1. After a peregrine meeting at Cornell University in 1969, the governments of the United States, Canada, and Mexico were asked to do whatever was in their powers to protect the remaining populations of peregrine falcons. In 1970, the US Department of the Interior listed the peregrine as endangered. The use of DDT was banned in 1972. Congress approved the Endangered Species Act in 1973.
The first peregrine breeding season in a new breeding barn at Cornell University occurred in the spring of 1971. Eventually more than four thousand captive-produced peregrine falcons were released into the wild. Once extinct east of the Mississippi River, they now breed naturally in at least forty states across the country. They were removed from the Endangered Species List in 1999.
1. Edward O. Wilson, afterword to Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson, 40th anniversary edition (New York: Mariner Books, 2002).
2. Otto frequently cited that comment from a local official in Bayside, Wisconsin, in public remarks, including her 1999 induction into the Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame. She wore a brightly colored pair of tennis shoes to the formal induction ceremony in Stevens Point.
3. Thomas Dunlap, DDT, Scientists, Citizens and Public Policy (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1981), 152.
4. Ibid., 153.
1. The full speech is at nobelprize.org, the official website of the Nobel Prize.
2. “Chlorinated Hydrocarbons (Organochlorines)—DDT,” US Fish and Wildlife Service, www.fws.gov/contaminants/Info/DDT.html.
3. Dunlap, DDT, Scientists, Citizens and Public Policy, 35.
4. Ibid., 37.
5. Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac with Other Essays on Conservation from Round River (New York: Oxford University Press, 1966), 190.
1. “Wisconsin State Symbols,” Wisconsin.gov, www.wisconsin.gov/state/core/wisconsin_state_symbols.html.
2. “Fostering Clean Air through Environmental Law,” New York Times, May 14, 1995. “I saw the dead birds on campus, and then we began to see some that were alive, with tremors,” Wurster recalls. He quickly dedicated himself to finding out the cause.
3. Charles Wurster, interview with the author, March 3, 2012.
4. “The Green Lake Convention,” meeting notes by Helen Northrup and Clara Hus-song in Passenger Pigeon (Wisconsin Society for Ornithology) 19, no. 2 (Summer 1957): 76, University of Wisconsin Digital Collections.
5. Wisconsin Historical Society image collection, WHi Image ID 73094.
6. Lorrie Otto recalled the encounter with the Bayside village manager in an essay titled “CNRA, DDT and Me,” in CNRA—The First 50 Years (Citizens Natural Resource Association, 2001).
7. Clarence Cottam and Elmer Higgins, DDT: Its Effect on Fish and Wildlife, US Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service Circular 11 (Washington, DC: GPO, 1946).
8. “In Memoriam: Clarence Cottam,” Auk 92 (January 1975): 122–123. On these pages and elsewhere in the tribute, Cottam’s willingness to speak forcefully about issues that concerned him is documented.
9. Bill Christofferson, The Man from Clear Lake: Earth Day Founder Senator Gaylord Nelson (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2004). Christofferson summarizes Nelson’s role in the DDT battles in Chapter 24.
10. Jerry Apps, interview with the author, September 29, 2010.
11. George Wallace to “Mrs. Owen Otto,” March 4, 1966, box 3, file 1, Lorrie Otto Papers, 1930–2008, Wisconsin Historical Society Archives, Madison.
12. Joseph Hickey, interview with Thomas Dunlap, 1973, Wisconsin Historical Society Archives, Madison.
13. Dunlap is a professor of history at Texas A&M University and the author of several books, including DDT: Scientists, Citizens and Public Policy (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1981), which grew out of his doctoral dissertation at UW–Madison.
14. Wurster to Otto (under the State University of New York at Stony Brook letterhead), November 3, 1965, box 3, file 1, Lorrie Otto Papers.
1. Roark was a cofounder of the Wisconsin chapter of the Nature Conservancy. Hickey was another cofounder.
2. Gene Roark, interview with the author, June 23, 2010.
3. Joseph Hickey, oral history transcript, recorded in Madison on July 18, 1978, by Frederick Greeley (associate professor of wildlife biology at the University of Massachusetts). A cover letter from Greeley to Hickey, along with the transcript, is dated November 16, 1978. The transcript is in the Hickey family collection, made available courtesy of Joseph’s daughter, Susan Nehls.
4. E. H. Fisher and C. L. Fluke, DDT: Its Present Uses and Limitations (Madison: University of Wisconsin Extension Service of the College of Agriculture, October 1945).
5. William G. Moore, “The Wisconsin Ban on DDT: Old Law, New Content,” Gargoyle (University of Wisconsin Law School) 16, no. 2 (Fall 1985).
6. Howard Mead, interview with the author, April 3, 2012. Mead and his wife, Nancy, were longtime publishers of Wisconsin Trails magazine. His family and Schmidt’s were neighbors and among those who took their concerns to the Madison City Council.
7. Cottam’s uncle, Clarence Cottam, hired and worked with Rachel Carson at the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of the Interior. He wrote about the dangers of pesticides as early as 1946. Carson cited Cottam’s work in Chapter 10 of Silent Spring.
8. Potter would advance the concept of “bioethics” to describe his view that all human choices not only have short-term consequences on the ecosystem and all life systems and societies but also have long-term consequences for the future—some of which are predictable, others not.
9. A more complete treatment of Baldwin’s position can be found in an oral history interview, “My Half Century at the University of Wisconsin,” privately published by Baldwin in 1995, University of Wisconsin Archives, Oral History Project.
