintenance workers not long ago discovered masonry issues on the building's exterior after an inspection that was — perhaps appropriately, given Leopold's love for birds — spurred by concerns about woodpecker damage.

There's the home at 111 Clay St. that Leopold grew up in, as well as the home that belonged to his grandparents, that are owned by the Leopold Landscape Alliance. And just north of Burlington is Leopold Recreation Area, a 235-acre parcel of land that was purchased by Des Moines County through grants in 2015, is managed for natural resources and is open to the public for outdoor recreation activities such as hunting.

But Leopold's contributions to conservation are also recognized worldwide.

There's the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute in Montana; the Aldo Leopold Nature Center in Wisconsin; the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University, which in 2020 saw the arrival of a conference table made from a tree that was planted by Charles and Marie Starker to mark the birth of one of their Leopold grandchildren; as well as Leopold Centers in Russia, India and South Africa.

Those sites can have a big draw.

Schmidt said the number of visitors to Aldo Leopold Nature Center in Monona, Wisconsin, has grown since it was established in 1994 from 4,000 to 80,000 visitors in 2019.

"We're the only place on earth that can claim we're Aldo Leopold's birthplace," Lee said. "A lot of his upbringing influenced his later philosophies in life, and there's a lot of places around the world that interpret his adult life and his philosophies. As I can tell, there's really nowhere short of those houses the Leopold Landscape Alliance is protecting that interprets his childhood and family heritage. Burlington is poised perfectly to do that."

Councilman Bill Maupin said the city has other things to focus on, such as fixing streets, but councilwoman Lynda Murray spoke in favor of the Leopold museum and childhood exploration sites.

"I think we've been asleep at the wheel for a long time when it comes to Aldo Leopold," Murray said. "I love the idea of some type of a walking tour with the sculptures, really enmesh the people who are interested in conservation, and they are. The interest is out there, and bring them into Burlington and showcase this gentleman. Oh my gosh, if Russia is showcasing him — he was born here and did great things here — why is Burlington not doing something?"

In the meantime, some southeast Iowa residents and visitors don't seem to mind traversing treacherous paths to bear witness to Burlington's natural beauty and resources.

On an unseasonably warm Thursday in November, Jose Puente and his dogs, Pinto and Rojo, crunched through the leaves to get to Black Hawk Spring, where they enjoyed a drink of water.

"It's the best mineral water you'll ever find," Puente said.

This article originally appeared on The Hawk Eye: Burlington considers plan for Aldo Leopold history, educational sites