Tag Archives: conservation

Kentucky’s Red River Gorge

Parks & Sanctuaries, ,

Watching the television show Sunday Morning on CBS recently, brought back memories of working to help save the Red River Gorge area of Kentucky. We moved to Henderson, Kentucky in the early 1970s, but the efforts to dam up the Red River of Kentucky and flood the gorge had started in earnest in the mid-1960s.

Years of downstream flooding was a clarion call to the Army Corp of Engineers. They simply love to build dams!  Don’t get me wrong, there are often some big benefits associated with the building of dams, but there are also often huge ecological outcomes as well. And often those outcomes are very bad.

I have always been a proponent of sustainable resource management. To me, that means that we must use natural resources in ways that benefit the present generation, but also leave resources in conditions that will allow future generations to meet their own needs. However, it is also my opinion that there are places of such ecological, historical or cultural significance that humans should simply keep their hands off!

It was my opinion back in my younger days that the Red River Gorge region of Kentucky was such an area. The short “Moment of Nature” piece on Sunday Morning made me feel happy to see that the Red River Gorge is still just as beautiful today as it was several decades ago. It took a long time and lots of meetings, but it was a good day when President Clinton signed the papers making the Red River Gorge part of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System of the United States.

Enjoy the video below to see for yourself.

Hollyhock Hollow Sanctuary

Wildlife & Plants, , ,

Hollyhock Hollow Sanctuary was formerly the home and property of Robert and Leona (Train) Rienow.  As a State University at Albany Professor, Robert Rienow was the author of numerous books about the environment, government, and civic involvement. Leona Train Rienow was also an author who produced several children’s books. Together, the Rienow’s wrote or co-authored numerous books, including The Year of the Last Eagle and their best-known A Moment in the Sun, which was the first book to focus public attention on the condition of America’s environment. This book was the inspiration for the first Earth Day.  Upon his death in 1988, the sanctuary was bequeathed to the Audubon Society of New York State and transitioned from what the Rienow’s called Hollyhock Hollow Farm to Hollyhock
Hollow Sanctuary. Today the sanctuary is open as a public-use area for passive recreation.

With over 140 acres of natural beauty, hiking trails, and distinctive geology carved out by the Onesquethaw Creek, Hollyhock Hollow Sanctuary is a birdwatcher’s paradise. Several miles of hiking trails traverse the sanctuaries woods with visitors being able to pass through several distinct habitat types as well as being witness to some historical evidence of long-past human activity. This includes numerous stone walls and even remnants of a small stone quarry where it is said that some of the stones for the building of the Brooklyn Bridge came from.

I had the pleasure of knowing Robert Rienow and it was our friendship that led him to bequeath Hollyhock Hollow to the Audubon Society of New York State, where I served as President and CEO for 25 years. That organization was headquartered at Hollyhock Hollow until my retirement and they have since relocated to Rensselaer County, NY. I am happy
that one of my sons, Kelly Dodson and his company Audubon Landscape Services has been retained by Audubon to maintain the landscapes of Hollyhock Hollow, however.

Dr. Rienow always kept his property open for public use and enjoyment. In that tradition, Hollyhock Hollow Sanctuary is also open and free for public use. Historically significant and really a place where the environmental movement was born, Hollyhock Hollow Sanctuary is a true treasure in the Capital Region of New York.
About twelve miles from Albany, NY, the sanctuary serves as an outdoor classroom for the nearby schools, as well as a recreational space for cross-country skiers, spelunkers, artists, and scout groups. Whether you are planning to explore the unique features of the area or are simply looking to take a long, quiet walk, visitors are welcome every day from dawn until dusk.

Directions:

From I-87, the NYS Thruway, take exit 22 for NY-144 toward NY-396/Selkirk. Turn right onto NY-144 S/River Road. Take the first right onto NY-396 W/Maple Avenue Keep right at the fork and continue to follow NY-396 W for about four miles. Turn right onto Co Rd 102/Old Quarry Road. Take the second left onto Rarick Road and continue for a third of a mile.

From Albany, take US-9W S and merge onto NY-32 S/Delmar Bypass via the ramp to Delmar. Follow NY-32 S for about three miles. At the third traffic light, turn left onto Co Rd 102/Old Quarry Road and continue for three miles. Turn right onto Rarick Road and continue for a third of a mile.

A Trip to the Singing Wilderness

Parks & Sanctuaries, Wildlife & Plants, ,

I have recently been re-reading a book titled, The Singing Wilderness, by Sigurd Olson. The

book was originally published back in 1956, but my first reading of it was in 1980. That was the year that I learned about Sigurd Olson and his fight to save the American wilderness.

