Generational Stewardship
and the Gift of Nature
Article and Photos by Lisa Tank
As long as I can remember, I’ve been fascinated with birds. In my family, bird-watching has been generational. Long before the environmental movement of the 1970s, my mother was an avid bird-watcher and conservationist and instilled those ideas and practices in me.
My mom was a secretary for a local mid-sized business in the 1960s. She and Dad had four children to raise. Having experienced the Great Depression, they were cautious with a dollar, but we were always well-fed and well-loved.
Mom’s relaxation was gardening and feeding the birds, and she excelled at both. At Mom’s request, Dad hung a bird feeder from the eaves right outside our kitchen window. Mom had a front-row seat to enjoy backyard birds during her many hours in the kitchen. On busy days when I was young and underfoot, she would pick me up and sit me in the kitchen sink to watch the birds at the feeder while she got things done. And there began my fascination.
I grew up near Garfield Park in Davenport, Iowa. There was no bike path in those days, just acres of grass, trees, scrub, and brown water. I would walk with my older brother through the woods and creek bottom as he pointed out signs of raccoon tracks, opossums, deer, turkey, squirrels, pheasant, crayfish (crawdads in my vernacular), and a myriad of birds. The bike path wouldn’t be built along Duck Creek until I was an early teen. The long walks alone or with a trusty dog in these wild places helped calm my anxieties, spark my imagination, and gave me a feeling that I was part of something much bigger.
My mother was a lifetime Girl Scout, as am I. In her years as a troop leader and trainer, we camped all four seasons of the year. Winter camping was one of my favorites. While we scouts were having fun, she quietly taught us about the natural world and helped us learn to see the beauty in our surroundings.
Lisa and her mom at a Girl Scout ceremony in 2007. Her mother was awarded a Thanks Badge, the highest honor in Girl Scouts.
She modeled and passed on two principles. The first was to respect all wildlife. Whether you liked a species or not, they each had a purpose. The second was to leave a place better than you found it. Mom didn’t force these ideas on us—they were simply how she lived her life. These ideas have formed my life, but as many of you know, there is rarely a straight path to any destination.
During my senior year at Central High School in Davenport, I took an AP Biology class, a mid-step course between high school and college classes. I always loved science, and this course delved into the minutia of how nature worked. I learned I was good at understanding biology.
I was going to graduate soon and I was going to need a car, so I began a part-time job at Kimberly Crest Veterinary Hospital. I was fascinated by surgery and the workings of the animals in our care, so I set my sights on becoming a veterinary technician. In those days there were no classes for this. You had to double-major: human medical lab technician and operating room technician and try to translate that to canine and feline patients. After a couple of years, I decided this was not the direction I wanted to go.
I went on to major in biology at Principia College, a small private college in Elsah, Illinois. There I took an ornithology class. This class was pivotal for me. I learned about the various birds I’d watched growing up and what made them tick. At Principia, we had a small aviary that housed a pair of lovebirds, a male cockatiel, small guinea fowl, a golden pheasant, a pair of ring-necked doves, and a very large tortoise. Outside, we housed a great horned owl and a red-tailed hawk. Because of my work at the vet clinic, I became the caretaker of the aviary. Elsewhere in the lab, we had a pair of boa constrictors and a myriad of fish, all under my care. I earned some extra gas money and learned a lot about caring for undomesticated animals.
It was during my time at Principia that I was introduced to TreeHouse Wildlife Center, then located in Brighton, Illinois. A couple of our aviary birds needed veterinary care and this was the only place that handled wild animals. Founded by Adele Evans and her husband, TreeHouse took in every manner of native wildlife. Adele’s husband, Richard, was a veterinarian at Purina near St. Louis. In those days, veterinary colleges weren’t teaching classes in “exotics” as they are commonly called today, but Dr. Evans was very knowledgeable. It was all utterly fascinating to me. Adele invited me to attend the release of a rehabilitated great horned owl who’d suffered a broken wing when colliding with a power line. Watching that owl return where it belonged was a turning point. I decided I was going to be a wildlife rehabilitator.
After leaving Principia, I took an eight-week internship at TreeHouse. Interns lived on-site in the treatment building, a tiny room right off the kitchen. Nights were hot and stifling, even with a fan on, but I got to fall asleep listening to the calls of barn owls, barred owls, great horned owls, and all the other critters housed there. It was a magical time, and I learned a lot about how fulfilling and heartbreaking rehab could be. I will be forever grateful to Adele Evans for the opportunity to intern at TreeHouse. It is still running in Godfrey, Illinois, today.
When I left TreeHouse, I became engaged and started the next phase of adulthood, still keeping my dream of becoming a licensed rehabilitator. At that time, the state of Iowa had no licensing requirements. As I’d learned at TreeHouse, uneducated people, or bleeding hearts, as we called them, meant well but could do a lot of damage to an injured or orphaned animal making them unreleasable.