10. “Critique of ‘Insecticides and People,’” prepared by the University of Wisconsin Department of Entomology, February 21, 1963, Hugh Iltis private collection.
11. Iltis’s letter to Dr. H. B. McCarty, director, Division of Radio-Television Education, is dated March 19, 1963. A copy was made available to the author by Iltis.
12. The letters exchanged by Voigt and Pound are in box 3, file 5, Lorrie Otto Papers.
13. The Lorrie Otto Papers, box 3, file 5, includes a quote from this speech in her handwriting, citing the Journal of Environmental Quality.
14. Dan Anderson, interview with the author, April 3, 2012.
15. Wurster, interview with the author, March 2, 2012.
16. The text of Foster’s comments is in the Hickey family collection, made available courtesy of Susan Nehls.
17. Orie Loucks, interview with author, March 27, 2012.
18. Victor Yannacone, interview with the author, June 6, 2012.
1. As stated in an invitation sent to citizens in counties around the state, printed on paper featuring the letterhead of the Wisconsin Conservation Commission, box 1, call no. M72–421, file 4, Citizens Natural Resources Association of Wisconsin Records, 1950–1974, Wisconsin Historical Society Archives, Madison.
2. As fate would have it, the hackberry tree is similar in form to the American elm, and it was sometimes recommended as a replacement tree when Dutch elm disease struck the elms.
3. CNRA—The First 50 Years, 3.
4. As stated in the preamble and pledge adopted at the CNRA’s organizational meeting December 16, 1950, from Roy Gromme’s personal collection, Oconomowoc. Gromme’s father, Owen, was a founding member of the CNRA. Roy would later serve as president.
5. “Submitted by Walter Scott,” read the list, in box 1, call no. M72–421, file 4, Citizens Natural Resources Association of Wisconsin Records.
6. The invitation to the first meeting of the group is in box 1, file 1, Citizens Natural Resources Association of Wisconsin Records.
7. Alvin Throne letter to IWLA members, December 17, 1950, in box 1, call no. M72–421, file 4, Citizens Natural Resources Association of Wisconsin Records. Throne’s letter is also the source for the reference to the decline in IWLA membership in Milwaukee.
8. Sutherland letter, dated December 20, 1950, is in box 1, call no. M72–421, file 5, Citizens Natural Resources Association of Wisconsin Records.
9. Arthur Molstad of Milwaukee was the Wisconsin Conservation Commission chairman.
10. A copy of the December 27, 1950, letter is in the personal collection of Roy Gromme. Walter Scott’s letter was on plain stationery, not on paper with the Wisconsin Conservation Department letterhead.
11. William Knoll’s comments were transcribed in a note from Scott to CNRA founding members, box 1, call no. M72–421, file 5, Citizens Natural Resources Association of Wisconsin Records.
12. Scott’s comments were in a note he sent to other founders of CNRA. The note is in the personal collection of Roy Gromme.
13. CNRA—The First 50 Years, 1.
14. Scott to Wallace Grange, February 20, 1951, box 1, call no. M72–321, file 5, Citizens Natural Resources Association of Wisconsin Records.
15. The resolution, undated but likely passed in 1959 and signed by CNRA president Aroline Schmitt—who used Mrs. Max J. Schmitt as her signature—is in the personal collection of Roy Gromme.
16. Ibid.
17. Maxine Roberts, interview with author, June 6, 2001.
18. Roy Gromme, interview with author, August 16, 2010.
19. CNRA—The First 50 Years, 17.
20. Ibid.
1. Gary Werner, interview with the author, May 29, 2013. Werner is executive director of the Partnership for the National Trails System, based in Madison, Wisconsin.
2. From a July 10, 1975, University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point news release. Files on the Baumgartners are located in the UWSP University Relations and Communications office.
3. Ted Baumgartner, e-mail correspondence with the author, March 21, 2012.
4. Dr. Byron Shaw, a colleague of Frederick Baumgartner, interview with the author, June 30, 2011.
5. Directly below the CNRA letterhead, Baumgartner typed “Office of the President—CNRA, c/o Department of Natural Resources, Wisconsin State University, Stevens Point.” Most of Baumgartner’s other correspondence was on plain stationery and addressed from his Stevens Point residence. Letter, October 8, 1968, box 1, call no. M75–368, file 5, Citizens Natural Resources Association of Wisconsin Records.
6. Russell Lynch earned his conservation stripes as what is believed to be the first full-time natural resources reporter for a major daily newspaper, the Milwaukee Journal. He won numerous awards and was inducted posthumously into the Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame.
7. With the transition of the Conservation Department to the Department of Natural Resources under government reorganization, the citizens’ board that oversaw it also had a name change.
8. Warren Knowles to Baumgartner, December 11, 1968, box 1, call no. M75–368, file 4, Citizens Natural Resources Association of Wisconsin Records.
9. Baumgartner to Knowles, January 14, 1969, box 1, call no. M75–368, file 4, Citizens Natural Resources Association of Wisconsin Records.
10. Thomas Dunlap, “DDT on Trial: The Wisconsin Hearing, 1968–1969,” Wisconsin Magazine of History 62, no. 1 (Autumn 1978): 11.
11. Ellsworth Fisher to Baumgartner, March 28, 1969, box 1, call no. M75–368, file 4, Citizens Natural Resources Association of Wisconsin Records.
12. Baumgartner to Walter Scott, February 3, 1969, box 1, call no. M75–368, file 4, Citizens Natural Resources Association of Wisconsin Records.