In the late 1980s, I was nearing the end of several years of living in Henderson, Kentucky, and my own ongoing battles to promote conservation and environmental protection in that part of the country. Because I was planning to move from Kentucky, and as a final adventure in nature, a long-time friend of mine and I decided to make a week-long venture into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area of Northern Minnesota. While doing research for the planned trip, I discovered Sigurd Olson and his book. If you have never heard of Olson or The Singing Wilderness, I recommend that you do some reading about both. Or WATCH THIS FILM

We drove from Kentucky to Ely, Minnesota, which became our launching point into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. Once we were all geared up by a local outfitter, we paddled off into a world of deep blue water and sky and emerald green trees. What an adventure we had! For an entire week, we saw not another person and we heard not a sound, other than the sounds created by nature. Within just a few hours all the stress that both of us had been feeling from the constant political arguments we had been involved with throughout the past months and years, simply melted away.

We plotted a daily course to a new campsite, we fished, we watched loons, we drank long, cool drinks of water directly from the lake and frequently we simply floated in the middle of some remote body of water and soaked in the sounds of “nothingness!” Many
afternoons we would cruise to some small island, come ashore for a bite to eat and then find some perfect place to sit on the shore, cast a lure or simply nod off in the blissful peace and quiet.

It took this trip for me to re-connect with nature and remember why it was that I care so much about, and fought so hard to protect the environment. In this fast-paced, and technologically-based society we live in, it is now even more important that we all re-connect with nature. You don’t have to take a week-long trip into the wilderness to do this either. But, you do need to find a “piece of nature” that you can take a stroll in, or just find a tree stump to sit on and listen. This natural spot does need to be at least far enough away from the constant noise of automobiles and the hubbub of “progress” so that you can actually hear nature speaking to you.

The re-reading of The Singing Wilderness brought back memories of that great trip in 1981 to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. What great memories it conjures up! However, in writing this post I decided to do a bit of research about this fantastic natural treasure and I am sorry to have learned about a proposed plan to create a Copper-Nickle mining operation within the Superior National Forest and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area watershed! Does the attack on nature ever stop?! I have already written to voice my opposition to this proposed, toxic disaster in the making. I urge you to visit Save The Boundary Waters and voice your own concerns.

In the meantime, find your own area of nature and go listen to what the birds, trees, and wind say to you.

“Wilderness to the people of America is a spiritual necessity, an antidote to the high pressure of modern life, a means of regaining serenity and equilibrium.” Sigurd Olson

 

Doñana National Park Spain

Parks & Sanctuaries, ,

Several years ago, I was invited to attend a meeting of the United States Golf Association, Turfgrass and Environmental Research Committee that was to be held in Southern Spain. I was a member of that committee for over 20 years and I worked with and met some great people during that time. One person who was on the committee, that has since passed away, was Jimmy Patino, who was the owner of Valderrama Golf Club in Spain. In fact, Jimmy funded all the Committee expenses to hold the meeting, which he hosted at Valderrama.

My entire family joined me on this trip, which we turned into a fantastic family vacation, by extending our stay in Spain and later traveled to England for an additional week. Jimmy had previously asked if there was anything special that I wanted to do after the committee meeting concluded, and I said that we really didn’t know much about that region of Southern Spain and just wanted to explore the country-side and experience the culture and the nature of the area. Leave it to Jimmy to arrange a field trip of a lifetime and arrange a 2-day adventure to Doñana National Park!

Along with a few other people who attended the committee meeting, some Valderrama members and the naturalist of Valderrama Golf Club, we traveled by minivan to the National Park. Jimmy had significant influence in Spain. So much so, that they actually closed the park so that we had a private tour of the area!

Doñana National Park is a natural reserve in Andalusia, southern Spain, in the provinces of Huelva and Seville. It covers over 209 square miles, of which 52 square miles are a protected area. The park is an area of marshes, shallow streams, and sand dunes in Las Marismas, the delta where the Guadalquivir River flows into the Atlantic Ocean. It was established as a nature reserve in 1969 when the World Wildlife Fund joined with the Spanish government and purchased a section of marshes to protect it. The eco-system had been under constant threat by the draining of the marshes, the use of river water to boost agricultural production by irrigating land along the coast, water pollution by upriver mining, and the expansion of tourist facilities. It is named after Doña Ana de Silva y Mendoza, wife of the seventh Duke of Medina-Sidonia. Doñana National Park is a United Nations World Heritage Site.

If you ever get the chance to visit Doñana National Park, or if you are looking for a unique natural area to visit, I highly recommend this region and park of Southern Spain.