Boldt Co. helps build sustainable movement
"Acts of creation are ordinarily reserved for gods and poets, but humbler folk may circumvent this restriction if they know how. To plant a pine, for example, one need be neither god nor poet; one need only own a shovel. By virtue of this curious loophole in the rules, any clodhopper may say: Let there be a tree and there will be one."
You can almost imagine Aldo Leopold formulating these words in his mind as he dug in pine seedlings on the tired, old sand farm he acquired in Adams County in 1935 as a weekend retreat from his teaching duties at the University of Wisconsin.
The man credited as a founder of ecology will be honored with the Aldo Leopold Legacy Center in Baraboo, to be built this year with timbers hewn from the very pines he was planting.
Leopold qualified as a creator with both his shovel and his pen. He also will be honored with the second annual Leopold Weekend on March 4-5, with people gathering at schools and nature centers across the state to read aloud his most inspired work, "A Sand County Almanac." Appleton's Boldt Co. is involved in both tributes.
Boldt serves as general contractor for the Legacy Center. Selected for its track record in using sustainable buildings techniques, Boldt aims to make the new headquarters for the Aldo Leopold Foundation the first building in Wisconsin to earn a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.
The company also is the statewide sponsor of Aldo Leopold Weekend, providing a major grant to buy copies of "A Sand County Almanac" and cover other expenses for the event at two dozen sites around the state, including Mosquito Hill Nature Center near New London and Navarino Nature Center east of Clintonville. Company employees will also take part in reading sessions.
Thomas J. Boldt, chief executive officer of the Boldt Co., sees the association with the Aldo Leopold Foundation as a natural.
"For me, it's just very exciting in many different dimensions," he said. "They're very much on track in a lot of things I personally believe in and that the company has embraced."
After understandable soul-searching, Leopold's surviving children decided the pines planted by their father with their help 70 years ago needed to be thinned to limit disease and promote healthy growth. Dad was, after all, a forester in addition to being a conservationist.
Part of the deal was that the logs remain the property of the Aldo Leopold Foundation and will be the primary source of posts, beams and trusses for the Leopold Center. The smaller pine logs will be used for flooring, paneling and trim.
Even the logging slash and small trees will be turned over to the U.S. Forest Products Laboratory on the UW campus, where Leopold once served as assistant director, to be used as pulp for making paper. The paper is to be used to print even more meaningful copies of "A Sand County Almanac."
Boldt's own introduction to Leopold came through Dale Eldred, the late artist who designed "Appleton Aurora," the large reflective sculpture on top of the Appleton Center office building.
"He talked about Leopold and what influence he had on him," Boldt said of Eldred.
Leopold's description of the land ethic had Eldred looking differently at the land and how it interacts with the sun and the cycles of world. Eldred encouraged Boldt to read "A Sand County Almanac."
"I loved it," Boldt said. "It was just, to me, sort of matter of fact and common sense. It's very hands-on and knowledgeable. The style of writing is very succinct and rich."
If Leopold can turn the state's largest builder into a dedicated proponent of the land ethic, maybe he should qualify as a god.