Ryerson Woods - Smith Nature Symposium

Smith Nature Symposium

The Smith Nature Symposium is an annual fundraising event for Friends of Ryerson Woods and is presented in cooperation with the Lake County Forest Preserves. This will mark the Symposium’s 29^th year of bringing luminaries in the field of conservation to the citizens of Lake County.

LESSONS FROM THE PRAIRIE
Benefit Dinner
with Keynote Address by

Wes Jackson
President, The Land Institute
Saturday, May 19, 2012

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Wes Jackson is president and founder of The Land Institute, an organization dedicated to developing an agricultural system with the ecological stability of the prairie and a grain yield comparable to that from annual crops.  Drawing knowledge from the way the world has worked for millions of years, Wes seeks to farm in nature’s image by shifting away from the use of monoculture annual grains (like wheat) to inter-mixed (polyculture) perennial grains.  Holding degrees in biology, botany and genetics, he is a leader in the international sustainable agriculture movement and has been recognized as a Pew Conservation Scholar and a MacArthur Fellow, as well as presented with the prestigious Right Livelihood Award ('Alternative Nobel Prize') for outstanding vision and work on behalf of our planet and its people.

AWARD RECIPIENT

Steven Apfelbaum is a world leader in ecological system restoration, conservation development and the resolution of conflicts over land use. He is founder, chairman and chief ecologist of Applied Ecological Services, an international ecological restoration company based in Brodhead, Wisconsin. Steven promotes using ecological and conservation design principles that help clients save money while increasing ecological functionality, improving public perception and generating award-winning outcomes. He has conducted environmental research, played key roles in scientific panels and organizations like Chicago Wilderness and contributed his creative scientific expertise and leadership to over 1,500 projects across North America and beyond--including the nationally acclaimed Prairie Crossing conservation community in Grayslake, Illinois. Steven has also authored hundreds of technical studies, peer-reviewed technical papers, books, reports and ecological restoration plans.

ART EXHIBITION

Specimens: Photographs by Julie Meridian

A constant collector of nature’s commonplace wonders, Julie Meridian is an artist with a reverent curiosity about the natural world.   Inspired by the carefully classified and preserved specimens in the vast collections of the Field Museum, she began photographing her own collection.  Instead of documentation, her intent is to convey the unfathomable mysteries the specimens exude, exploring themes of fragility and endurance, beauty and decay, chance and destiny, life and death.

Employing a simple background of white paper and constantly shifting natural light, Meridian uses her camera to preserve each specimen in an ephemeral framework constructed solely of light and shadow. Her reward is the startling moment when the mundane reality of the specimen undergoes a quiet metamorphosis. Hovering between specimen and poetry, science and art, the moment challenges her to measure the immeasurable: the inevitability of loss and the transcendence of beauty.   Exhibition runs May 8 – June 29.

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

WHEN:      5-9pm

                   Saturday, May 19

WHERE:      Brushwood

                   Ryerson Woods

COST:         $125 per person ($1,100 for a table of 10) for entire evening.

                   $25 ($20 FRW members) for dessert and keynote only.

Click here to be notified when registration for this program becomes available.

HISTORY OF THE SMITH NATURE SYMPOSIUM

The Smith Nature Symposium is an annual fundraising event for FRW and is presented in cooperation with the Lake County Forest Preserves. This will mark the Symposium’s 29^th year of bringing luminaries in the conservation field to the citizens of Lake County, a history including such past speakers as Roger Tory Peterson, George Archibald, and David Sibley.  The 2012 Symposium will launch FRW’s year-long exploration of the theme LESSONS FROM THE PRAIRIE with an integrated roster of public education programs running from May through December 2012.  Through a series of workshops, films, lectures and art exhibitions, FRW will offer varying perspectives on the ways human society can learn from our prairie ecosystem in particular, and natural systems broadly speaking.

The evening of the Smith Nature Symposium features a reception, silent auction, benefit dinner, award presentation and keynote address. Guests can join us for the entire evening or may choose to attend the keynote and dessert only.