13. Baumgartner to Elvis Stahr, February 13, 1969, box 1, call no. M75–368, file 4, Citizens Natural Resources Association of Wisconsin Records.
14. Roland Clement to Baumgartner, July 7, 1969, box 1, call no. M75–368, file 4, Citizens Natural Resources Association of Wisconsin Records.
15. Roy Gromme, interview with the author, March 27, 2012.
16. Baumgartner to Charles Wurster, undated, box 1, call no. M75–368, file 5, Citizens Natural Resources Association of Wisconsin Records.
17. UW–Stevens Point news release, July 10, 1975. The news release was made available through the office of University Relations and Communications at UW–Stevens Point.
18. Linda D. F. Shalaway, “The Birds and Baumgartners of Little Lewis Hollow,” Oklahoma Today 32, no. 3 (Summer 1982): 27.
19. Biographical material on Bertha Pearson comes from a biographical sketch in the collection of the Marathon County Historical Society. It can be accessed online at www.marathoncountyhistory.org/PeopleDetails.php?PeopleId=386&View=P&ItemName.
20. Final Report of the Illinois State Council of Defense of Illinois 1917–1918–1919 (State of Illinois, July 1, 1919), 25.
21. “Miss Bertha Pearson Wins Conservation Award,” Wausau Record-Herald, May 18, 1966. Pearson was awarded the Wildlife Conservation Award by the Wisconsin Federation of Women’s Clubs. The organization had a long track record of interest in conservation.
22. Copies of Pearson’s remarks to the commission in July 1964 and her report to the CNRA board are in the private collection of Roy Gromme.
23. Ibid.
24. The presenter was Al Berkman of Wausau, a fellow CNRA officer. His summary of the award and comments about Pearson are in the private collection of Roy Gromme.
25. Harvey Hazeltine Scholfield’s September 2004 comments are from an oral history of the Scholfield family compiled by Lynne Scholfield and made available to the author.
26. The Marathon County Historical Society biographical sketch of Berkman notes that the North Central Watershed Association, the Kiwanis Club of Greater Wausau, and the Wausau Chamber of Commerce honored Berkman with a “1969 Al Berkman Night—Mr. Conservation.” Subsequent articles in the Wausau Daily Herald note that people affectionately referred to him by that moniker.
27. From the Marathon County Historical Society biographical sketch of Berkman.
28. “Marathon Sets Proud Record,” Milwaukee Sentinel, January 2, 1961.
29. Carla Kruse to Fred Harrington and Glenn Pound, November 21, 1968, box 1, call no. M75–368, file 4, Citizens Natural Resources Association of Wisconsin Records.
30. Carla Kruse’s obituary, Baraboo News Republic, September 29, 2009.
31. Wisconsin Historical Society, Dictionary of Wisconsin History, “Freethinkers in Wisconsin,” www.wisconsinhistory.org/dictionary/index.asp?action=view&term_id=11488&term_type_id=1&term_type_text=people&letter=f.
32. Harold Kruse, interview with the author, January 5, 2010.
33. Loucks, interview with the author, April 3, 2012.
34. CNRA—The First 50 Years, 84.
35. Passenger Pigeon (Wisconsin Society for Ornithology) 26, no. 3 (Autumn 1964): 113, University of Wisconsin Digital Collections.
36. Gretchen Kruse, e-mail to the author, May 8, 2012.
37. Harold Kruse, interview with the author, January 5, 2010.
1. “Doing What Comes Naturally, How Lorrie Otto, the ‘Prairie Lady,’ Evolved into an Environmental Activist,” Milwaukee Journal, June 28, 1992.
2. “Queen of the Prairie,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, August 26, 1999.
3. Ibid.
4. The Lorrie Otto Papers, 1930–2008, at the Wisconsin Historical Society Archives in Madison provide a wealth of examples of each of these traits. Examples are cited throughout this book.
5. Charles Wurster, November 3, 1965, letter to “Mrs. Owen Otto,” box 3, file 1, Lorrie Otto Papers.
6. “Bird Mortality after Spraying for Dutch Elm Disease with DDT,” Science 146, no. 3666 (April 2, 1965): 90.
7. CNRA—The First 50 Years, 20.
8. Otto to Joan Wolfe, a Michigan conservationist and frequent correspondent with Otto, August 26, 1968, box 7, file 7, Lorrie Otto Papers.
9. Lorrie Otto, interview with Robert Steele (graduate student at the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point), August 28, 1996, transcript, p. 10, Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame archives at Schmeeckle Reserve, University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point.
10. Ibid.
11. Frederick Baumgartner letter, October 8, 1968, box 1, call no. M75–368, file 5, Citizens Natural Resources Association Records.
12. Otto, interview with Steele, 10.
13. CNRA—The First 50 Years, 25.
14. Gromme’s message, which appeared in a 1967 CNRA newsletter, was reprinted in CNRA—The First 50 Years, 23.
15. CNRA—The First 50 Years, 23.
16. Ibid., 24.
17. Don Johnson to Otto, 1969, box 7, file 3, Lorrie Otto Papers.
18. From the author’s notes on the induction ceremony.
1. Roy Gromme, interview with the author, March 27, 2011.
2. William George Bruce, History of Milwaukee, City and County (Chicago, IL: S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1922), 320.
3. “Historic Designation Study Report, Old World Third Street Historic District,” City of Milwaukee, 2001, www.city.milwaukee.gov/ImageLibrary/Groups/cityHPC/DesignatedReports/
vticnf/HDOldWorldThird.pdf.