I worked with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to establish licensing requirements for our state, based on the rules in the state of Illinois. License obtained, I worked with my local Scott County Conservation officers to give them a place to bring the orphaned and injured wildlife they encountered. I was on my way. However, once again, my road turned. After a divorce, I was forced to give up the land where I was able to do rehab work and move into town.
I felt “out to sea” with my desire to help the wildlife in our state. I took three jobs to support myself and my little apartment. Once again, someone emerged to guide me on my path. The park ranger at Scott County Park, Jeff Danielson, hired me as the park naturalist for the summer. I knew very little about what a naturalist did, but I had gained a lot of knowledge about the natural world from my mother, veterinary work, college, Treehouse, and rehabbing wildlife on my own. I began working every weekend from Memorial Day through Labor Day in the nature center at Scott County Park. I loved sharing my insights with the kids that came by. They were so interested and fun to interact with, and I was able to help a few learn that every animal has a place in our world, whether we like them or not. Thanks, Mom.
Those were long days. I was newly married and hoping for a long career as a naturalist with the Scott County Conservation Department. After two years, however, the department purchased an old Boy Scout camp outside of Dixon, Iowa. The decision was made to close Scott County Park Nature Center and focus funding on what is now the Wapsi River Environmental Education Center. My only problem was that they didn’t have the funding. I was offered a job, but there was no guarantee. Needing more income, I once again stepped away from a dream to do what I felt was the responsible thing.
Following in my mother’s secretarial footsteps, I worked as an administrative assistant for the next three decades. I tried keeping my hand in helping animals, taking in a few dogs and cats that were difficult to place for one reason or another. I did a bit of volunteering at the Humane Society of Scott County and took in surgical fosters and orphaned bottle-baby kittens for the Quad Cities Animal Recovery Team. I had the skills, the knowledge, and a new, larger home where I could quarantine newcomers away from my permanent residents. I felt good about the work I did, and I loved all the animals, domesticated and otherwise.
I worked with Girl Scouts at Camp Conestoga caring for their herd of horses. I also taught young scouts how to care for them, ride, and overcome their fears. Riding through trails at the camp, listening for birds, and being immersed in the woods was a panacea for me while I worked full-time doing office work.
In 2008, my husband and I bought a beautiful acreage outside DeWitt, Iowa. It has a couple acres of tillable ground and some old, overgrazed cattle pasture I grazed my horses on for years. A little rill of a creek runs through alongside some woods consisting mostly of osage orange, elm, cottonwood, locust trees, a few black cherry, walnut, three red cedar, and a lot of invasive plants. To others, it might not be special, but it’s heaven to me.
After “aging out” of horses, I began to think about what I wanted to do to improve our property. I’d retired, and spending more time at home made me realize what poor habitat there is for wildlife on our thirteen acres. I decided to start small and do what I could. I remade my front garden into a pollinator-friendly space for butterflies, insects, and hummingbirds. I set up several bird feeding stations catering to different species. We planted some trees and removed the emerald ash borer-riddled trees. Then I set my mind on making the old farm ground into a haven for birds and wildlife. I also took a part-time job at Wild Birds Unlimited, a nature store in Davenport dedicated to our wild birds, pollinators, and the environment.
We’re quite lucky to be living near the Wapsipinicon and Mississippi Rivers, right in the middle of the Great Mississippi Flyway—a major migration route through the middle of the United States. The Mississippi and Wapsi provide much-needed rest stops for birds coming to and from South America and Canada. Unfortunately, being an agricultural state, we have destroyed most of the native feeding and resting areas for our birds. I’m trying to change that on my little acreage.
In the next couple of months, with help from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources District Forester, David Bridges, and a grower out of Monmouth, Iowa, Kevin Oetken, 200 seedlings of native, nut-producing hardwoods and fruit-bearing shrubs will be planted on our bottomland. It’s been three years in the planning and a lot of hard labor, but I want to leave my land better than when I found it. Thanks, Mom.
My path has certainly not been a straight one. There have been many years I have despaired and literally cried that my life didn’t turn out the way I’d planned so long ago. I didn’t work in the field I’d chosen. I haven’t made any monumental discoveries or helped hundreds of animals recover and return to the wild. I’ve tried to keep my hand in work related to my goals, but I felt it has never been quite enough.
I suppose many of us feel this way, but I am deeply grateful for the peace and wonderment that our Iowa wildlife has given me over the years. Chances are good I won’t live long enough to see many of my new trees grow to maturity. It is my hope that these new native trees and bushes can give wildlife a safe place to rest and find food, raise some babies, and become part of the world. I haven't been able to accomplish all I set out to do over the years, but I have done what I could when I was able. I’m trying to do what Mom said—to leave my little spot better than when I found it.
I’m still listening, Mom.