MUHS students snowshoeing on the Schoofs Preserve

Reflection by Executive Director Joe Meyer

Well, it’s hard to believe that were are wrapping up 2016 already. It has been a big year for Laudato Si’ Project, in fact it has been our first year! There have been so many highlights and adventures in the last 12 months and it is all because of our generous members, donors, and volunteers. Thank You.

The summer of 2016 was the 1 year anniversary of Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home. Pope Francis also made “care for our common home” a work of mercy this year! (see New Work of Mercy). This solidified Laudato Si’ Project’s mission and gave us even more momentum moving forward. As our mission states, we are dedicated to restoring humanity’s connection to the natural world through education, stewardship, and recreation.

Education: 

Drilling the spile into a Sugar Maple

Jim Urinak of the Milwaukee Audubon Society teaching about the ecology of the area

Park Ranger Rob Wessberg talking about mapping the trails at Pike Lake

Rachel teaches us about collecting sap to make Maple Syrup

Investigating a baltimore oriole nest

Maddy with her great butterfly catch

A young family checking out some North American animal hides and pine cones.

In 2016, Laudato Si’ Project was able to connect with several hundred school students ranging from kindergarten up through college. Whether it is speaking at a school, conference, or out in the woods- education is at the core of what we do. Our School Partnerships have really expanded Laudato Si’ Project’s reach. With over a dozen partnerships and growing, we are able to work with teachers to help them connect students to the teaching of the Church and Laudato Si’ while ensuring they find ways to get students into nature, sparking curiosity and developing a love for this amazing natural gift. Be sure to read our new “partner pages” that detail how each school is Living Laudato Si’.

“The entire material universe speaks of God’s love, his boundless affection for us. Soil, water, mountains – everything is, as it were, a caress of God.”  -Pope Francis, Laudato Si’

Stewardship:

Park Rangers, MUHS Students, and WI Geocaching Association

Patrick Donohue, left, and Jonathon Wallace, students at Marquette University High School, Milwaukee, install a wooden nest box for bluebirds on the grounds of the Schoenstatt Retreat Center, Waukesha, in late spring.

Milwaukee Audubon Society and MUHS students working at the Kolterman Prairie

Joe and Nathaniel Meyer at the Menominee River Clean-up

76 year old Ernie Meyer and Quentin Maxwell helping cut the Buckthorn

Measuring a painted turtles shell

Mackenzie from Arrowhead High School and Jill from Tall Pines Conservancy planting the bio-log

Clearing buckthorn (and loving it)

Invasive species removal at a preserve on North Lake, WI

Stewardship is all about getting our hands dirty. It is our philosophy that is it not enough to just learn about nature, you have to work to help restore it. By allowing students opportunity’s to give the Earth a helping hand- we are instilling a sense of mercy for our common home that Pope Francis has called us to. In the last 12 months, Laudato Si’ Project has helped volunteers log over 330 stewardship hours!!

“We must hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.” –Pope Francis, Laudato Si’

Recreation:

MUHS students exploring the Cedarburg Bog

GPS Mapping of a Trail Intersection

Playing in the Paradise Springs Creek

The hike in the southern Kettle Moraine

We live in a busy and demanding world and one of the unfortunate consequences of this is our Vitamin “N” deficiency. Wondering what the N stands for? It’s Nature. It is easy for us to go days, weeks, or months without being outside- and I don’t mean from the car to the building. Laudato Si’ Project seeks to create intentional recreational opportunities so that students, adults, and families can spend time enjoying our beautiful natural environment. “Less screen time-More green time”, that’s our modo.

Laudato Si’ Project has had the wonderful blessing of being interviewed on Relevant Radio twice in the last year (if you missed them we have them linked on our website). We are also very proud of the great partnerships we have struck with multiple organizations including  Tall Pines Conservancy, Ozaukee Washington Land Trust, Heiliger Huegel Ski Club and the Schoenstatt Retreat Center. These organizations own large amounts of land and gives us the ability to connect people with meaningful educational events, stewardship projects, and recreational outings.

Suffice it to say, it has been a great year! God has richly blessed our organization and has given us countless ways to spread our vital mission. We look forward to busy and fruitful 2017.

Seeding the butterfly garden

A band placed on a WI big brown bat

The woodland crew: Quentin, Charlie, Steven, Jack, Will, Kelly, and Joe

Patrick Donohue helps with turtle monitoring on the Schoofs Preserve

Botanists from Milwaukee Public Museum and SEWR

Checking the frames to for new bee larvae

My son Nathaniel thanking the big sugar maple with a hug

“LIVING OUR VOCATION TO BE PROTECTORS OF GOD’S HANDIWORK IS ESSENTIAL TO A LIFE OF VIRTUE; IT IS NOT AN OPTIONAL OR A SECONDARY ASPECT OF OUR CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE.”  -POPE FRANCIS, LAUDATO SI’

Written by Joe Meyer; Executive Director of Laudato Si’ Project

In addition to teaching environmental science at Marquette High School in Milwaukee, WI, I also co-moderate a homeroom there called Environmental Science/Outdoors (ESO). This homeroom was initiated by student interest and currently has around 50 students involved. ESO students work to initiate environmental projects at the school, stewardship projects at local natural areas, and recreational outings.

Last year, I saw a movie on Netflix titled American Serengeti. This video speaks of the vast amount of wildlife that Lewis and Clark saw on their journey westward, especially on the Missouri River in Montana. The video went on to speak about the most ambitious conservation project in US history currently happening in Montana- The American Prairie Reserve.

The American Prairie Reserve is a project by a private non-profit organization that hopes to create the largest contiguous natural area in the continental United States totally 3.5 million acres and encompassing 5000 square miles. What makes this project feasible is that over 2 million of those acres are already open to the public and management by the Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Land Management. The American Prairie Reserve hopes to acquire the private lands in between so as to stitch together the whole system. The reserve size would be larger than any National Park in the lower 48 but would be maintained as a public/private partnership not a National Park, while remaining entirely open to the public.

Our ESO Homeroom student leaders decided that doing a fundraising campaign would be a great way for students to participate in this epic project. The goal was to purchase at least 1 acre of land through their “Adopt-an-Acre” program. This would mean that at $1000 would need to be raised in less than 2 weeks.

We began the campaign by showing the National Geographic Trailer video Imagine American Prairie Reserve 

We then discussed the project goals in terms of wildlife populations. A reserve of this size will be able to contain animal populations not seen since Lewis and Clark first explored the area. The American Prairie Reserve has begun its bison reintroduction at is currently at 700-800 head. Its ambitious goal of 10,000 bison will likely be reached in the next decade or so. Elk are another large mammal that calls the reserve home. They hope to have 40,000 elk in the coming years. many of these species: bison, grizzly Bear, wolf…had been extirpated from the area by hunting and ranching for nearly 100 years. But it is not just bison, elk, mule deer, or antelope that live in the prairie; it is a biodiverse system containing hundreds of birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians.

ESO homeroom students were challenged with the “Adopt and Acre” program and an incentive donation by faculty to double anything students raised up to $1000. After the nearly  2 week period, student totals were almost $500 which meant a total donation of $1500- purchasing 1.5 acres of land on the American Prairie Reserve. many of the students hope to visit the American Prairie Reserve in their lifetime and see this amazing project of American conservation.