My Double Life, Memoirs of a Naturalist

By Coggin Heeringa, Interpretive Naturalist, Crossroads at Big Creek, Inc.

To commemorate Women’s History Month, Crossroads at Big Creek’s Book Club has selected the book, “My Double Life, Memoirs of a Naturalist,” by Frances Hamerstrom. Fran Hamerstrom was among the first, possibly THE first woman wildlife field biologist and she was the only female graduate student of Aldo Leopold.

According to the book jacket, “Born to wealth and privilege in 1907 Boston, young Fan Flint had a governess, was a debutante and fashion model, and was groomed at a finishing school to be an international hostess—to marry an ambassador. Instead, she married the tall, dark man of her dreams and she and Fredrick Hamerstrom left the proper East to live and work and make conservation history in Wisconsin.”

The books begins with childhood memories but moves into the adventures and accomplishments she and her husband had during the time they and their children lived in squalor in the wilds of central Wisconsin. She eventually did become an international hostess — entertaining respected environmental scientists from all over the world and hosting and organizing some 7,000 volunteers in what now would be called a community science effort to study prairie chickens.

A beautiful pastel portrait of Fran Hamerstom by artist James Ingwersen hangs in the upper level of the Collins Learning Center. It is both a symbol of the women in environmental science and also a reminder that Hamerstrom’s writings have influenced Crossroads’ policies.

Hamerstrom wrote of saving an injured prairie chicken. “I became quite a heroine for saving that bird’s life. But year after year I watched the range of prairie chicken disappear under the plow and drainage … I came to realize that saving one individual for sentimental reasons is nothing compared to the preservation of a habitat for a species.”

That portrait inspires us at Crossroads in our efforts to preserve and/or restore the wildlife habitats of our three preserves.

Our Saturday Science family program this week with feature “Women in the Sky.” No—not our female astronauts or the awe-inspiring women astronomers who made their journeys possible, but rather the mythological women for whom the constellations are named. Though they are not as admirable (by a long shot) as women scientists, these “women in the sky” constellations are a great starting place for learning to use star maps and exploring the night sky. Skits and games will fill the afternoon.

Saturday evening, the Door Peninsula Astronomical Society will open the Astronomy Campus for an evening of Night Sky Viewing starting at 7:30 pm. Visitors can enjoy “naked-eye viewing” and use small scopes to search for “the women” in the sky, or they can be awed by deep sky images from the observatory. If weather is overcast, planetarium shows will be offered. Free and open to the public at the Stonecipher Astronomy Center, 2200 Utah Street, Sturgeon Bay.

Wild Ones of the Door Peninsula and the Door County Master Gardeners Association are teaming up with Crossroads at Big Creek and the Climate Change Coalition of Door County for a fresh look at composting on Tuesday, March 28.

The evening will start with an (optional) heavy hors d’oeuvres potluck at 6:00 p.m. The community is invited to join us for a meal of bite-sized samples. Each participant is asked to bring a plate of “finger-food,” from appetizers to desserts. Following the meal, the leftovers and scraps will be sorted and compostable items scraped into a five-gallon compost bucket.

At 7:00 p.m., Jeff Lutsey, executive director of the Climate Change Coalition of Door County, will be the special guest speaker. He will explain environmental benefits of the Door County Compost Initiative and announce that Crossroads will now be a part of the Compost Network. Lutsey will distribute Compost Collection Site maps and hand-outs on compostables.

The program will end with the tongue-in-cheek “Consecration of the Crossroads Compost Collection Container.” Because breaking a champagne bottle over the bin would be inappropriate (broken glass is neither a carbon-rich brown nor a nitrogen-rich green), our dedication will be marked with the ceremonial dumping of the potluck scrap bucket.

This promises to be a fun and informative evening which is free and open to the public. Compose buckets will be available for purchase. The cost will be a $25.00 donation to the Door Community Compost Initiative, a project of CCCDC, payable in cash or check.