4. “Ott Proved a Saving Angel to Museum, Zoo, Wildlife,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, April 13, 2008.
5. Ibid.
6. Roy Gromme, interview with the author, March 27, 2011.
7. Frederick Baumgartner to Elvis Stahr, February 13, 1969, box 1, call no. M75–368, file 4, Citizens Natural Resources Association of Wisconsin Records.
8. Roland C. Clement to Baumgartner, July 7, 1969, box 1, call no. M75–368, file 4, Citizens Natural Resources Association of Wisconsin Records.
9. CNRA—The First 50 Years, 27.
10. Rachel Carson Trust tally sheet, June 30, 1969, box 1, call no. M75–368, file 5, Citizens Natural Resources Association of Wisconsin Records.
11. Arthur Godfrey’s address was footnoted and referenced by David Archibald, managing director of the Arboretum and Wildlife Refuge at UW–Madison, in Archibald’s keynote address to the Symposium on Prairie and Prairie Restorations, according to the Proceedings of a Symposium on Prairie and Prairie Restoration: first held on September 14 and 15, 1968 at Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois. The proceedings were published in 1970. Archibald’s address is available online at http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/EcoNatRes/EcoNatRes-idx?type=article&did=EcoNatRes.NAPC01.DArchibald&id=EcoNatRes.NAPC01&isize=M.
12. Godfrey to Lorrie Otto, February 6, 1969, box 7, file 3, Lorrie Otto Papers.
13. CNRA—The First 50 Years, 27.
1. “Joe Hickey, Birder,” Defenders Magazine, February 1982, 15. The magazine is published by Defenders of Wildlife, a national conservation organization focused on wildlife and habitat conservation and the safeguarding of biodiversity.
2. “The Bronx Age, Nine New York Teen-Agers and Their Birding Revolution,” Birder’s World, October 1989, 24.
3. Ibid., 28.
4. Aldo Leopold to Hickey, January 8, 1947. The letter is among records in the Hickey family collection, made available courtesy of Susan Nehls.
5. Hickey, oral history by Greeley.
6. Ibid., 5–6.
7. Ibid., 6.
8. “Joe Hickey, Birder,” 12.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid., 7.
11. Ibid.
12. Thomas Dunlap, DDT, Scientists, Citizens and Public Policy, 130.
13. Hickey, oral history by Greeley, 7.
14. Ibid., 7.
15. Ibid.
16. From Hickey’s remarks to the National Audubon Society upon receiving the Audubon Medal in 1984. A copy of his remarks is in the Hickey family collection, made available courtesy of Susan Nehls.
17. Hickey, oral history by Greeley, 8–9.
18. Joseph J. Hickey, ed., Peregrine Falcon Populations: Their Biology and Decline [Proceedings of an International Conference Sponsored by the University of Wisconsin, 1965], (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1969), 383.
19. Ibid., 447.
20. Hickey, oral history by Greeley, 9.
21. Peregrine Falcon Populations, 565–566.
22. Dunlap, DDT: Scientists, Citizens and Public Policy, 100.
23. Hickey, oral history by Greeley, 9.
24. Ibid., 10.
1. Rita Gray Beatty, The DDT Myth: Triumph of the Amateurs (New York: John Day Co., 1973), 78.
2. From Ott’s obituary, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, April 13, 2008.
3. A copy of Hickey’s remarks is in the Hickey family collection, made available courtesy of Susan Nehls.
4. David R. Zimmerman, “Death Comes to the Peregrine Falcon,” New York Times Magazine, August 9, 1970, provides a fascinating account of the peregrine’s perils. The narrative on Hagar is taken from this piece.
5. Ibid., 43.
6. Peregrine Falcon Populations, 256.
7. “Death Comes to the Peregrine Falcon,” 44.
1. Dan Anderson, “Joe Hickey the Scientist: A Story of Discovery” (unpublished essay), 1. Anderson shared the essay with the author.
2. Hickey, oral history by Greeley, 10.
3. “Joe Hickey the Scientist,” 3.
4. Hickey, oral history by Greeley, 11.
5. Anderson, interview with the author, April 3, 2012.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. “Joe Hickey the Scientist,” 3.
1. Ernstine Brehmer, Letter to the Editor, Sheboygan Press, April 25, 1960.
2. Kathy Brady, “Pesticides and Politics: A Wisconsin Town Battles Bugs and Bureaucracy,” Wisconsin Magazine of History 93, no. 4 (Summer 2010): 3. While it focuses on Whitewater, Kathy Brady’s account of the push and pull between citizens concerned about birds and city officials worried about trees is one that repeated itself across a wide swath of the country as Dutch elm disease marched on.
3. Ibid., 8.
4. Editorial, La Crosse Tribune, April 15, 1969. The editorial also noted that the 100,000 pounds of DDT shipped into the state in 1968 had a cash value of only $17,500. The bulk of the chemical—58,000 pounds—was used to fight Dutch elm disease in Wisconsin. Another 44,500 pounds was used to combat the leafhopper, a threat to carrot crops. Another 14,000 pounds went to spray apple trees in commercial orchards, with the remainder used for cherry trees, potatoes, and snap beans. Most of the DDT produced in the United States was going to other countries, the newspaper noted.
5. Robert Stack, Dean K. McBride, and H. Arthur Lamey, “Dutch Elm Disease,” North Dakota State University Extension Bulletin 324, revised 1994.
