The Great Lakes Zephyr - Wind Energy & Hydrogen Journal

UW-Madison News Release--The Nelson Legacy

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
12/19/05

CONTACT:  Frances Westley, (608) 320-9870; William Bechtel, (202) 362-2249

GAYLORD NELSON'S INFLUENCE LIVES ON AT UW-MADISON INSTITUTE

MADISON - Six months after the death of one of the most popular political figures in Wisconsin's history, his influence grows stronger at the University of Wisconsin-Madison institute that bears his name.

"Gaylord Nelson defined an era of strong and standard-setting environmental legislation and of global organizing and optimism," says Frances Westley, director of UW-Madison's Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies.  "We want to keep alive the spirit of dialogue and inquiry that characterized his legacy,"

Nelson, a Wisconsin native, died last July at age 89.  The former governor, three-term U.S. senator, and counselor for the non-profit Wilderness Society was an unwavering advocate for the environment.  He is most often remembered as the founder of Earth Day in 1970, but his achievements in conservation and environmental protection were much more far-reaching.

In honor of the late senator, the Nelson Institute in October launched a retrospective series of public lectures on issues such as wild land preservation that he championed for decades.  The series will culminate next April 20 - two days before the 36th anniversary of Earth Day - with a lecture by environmental advocate Lester Brown, founder of the influential Washington D.C.-based Worldwatch Institute.  Brown is now president of the Earth Policy Institute, another environmental think tank that he established in 2001.

Early next year, the Nelson Institute will announce the selection of UW-Madison's first Gaylord Nelson faculty chair, following a fund-raising campaign to establish an honorary professorship in Nelson's name.  A coinciding campaign raised money for a new Nelson Distinguished Fellowship that is awarded each year to a graduate student interested in environmental policy.

Besides hosting Lester Brown, the institute for the first time also will help coordinate Earth Day-related activities across Madison.

What next?

Several of Nelson's friends and long-time associates and the Wilderness Society have offered to support a broader Nelson Institute role in monitoring the state of the environment, observing Earth Day, and carrying on the Nelson legacy.

"The Wilderness Society has the history of producing 25 years of Earth Day statements, a talented staff, and close relationships with other environmental organizations," they wrote to Westley recently.  "The university has all the Nelson papers at its disposal, and the interdisciplinary scientific knowledge of its faculty should be a powerful force for monitoring the environment."

The group included emeritus UW-Madison professor Harold "Bud" Jordahl, Jr., of Madison, conservationist Martin Hanson of Mellen, Nelson biographer William Christofferson of Milwaukee, and attorney Jay Carlson and former Nelson aide William Bechtel, both of Washington, D.C.

"As Senator Nelson emphasized, the purpose in monitoring the environment is to involve the nation, its leaders and its people in a dialogue, which is the only way to achieve solutions to difficult public problems," they wrote.

Action is needed, the group added, "not just to venerate Senator Nelson, nor even just to educate a new generation of environmental leaders, laudable as such goals may be, but to inspire the nation to press forward to achieve Senator Nelson's lofty goals - to save our threatened resources, to develop a new environmental ethic, and to create a sustainable society."
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- Tom Sinclair, (608) 263-5599



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