We are approaching another anniversary of “Earth Day” here
in the United States. Pausing on or near
April 22 of each year to reflect on the relationships that people have with
where they live, and to conduct activities and hold events to better that
relationship has been happening in this country since 1970. One of the originators of that first Earth
Day forty-four years ago was a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, Gaylord Nelson.
It is said
that Senator Nelson helped create that first Earth Day in reaction to a massive
oil spill that ravaged the Pacific Coast near Santa Barbara, California in
1969. With an emerging consciousness by
the public about pollution dangers, Nelson sought to push environmental issues
onto the national political agenda. He
persuaded Congressman Pete McCloskey to serve as his co-chair for the Earth Day
event. McCloskey, a conservative
Republican, served as a political balance with the liberal Democrat Nelson for
leadership of the young movement.
At that
first Earth Day, April 22, 1970, a national “teach-in” on the environment was
held on college and university campuses across the country. The messages that were heard that day
resonated with Americans everywhere who were worried about things like air and
water pollution. With the strong media blitz that accompanied the environmental
teach-in, a push was made politically to enact legislation that would address
some of the environmental concerns and problems. By the end of that year, Congress had begun
the process to pass landmark legislation to create the federal Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) and pass the Clean Air, Clean Water and Endangered
Species Acts.
At the same
time as the national environmental movement was blooming, the dam project on
the Kickapoo River at La Farge was moving toward the construction stage. Land for the dam project, which was to be
constructed just upriver and north of the village, was being purchased by the
Corps of Engineers’ land procurement officials based out of Rock Island,
Illinois. By the spring of 1970, the
Corps had purchased several family farms along the Kickapoo for the proposed
dam project. Families were moving off
from those farms and the buildings on the properties were put up for sale - to be
moved or demolished by the buyer. Corps' engineers dug sample wells and took soil and rock samples on Norris Ridge, where
the dam was to be constructed.
At that
particular time in history, few people would realize that a convergence was
about to happen with the emerging national environmental movement and the Corps
of Engineers’ project on the Kickapoo River. Gaylord Nelson had been a strong proponent of the flood control project
on the Kickapoo, first when he was governor of Wisconsin and then as a senator
in Washington D.C. In the spring of 1970
as those first properties in the La Farge area were being purchased for the dam
project, Nelson and the other elected representatives of western Wisconsin were
solidly behind the endeavor. By the
following spring, Senator Nelson and many other state politicians would be
singing an entirely different tune.
What
changed the lyrics in this little harmonic ditty formed by the new national
environmental movement and the dam project at La Farge occurred later in that
year of 1970. For it was the elections
that were held in November of that year that would forever change the direction
of the dam project on the Kickapoo River.
When
Patrick Lucey was elected governor of Wisconsin in the general election in November
1970, he immediately began to assemble an administration team and cabinet for
his state executive department. One of
the goals of Governor-elect Lucey and his team was to stop the dam project at
La Farge. Although Lucey had not
campaigned against the dam project at La Farge prior to the election (Indeed,
the project had been a non-issue in the run-up to the election with neither
Lucey or Jack Olson, the Republican candidate, showing anything but support for
completion of the project.), there were ominous signs that opposition to the
project, especially from the emerging environmental community, was gathering.
During the
summer and autumn of 1970, many articles about the Kickapoo Valley project had
started to appear in the Madison and Milwaukee daily newspapers. Many of the articles were based on canoe
trips taken by the newspaper writers on that section of the Kickapoo that would
eventually be covered with the waters of the lake behind the dam to be built at
La Farge. (At that time, canoeing on the
Kickapoo was just beginning to take off as a recreational activity in the
area. Few local Kickapoogians were
interested in canoeing on the snag and snarl infested Kickapoo at the time, but
those people from away found the recreational activity alluring.) A variety of the writers from the state’s
daily newspapers, including well known outdoors writers Steve Hopkins of the Wisconsin State Journal and Bill Stokes
of the Milwaukee Sentinel, penned
feature articles on the Kickapoo River and the dam project.
Beginning
in late 1970, increasingly the tone of the articles in the state papers began
to slant against the dam project at La Farge.
Sporting such headlines as “Mother Nature May Be Evicted” and “Virginal
Valley Today, But Tomorrow?” the articles on the Kickapoo Valley dam project focused
more and more on the loss of the natural scenic beauty and the “wildness” of
the river. The focus of the media
coverage began to shift away from the beneficial flood control, recreational
and economic aspects of the dam project and toward the protection of the
natural environment of the Kickapoo Valley.
This concern with the environment being shown by many who opposed the La
Farge project was emanating from that rebirth of environmental concerns in
America that was introduced on that first Earth Day earlier in April.
On
Saturday, April 19th, “Kickapoo Earth Day 2014” will be held at the
Visitor Center of the Kickapoo Valley Reserve.
A wide variety of events and activities are planned throughout the day
and evening to celebrate Earth Day. Some of the events held at the Reserve will
feature nationally known speakers on many different topics of environmental
interest. How ironic that this Earth Day
event will be hosted on land that was originally purchased for the La Farge Dam
& Lake Project. Dis-harmonic convergence perhaps?