6. Tim Lang, interview with the author, October 26, 2010. Information about the arrival of the disease is according to plant pathologist George E. Hafstad, “Dutch Elm Disease Report,” Wisconsin Department of Agriculture 1965. The report is among materials in the Lorrie Otto Papers.
7. “Dutch Elm Disease Report,” 1.
8. Mead, interview with the author, April 12, 2012.
9. “Birds, Bees, Butterflies Case Rests on a Robin,” Milwaukee Sentinel, October 8, 1965.
10. “State Ignores Report on Elm Tree Injection,” Milwaukee Journal, November 11, 1965.
11. “Village Accused of ‘Spraying Poison,’” Milwaukee Sentinel, February 8, 1966.
12. “Hold Up DDT Spraying of Elms for Further Study of Hazards,” Whitefish Bay Herald, February 10, 1966.
13. “Village Accused of ‘Spraying Poison.’”
14. “DDT Program Gets Full OK,” Milwaukee Sentinel, February 15, 1966.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid.
17. “Bayside Halts Spraying, Bids Wildlife Back,” Milwaukee Sentinel, February 3, 1966.
18. Otto frequently wrote personal comments on materials she collected. This article is in box 3, file 4 of the Lorrie Otto Papers.
19. “The Worry about DDT,” Milwaukee Journal, February 22, 1966.
20. “Elm War Decision: Strong DDT Again,” Milwaukee Journal, November 7, 1966.
21. “DDT and DED,” Twin City News-Record (Neenah-Menasha, Wisconsin), November 13, 1969.
22. “Public Concern Cited as Reason for DDT Reversal,” Janesville Gazette, December 17, 1969.
23. “Cigarettes, DDT,” Milwaukee Sentinel, February 21, 1969.
24. A copy of Norman Borlaug’s letter to Betty Chapman, dated October 4, 1971, is in the personal files of Hugh Iltis and was made available to the author.
25. Mead, interview with the author, April 4, 2012.
26. James Zimmerman to Otto Festge, March 9, 1967, box 3, file 6, Lorrie Otto Papers.
27. “DDT Abandoned by City Forester,” Capital Times, March 22, 1967.
28. Mead, interview with the author, April 4, 2012.
29. “DDT Abandoned by City Forester.”
30. Ibid.
31. The Conservation Department would soon be reorganized and renamed the Department of Natural Resources.
32. Written copy of Scott’s remarks at the DNR hearing on DDT, box 3, file 6, Lorrie Otto Papers.
33. “City Must Spray Elms,” Wisconsin State Journal, August 10, 1967.
34. “Urge Halt to Use of DDT on Trees,” Capital Times, October 26, 1967.
35. “Council Votes Ban on DDT for Elms,” Wisconsin State Journal, October 27, 1967.
1. “State Fish Swimming in DDT Waters,” Milwaukee Sentinel, January 7, 1966.
2. CNRA—The First 50 Years, 21.
3. Don L. Johnson, “Finally, the DDT Story,” Dunn County News, September 17, 2000.
4. Otto, interview with Steele.
5. CNRA—The First 50 Years, 21.
6. “State Fish Swimming in DDT Waters.”
7. Johnson, “Finally, the DDT Story.”
8. “Fishermen Upset by Lake Pesticides,” Milwaukee Sentinel, January 29, 1966.
9. “Finally, the DDT Story.”
10. “Lake Michigan Fish Contain Most Pesticides,” Grand Rapids Press, November 23, 1963.
11. Letter, October 8, 1968, box 1, call no. M75–368, file 5, Citizens Natural Resources Association of Wisconsin Records.
12. “DDT Found in Fish from 31 Counties,” Milwaukee Journal, April 30, 1967.
13. Ibid.
14. “Lake Pesticides Reported Nearing ‘Lethal Level,’” Milwaukee Sentinel, February 2, 1968.
15. “A Plea to Save Lake Michigan from Pesticides,” Milwaukee Journal, August 3, 1968.
16. Walter Scott, “Problems and Problem Areas,” box 4, file 6, Lorrie Otto Papers.
17. Lorrie Otto to Victor Yannacone, September 17, 1968, box 4, file 6, Lorrie Otto Papers.
18. “Officials to Meet on Controversy Over Coho, DDT,” Milwaukee Sentinel, April 9, 1969.
19. United Press International, “Michigan Fears Loss of Fishery,” Milwaukee Journal, April 24, 1969.
20. Ibid.
21. “State Fish Called Safe Despite DDT,” Milwaukee Sentinel, April 30, 1969. Dadisman covered the hearing for the paper.
22. “Governors Ask Higher Limit on DDT Content of Fish,” Milwaukee Journal, September 3, 1969.
1. The author visited the Hanson retreat in April 2005 to gather information for a biography commissioned by the Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame. Martin Hanson was inducted into the Hall of Fame in April 2009, a few months after his death.
2. Paul G. Hayes, “The Last Lord of Camelot North,” Milwaukee Journal Magazine, February 20, 1994.
3. Ibid.
4. Christofferson, The Man from Clear Lake, 242.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid., 245.
7. Thomas Huffman, “Protectors of the Land & Water: The Political Culture of Conservation and the Rise of Environmentalism in Wisconsin, 1958–70” (doctoral thesis, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 1989).
8. “Drive against DDT Taken to Resorts,” Appleton Post-Crescent, April 9, 1969.
9. “Threat to State Tourism Raised Unless the Legislature Bans DDT,” Wisconsin State Journal, April 10, 1969.
