Everyday Conservationists

If you are reading this blog you already know about Aldo Leopold, John Muir and Theodore Roosevelt the great conservationists that were the driving force behind the early years of land protection in the U.S. They are the main reasons why public lands exist in this nation and many nations have replicated the US model of national parks, national forests, and our historic monuments. Some of you might even know other conservationists like Rick Bass, Charles Sheldon, Jane Goodall, and the like…but what about the everyday conservationists? Well the dudes in this photo are the everyday conservationists. They are the guys who care about the environment. They are the guys to give a shit! They are the everyday conservationists. They are the volunteers who raise money for wildlife habitat protection, restoration, and conservation. They are the guys who start local conservation clubs and land trusts that provide wildlife habitat in their own communities. They were thinking global and acting locally before environmentalists even coined the term. In many ways they were the first environmentalists. They were the guys with beards before beards were cool. They are tool salesmen, forklift operators, construction workers, and truck drivers. Most of them are union men. They are also fathers, sons, husbands and brothers. They are the guys who get kids out of the house and replace the nintendo with a bow-and-arrow. The photo contains me in the glasses, and my late uncle Dwight, Paul, Art and Jeremy… some of the finest individuals I know and have had the privilege of sharing outdoor experiences with.
These guys buy over priced and poorly cooked dinners at fundraising events, organize fund raising events themselves, organize raffles, buy hunting/fishing licenses, and duck stamps all for conservation of the things they love. They are the today’s forgotten conservationists, the guys in the trenches who give freely to state and federal wildlife agencies, non-profit conservation organizations and who own property purely as wildlife habitat, a place to hunt or fish and a place to spend time with family and friends. These dudes are carrying on a tradition of conservation started by the above mentioned conservation greats and many of them hope to some day pass that tradition down to today’s youth that seem to me lost in a alternate reality caused by a lack of self-sufficiency and a general malaise concerning the world around them...
These are the men who helped make me into the person I am today. Unfortunately, two of these guys are no longer with us and I miss them. They looked after me as a kid and as a young adult. They set me a path the made me who I am today. They taught me a lot of things… The following list of things we learned from Dwight Shelton, my maternal uncle, my brother and I read at Uncle Dwight’s memorial services a few years ago and I think is sums up the unsung conservationist, the everyday conservationist pretty well. Many of the next passages you could say about any of the guys in the above photo.

The Top 11 Things We Learned from Dwight Shelton

1) Dwight taught us the importance of growing your own garden and knowing where your food comes from. Then what to do with it once you have it. This year I caned 60 pints of tomatoes and 30 lbs of Tuna. I pickled peppers and made blackberry jam from wild black berries and copious amounts of white sugar. I also tried to pickle eggplant which didn’t really work very well and would not recommend in the future.

2) Dwight taught us about women. He said once “It is ok to get married. As long as your anniversary date doesn’t conflict with the opening day of deer hunting, trout fishing, pheasant hunting or duck hunting. Be sure to choose wisely on these dates and your marriage will be successful.”

3) Dwight taught us about hard work one summer when we dug potatoes in the Farmland garden. Then he taught us about hard work again after the winter storms in 2003 when he and the family collected and cut fire wood for months.

4) Dwight taught us how to be self sufficient and celebrate chores which seem mundane to most. Like cutting firewood.

5) Dwight taught us how to shoot a bow and how to clean a deer. Dwight gave me my first bow and I shot my first deer with him just down the ridgeline from me. That day he also shot a doe with his bow. Both does died within 20 yards of each other.

6) Dwight taught us how to make the best deer chili, which always seems to taste better when in Manville.

7) Dwight taught us how to play a great gag on your friends and still keep them friends. Gags in deer camp often involved the placement of a land terrapin into someone’s sleeping bag or under their pillow.

8) Dwight taught us about volunteerism and the importance of giving back to the environment, the community and the youth.

9) Dwight taught us a good birddog not only has a great nose and occasionally finds a pheasant, but also keeps you warm at night when the stove burns out. Dwight in fact gave us our first birddog an English setter named Toby no one really wanted.

10) Dwight taught us the importance of family and how one has the obligation to care for one’s own blood. He also taught us how to arrange family events properly so they can also be hunting or fishing trips, For example, Thanksgiving choices might include deer hunting in Indiana or Steelhead fishing in Michigan.

11) Most Importantly, Dwight taught us the value of conservation and how the environment really is the most important thing. In everyday life Dwight taught us to reuse glass jars for canning, cut only trees which have fallen naturally by wind or old age, and how to get involved with conservation groups like the Indiana Wildlife Federation, The National Wild Turkey Federation, and Ducks Unlimited. Today, I work for Ducks Unlimited and do my best to promote what Dwight taught me. Dwight gave us books to read about the great conservationists including Theodore Roosevelt, John Muir and Aldo Leopold. We feel Dwight would approve of this quote from Aldo Leopold’s Round River, as we feel Dwight lived and believed much like Leopold did…so here goes.
“Conservation is a state of harmony between men and land. By land is meant all of the things on, over, or in the earth. Harmony with land is like harmony with a friend; you cannot cherish his right hand and chop off his left. That is to say, you cannot love game and hate predators; you cannot conserve the waters and waste the ranges; you cannot build the forest and mine the farm. The land is one organism. Its parts, like our own parts, compete with each other and co-operate with each other. The competitions are as much a part of the inner workings as the co-operations. You can regulate them—cautiously—but not abolish them.”
We learned a lot from Dwight Shelton and will miss him forever, but will never forget him as we walk the hills in-between the cedars, the ash, and the maples, of his Manville Farm. His family and the farm are Dwight’s Legacy, please protect them, cherish them and always respect them.