Presented by:                                                                  In partnership with:



Principal Sponsor:

2012 Event Committee

Lele Barkhausen Nick Bothfeld Bobbie Brown Nan Buckardt Julia Kemerer

Adriana McClintock Seren Orgel Barbara Rosborough Jill Stites Sophie Twichell

Smith Nature Symposium Past Topics and Speakers SMITH NATURE SYMPOSIUM 2011 Green Design Keynote Speaker: Bill Browning Partner in Terrapin Bright Green Bill Browning is one of the green building and real estate industry’s foremost thinkers and strategists, and an advocate for sustainable design solutions at all levels of business, government and civil society. His expertise has been sought out by organizations as diverse as Fortune 500 companies, leading universities, non-profit organizations, the U.S. military and foreign governments. Bill was a founding member of the U.S. Green Building Council’s Board of Directors, and he has served as an advisor on high-profile demonstration projects including Wal-Mart's Eco-mart and the Greening of the White House.
2011 Friends of Ryerson Woods Award Receipient: William D. Sturm
SMITH NATURE SYMPOSIUM 2010 Business of Being Green Keynote Speaker: Will Raap Founder and Chairman, Gardener's Supply Will Raap is dedicated to developing enterprises that generate economic and social opportunity while protecting natural resources. Raap shared his experiences both with Gardener’s Supply and his numerous environmental restoration and sustainability initiatives. One of the largest on-line catalog and gardening companies in this country, Gardener’s Supply Company enjoys sales of over $60 million and employs more than 250 people.
2010 Friends of Ryerson Woods Award Receipient: Steve Bartram
SMITH NATURE SYMPOSIUM 2009 Locally Grown Keynote Speaker: Will Allen Founder and CEO, Growing Power MacArthur Fellow and former basketball pro Will Allen is challenging the way we think about farming and food delivery systems. Committed to the vision of full access to fresh, healthy, local, affordable food in underserved, urban communities, Allen founded Growing Power in Milwaukee in 1995. Allen's thoughtfully integrated urban farming model provides a platform to address not only sustainable cultivation, production and food-networking practice, but also environmental and social justice issues. 2009 Friends of Ryerson Woods Award Receipient: Barbara Whitney Carr
SMITH NATURE SYMPOSIUM 2008 The Great Lakes Keynote Speaker: Peter Annin Author, The Great Lakes Water Wars The Great Lakes Water Wars is considered the definitive book on the Great Lakes water diversion controversy. It delves into the long history of political maneuvers and water diversion schemes that have proposed sending Great Lakes water everywhere from Akron to Arizona to Asia. Annin provides a behind-the-scenes account of the struggle over Great Lakes water, as the eight Great Lake states and two Canadian provinces try to implement an unprecedented accord designed to protect the lakes from unwarranted water diversions. The Great Lakes Water Wars tells the colorful story of the on-going effort to conserve this invaluable freshwater resource, and the book serves as an important warning about what could happen if the lakes are left unprotected. A veteran conflict and environmental journalist, Peter Annin spent more than a decade reporting on a wide variety of issues for Newsweek. For many years he specialized in coverage of domestic terrorism. He also covered droughts in the Southwest, hurricanes in the Southeast, wind power on the Great Plains, forest fires in the mountain West, as well as the “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico. 2008 Friends of Ryerson Woods Award Receipient: Cameron Davis


Keynote Speakers prior to 2008 2007 Karsten Heuer 2006 Joe Duff 2005 Sy Montgomery 2004 Joel Sartore 2003 David Allen Sibley 2002 Lincoln Brower 2001 George Archibald 2000 Terry Root 1999 Lester Fisher 1998 John Fitzpatrick 1997 Peter Raven 1996 Peter Dunne 1995 Donald & Lillian Stokes 1994 Jack Horner 1993 William Cronon 1992 Merlin Tuttle 1991 Richard Clark 1990 Senator Gaylord Nelson 1989 L. David Mech 1988 Neil Rettig Bill Kurtis 1987 John Fitzpatrick Bill Kurtis 1986 William Burger Tom Cade 1985 George Archibald Kenneth Nebenzahl 1984 Joseph Hickey Roger Tory Peterson	Award Winners prior to 2008 2007 Gerald W. Adelmann 2006 Chicago Wilderness 2005 Debra K. Moskovits 2004 John Rogner 2003 George B. Rabb 2002 George Ranney, Sr. 2001 John W. McCarter, Jr. 2000 Adele Simmons 1999 Andrea S. Moore 1998 William J. Beecher 1997 Melvin A. Traylor 1996 Fran Harty 1995 Bill Kurtis 1994 Roy O. Gromme 1993 Abbott Laboratories 1992 Susan Spears 1991 Barbara C. Donnelley 1990 E. Leland Webber 1989 Maxine Hunter 1988 John Fitzpatrick 1987 Nancy Ryerson Ranney

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