10. “Alfonsi Asks, Keep DDT Threat Quiet,” Waukesha Daily Freeman, April 11, 1969.
11. Martin Hanson to Paul Alfonsi, April 12, 1969, box 5, file 3, Lorrie Otto Papers.
12. “‘Asinine’ Publicity Cited,” Rhinelander Daily News, April 16, 1969.
13. “Bradley Claims Handbill Harms Tourism,” Oshkosh Northwestern, April 11, 1969.
14. “Fishing Season and DDT,” Wausau Record-Herald, April 17, 1969.
15. “Startling Message on DDT,” Janesville Gazette, April 10, 1969.
16. “Alfonsi Asks, Keep DDT Threat Quiet.”
17. “Dispute DDT Risk to Fish Eaters Despite Warning,” Vilas County News-Review, April 10, 1969.
18. “Hansen’s [sic] DDT Warning Troubles Resort Owners,” Capital Times, April 14, 1969.
19. The Associated Press reported on Knowles’s statement, and the story ran in newspapers across the state, including the Green Bay Press-Gazette, on April 20, 1969.
1. Harmon Henkin, “DDT on Trial,” Environment 11, no. 2, January–February 1969– December 1969: 14.
2. “Legal Action Started over Spray Plan,” Milwaukee Sentinel, September 26, 1968.
3. William G. Moore, “The Wisconsin Ban on DDT: Old Law, New Content,” Gargoyle (University of Wisconsin Law School) 16, no. 2 (Fall 1985): 2.
4. Dunlap, “DDT on Trial: The Wisconsin Hearing, 1968–1969,” 6.
5. Moore, “The Wisconsin Ban on DDT,” 4.
6. Dunlap, “DDT on Trial: The Wisconsin Hearing, 1968–1969,” 6.
7. Moore, “The Wisconsin Ban on DDT,” 5.
8. Roy Gromme, interview with the author, March 27, 2012.
9. CNRA news release, May 5, 1969, box 5, file 7, Lorrie Otto Papers. The news release also announced that the EDF had reorganized to escalate its efforts to ban DDT. It named Dr. Joseph Hassett of the University of New Mexico executive director of the organization and put Victor Yannacone on a monthly retainer to be paid from the Rachel Carson Trust.
10. Volunteer list, box 7, file 5, Lorrie Otto Papers.
11. William Reeder, interview with the author, February 25, 2013.
12. Loucks, interview with the author, March 27, 2012.
13. Otto letter to the New Yorker, February 8, 1969, box 7, file 3, Lorrie Otto Papers. Robert Rudd was one of two summation witnesses for the environmentalists. The other was Orie Loucks.
14. Reeder, interview with the author, February 25, 2013.
15. Whitney Gould, interview with the author, July 9, 2010.
16. Loucks, interview with the author, April 3, 2012.
17. Lynne Eich, interview with the author, March 2012.
18. Moore, “The Wisconsin Ban on DDT,” 6.
19. Wurster, interview with the author, March 3, 2012.
20. Peg Watrous to Lorrie Otto, February 19, 1969, box 7, file 7, Lorrie Otto Papers.
21. Anderson, interview with the author, April 3, 2012.
22. “DDT Bugs Students, Too, They Tell Officials,” Wisconsin State Journal, December 13, 1968.
23. “‘DDT Commandos’ Invade State Hearing,” Milwaukee Journal, December 13, 1968.
24. Yannacone, interview with the author, June 12, 2012.
25. Wurster, interview with the author, September 7, 2012.
1. Gould, interview with the author, July 9, 2010. Gould was with the Capital Times from 1967 to 1984, when she was lured to the Milwaukee Journal. She stayed with that paper when it merged with the Milwaukee Sentinel and retired in 1997 after serving as its architecture critic, focusing on the importance of inviting, livable cities and their relationship to the natural world.
2. Dunlap, “DDT on Trial: The Wisconsin Hearing, 1968–1969,” 10.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. “Wisconsin Ponders Ban of Controversial DDT,” Sunday Oregonian (Portland, Oregon), December 22, 1968, box 5, file 7, Lorrie Otto Papers.
6. Gould, interview with the author, July 9, 2010.
7. Dunlap, “DDT on Trial: The Wisconsin Hearing, 1968–1969,” 15.
8. “Scientist Warns of DDT Peril to Sex Life,” Capital Times, January 14, 1969.
9. Lorrie Otto scribbled this note on a copy of the news article, “Scientist Warns of DDT Peril to Sex Life,” box 5, file 7, Lorrie Otto Papers. She frequently wrote comments on photocopies of news articles and other materials.
10. “DDT Found in Mother’s Milk,” Milwaukee Journal, May 6, 1969.
11. “Claim Babies Get Too Much of DDT,” Capital Times, May 6, 1969.
12. Wurster, interview with the author, March 2, 2012.
13. Dunlap, “DDT on Trial: The Wisconsin Hearing, 1968–1969,” 9.
14. Ibid., 11.
15. “DDT Quiz Lapses into Legal Squabble,” Capital Times, December 3, 1969.
16. Dan Anderson, e-mail to the author, March 27, 2012.
17. Hugh Iltis, interview with the author, June 5, 2012. As World War II continued, Hugo Iltis’s sister-in-law Lizzy needed to prove her lineage to the Nazis. In doing so, she learned that Gregor Mendel showed up in her family tree.
18. Gould, interview with the author, June 1, 2012.
19. “Biologist Blasts DDT, Pesticides,” Capital Times, December 4, 1968.
