2023 La Crosse Leopold Days Celebration 

Live and Virtual Talks, Walks and Activities  

Aldo Leopold is considered by many to be the father of wildlife management and the United States wilderness system. His essays will be featured in a series of FREE events in the La Crosse area as part of an annual state-wide celebration. Here’s what’s happening at the refuge on Saturday, March 4 between 12:30 p.m. –3:30 p.m.!The Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge Visitor Center is located at N5727 County Road Z, Onalaska, WI 54650. 

12:30 p.m. Explore the Visitor Center and Prairie Wind Nature Store! Refuge staff and volunteers from the Friends of the Refuge – Mississippi River Pools 7 & 8 (FOR78) will be available during the event to answer questions and share tips for winter activities! 

1:00 p.m. Enjoy a talk and reading! Retired University of Wisconsin – La Crosse professor, Steve Simpson and his daughter, Clare Simpson will conduct a reading blending Leopold’s essay “The Good Oak” from A Sand County Almanac with a contemporary essay from Steve Simpson’s new book, Essays to My Daughter on Our Relationship with the Natural World. The reading will take place in the Visitor Center multipurpose room. 

2:00 p.m. Take a walk to learn what’s so good about oak trees! Retired landscape architect and member of the State Capitol and Executive Residence Board, Jay Fernholz, and refuge staff will lead a walk about the benefits of oaks, how to care for them, forest management, and the importance of forest habitats. Enjoy a cup of hot cocoa after the walk, courtesy of FOR78. Please dress for winter weather! We’ll meet inside the Visitor Center before heading outside.  

About Aldo Leopold 

Leopold died in 1948 fighting a neighbor’s grass fire at “the shack,” his family getaway on the Wisconsin River near Portage, WI. Since 2004, the state has designated the first weekend in March to honor Leopold and his conservation legacy. According to the Leopold Foundation, that legacy is to “inform and inspire us to see the natural world as a community to which we belong.”