The Talk: Steve Apfelbaum will tell us about his life-long project to restore his land on the Illinois border of Wisconsin, taking it back to its original state, before the changes that were brought about by farming, described in detail in his book Nature’s Second Chance, Aldo Leopold’s vision captured in A Sand County Almanac inspired both his commitment to the land, and to a career as an ecologist with Applied Ecological Services (AES), among the planet’s leading ecological research and ecological restoration service companies. His talk will capture the intimate stories experienced and learned during an over thirty-year quest to restore Stone Prairie Farm, in southwestern Wisconsin, culminating with the return of the Sand Hill Cranes.  Having carried out ecological restorations world-wide, he was hired as a consultant by Stone Creek to draw up a master plan. His talk will take place at the Stone Creek Golf Clubhouse. 

Speaker Biography: Steven Apfelbaum graduated from Univ of IL, Champaign-Urbana in 1978, then continued into his MS with Dr. Alan Haney, working on the response of plant and breeding bird communities after wildfires in Canadian and Northeast Minnesota boreal wilderness areas.  As Chairman and Founder of AES he has worked on some of the most disturbed landscapes on earth, engaged in the measurement of site conditions, and design-construction and monitoring of reclamation and restoration in mined lands, hazardous industrial sites in terrestrial, wetland and freshwater aquatic systems across the USA and elsewhere in the world. 

Time and Location: 6.30 pm, March 12th,  Stone Creek Golf Club (Formerly known as Attie's), 2560 Stonecreek Blvd Urbana, IL 

This event is free and open to the public. If you need reasonable accommodations, please call Randy at 217-333-7672.