20. “U.W. Ecologist Blames DDT for Polluting Lakes, Large and Small,” Capital Times, December 10, 1969.
21. Dunlap, “DDT on Trial: The Wisconsin Hearing, 1968–1969,” 9.
22. Yannacone, interview with the author, June 9, 2012.
23. Otto to Carol Yannacone, 1968, box 7, file 2, Lorrie Otto Papers.
24. Gould, interview with the author, July 9, 2010.
25. Loucks, interview with the author, March 27, 2012.
26. “Test for DDT,” New York Times, December 1, 1968. The editorial appeared just a day before the hearing began.
27. “The DDT Fight: David vs. Goliath,” Capital Times, December 16, 1968.
28. “Cite Dangers to Fish at Hearings on DDT,” Capital Times, January 13, 1969.
29. “Scientist Testifies of DDT Harm to Mallard Ducks’ Reproduction,” Capital Times, January 16, 1969.
30. Otto note on “Scientist Testifies of DDT Harm to Mallard Ducks’ Reproduction,” box 5, file 7, Lorrie Otto Papers.
31. “DDT Foes Close Case with ‘Ecological Hazard’ Plea,” Capital Times, January 17, 1969. A copy of the story with Otto’s note is in box 4, file 7, of the Lorrie Otto Papers.
32. “Madison DDT Hearings Bolster Nation-Wide Concern,” Capital Times, March 25, 1969.
33. “Chemical Unit Defends DDT Use,” Capital Times, March 20, 1969.
34. Dunlap, “DDT on Trial: The Wisconsin Hearing, 1968–1969,” 20.
35. Ibid., 17.
36. “DDT Poses No Threats to Health, Professor Tells Resumed Hearing,” Wisconsin State Journal, April 30, 1969.
37. Dunlap, “DDT on Trial: The Wisconsin Hearing, 1968–1969,” 20.
38. “U.W. Entomologist Backs DDT Use for Vegetable Crops,” Wisconsin State Journal, May 3, 1969.
39. “DDT Wiping Out Bird Species, Hearing Is Told,” Milwaukee Sentinel, May 13, 1969.
40. Robert Risebrough, interview with the author, June 6, 2012.
41. Ibid.
42. Ibid.
43. Hickey, oral history by Greeley, 10.
44. “DDT Defendant Delights Pesticide’s Foes with Testimony on Residues,” Capital Times, May 8, 1969.
45. Ibid.
46. Ibid.
47. Otto note on the Capital Times, May 8, 1969, report, box 4, file 7, Lorrie Otto Papers.
48. “Stress of Modern Life Rather Than DDT Harms State Birds, UW Expert Testifies,” Green Bay Press-Gazette, May 8, 1969.
49. Ibid.
50. “DDT Proponents Keep Up Steady Barrage of Arguments,” Capital Times, May 5, 1969.
51. “Shell Co. Game Manager Denies DDT Is Harmful to Wildlife,” Capital Times, May 13, 1969.
52. The Capital Times relied on a report from the London Observer for its April 17 coverage of the Sweden ban.
53. “Book Hurt DDT Sales, Hearing Told,” Milwaukee Sentinel, May 15, 1969.
54. “DDT Permanently Injures Animals,” Capital Times, May 20, 1969.
55. Ibid.
56. “U. Pharmacologist Won’t Term DDT ‘Safe’ for Humans,” Capital Times, May 21, 1969.
57. Richard Kienitz, “Meaning of Safety Argued at DDT Hearing,” Milwaukee Journal, May 21, 1969. Kienitz, of the paper’s Madison bureau, had long since become a regular at the hearing as the newspaper grasped its importance.
58. Loucks, interview with the author, April 3, 2012.
59. Ibid.
60. Yannacone, interview with the author, June 12, 2012.
61. “Massive DDT Trial Testimony Closes,” Capital Times, May 22, 1969.
62. Loucks, interview with the author, April 3, 2012.
63. “Examiner’s Summary of Evidence and Proposed Ruling,” Petition of Citizens Natural Resources Association Inc., and Wisconsin Division, Izaak Walton League of America Inc., for a Declaratory Ruling on Use of Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloro-Ethane, Commonly Known as DDT, in the State of Wisconsin, 3-DR-1, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, May 21, 1970. Van Susteren’s ruling was an exhaustive summary of approximately 4,500 pages of testimony, exhibits, and related information.
64. It’s a matter of definition: Hugh Iltis, the University of Wisconsin in Madison botanist who testified at the hearing, said in a June 4, 2012, interview with the author that he was on hand throughout. Was he a private citizen or a scientist? Several others interviewed by the author claimed that they, too, were at the hearing each day. But it remains a fact that Otto played the most active role among citizen activists who were not scientists.
65. The undated letter, addressed “Dear Sirs,” was likely sent to EDF officials, although that is not clear. The letter is in box 7, file 14, of the Lorrie Otto Papers.
66. And one woman: Lucille Stickel.
1. “Sixty Years of Daily Newspaper Circulation Trends,” Communic@tions Management Inc., May 6, 2011. The firm is a Canadian company that provides consulting advice in media economics, media trends, and the impact of new technologies on the media.
2. Dave Zweifel, editor emeritus of the Capital Times, interview with the author, June 5, 2012.
3. Ohio History Central, www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=1642.
4. “America’s Sewage System and the Price of Optimism,” Time, August 1, 1969.
5. “DDT Seems a Safe Pesticide for Man’s Use,” Milwaukee Journal, box 4, file 9, Lorrie Otto Papers.
6. “DDT Workers Affected in U.S.S.R.,” Science News, February 15, 1969, 166.
7. Lorrie Otto’s archival materials contain copies of articles from publications listed. Many were found in box 4.
8. “Second Thoughts Emerge on U.S. Decision to Ban DDT,” Christian Science Monitor, December 30, 1969.
9. “Lifeless Oceans? DDT Could Bring About Such a Result,” Los Angeles Times, March 6, 1969.
10. “Cyclamate, DDT Bans May Be Overreactions,” Philadelphia Inquirer, December 7, 1969.
11. “Pesticide into Pest,” Time, July 11, 1969, 56.
12. “Conservation Lawyers Move to Defend the ‘Quality of Living,’” New York Times, September 14, 1969.
13. “Cities, Not Farms, Key Cause of Pesticide Woes—Wilkinson,” Green Bay Press-Gazette, April 20, 1969.
14. “UW Researchers Join Protest of Military Use of Science,” Milwaukee Journal, March 4, 1969. The protest against the military use of science took an ugly turn in Madison the following year. A bomb caused massive damage to the university’s Sterling Hall, which housed the Army Mathematics Research Center. Researcher Robert Fassnacht was killed, three others were injured, and the blast caused significant damage to the physics department. Neither Fassnacht nor the physics department were involved with or employed by the Army Mathematics Research Center.
15. “Science, DDT, and All Things for All Men,” Wisconsin State Journal, August 31, 1969.
16. “Fight to Save Farm Chemicals,” Wisconsin Agriculturist, January 11, 1969.
17. “Living with DDT and Liking It,” Stevens Point Journal, March 13, 1969.
18. “WBA Hits Opponents of Bow Deer Hunting,” Capital Times, January 20, 1969.
19. “Let’s Have Straight Answers,” Rice Lake Chronotype, May 7, 1969.
20. “Too Many Controls Threaten Farms,” Wisconsin State Journal, July 20, 1969.
21. “Environmentalists Take Aim at Fertilizers,” Wisconsin State Journal, September 28, 1969.
22. “Toxic Menace Also Threat in Waters around World,” Milwaukee Sentinel, August 15, 1969.
23. Lorrie Otto to Charles Wurster, July 10, 1969, box 7, file 5, Lorrie Otto Papers.
24. “State to Ban Sale of DDT,” State Journal (Lansing–East Lansing, MI), April 17, 1969.
25. “California to Ban Home Use of DDT,” Chicago Sun-Times, June 13, 1969.
26. “US Official Urges National DDT Ban,” Milwaukee Journal, May 20, 1969.
27. Ibid.
28. “Federal DDT Action Welcome; Wisconsin Dawdles on Problem,” Capital Times, November 21, 1969.
29. “Chemical Firms Try to Block DDT Ruling,” Capital Times, September 23, 1969.
30. “Won’t Back Pesticide Council,” Capital Times, May 17, 1967.
31. “UW Law Prof Writes Model Pesticide Bill,” Milwaukee Sentinel, April 26, 1969.
32. “Bill Urges Complete Ban on DDT,” Milwaukee Sentinel, February 1, 1969.
33. “State DDT Ban Can Alert World to Pollution Dangers,” Capital Times, April 10, 1969.
34. Ibid.
35. Ibid.
36. Otto to Walter Scott, September 22, 1969, box 7, file 14, Lorrie Otto Papers.
37. “State Board on Pesticide Curbs OK’d,” Milwaukee Journal, July 23, 1969.
38. “No DDT Supporters at Hearing to Ban It,” Wisconsin State Journal, September 25, 1969.
39. “Knowles Approves Ban on DDT Sales,” Milwaukee Journal, February 13, 1970.
40. “Consolidated DDT Hearing: Hearing Examiner Edmund M. Sweeney’s Findings, Conclusions and Orders, issued April 25, 1972, Environmental Protection Agency.” The document can be viewed and downloaded from the EPA’s website at http://www2.epa.gov/sites/production/files/documents/1972_EPA_DDT_hearing.PDF.
1. Gould, interview with the author, June 1, 2012.
2. Yannacone, interview with the author, June 12, 2012.
3. Loucks, interview with the author, March 27, 2012.
4. Wurster, interview with the author, June 14, 2011.
5. Tom J. Cade and William Burnham, eds., Return of the Peregrine: A North American Saga of Tenacity and Teamwork (Boise, ID: Peregrine Fund, 2003), 19.
6. Environmental Defense Fund website, www.edf.org.
7. Yannacone, interview with the author, June 12, 2012.
8. Wurster, interview with the author, September 7, 2012.
9. Gould, interview with the author, August 9, 2010.
10. Mead made the comment at the first Earth Day demonstration, April 22, 1970, in New York City. A radio excerpt reproduced by Voice of America, January 17, 2010, can be heard at http://learningenglish.voanews.com/content/margaret-mead-1901-1978-one-of-the-most-famous-anthropologists-in-the-world-124869344/112571.html.
11. Roger Tory Peterson remarks, Joseph Hickey’s memorial service, September 4, 1993, Hickey family collection, made available courtesy of Susan Nehls.
12. David Kinkela, DDT and the American Century: Global Health, Environmental Politics and the Pesticide that Changed the World (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2011), 173.
13. Risebrough, interview with the author, June 6, 2012.
14. Yannacone, interview with the author, June 12, 2012.
15. Peterson remarks, Joseph Hickey’s memorial service.
16. Gould, interview with the author, August 9, 2010.