The Nature Conservancy. Protecting nature. Preserving life.™

The Nature Conservancy mourns the loss of one of Wisconsin’s great conservation leaders, Emily H. Earley, who died on Saturday, April 16, 2011, at the age of 94.

“I can think of no other individual who has worked more diligently to promote the protection of the environment through her support of The Nature Conservancy and the other organizations in which she was involved,” said Mary Jean Huston, who directs the Conservancy’s work in Wisconsin.

Emily joined the board of the fledgling Wisconsin chapter of The Nature Conservancy in 1964. For 10 years she served as the Conservancy's secretary, keeping the minutes and helping out wherever she was needed—on the Nominating Committee, with fundraising and organizing seminars.

In 1974, Emily provided the initial direction and guidance for the Conservancy’s land stewardship program. She realized that, without active management, many of the natural values that Nature Conservancy preserves were established to protect could be lost.

Having traveled the world in pursuit of one of her passions—which is bird-watching, Emily understood that to conserve these birds’ summer and winter habitats, we must work outside as well as inside the United States. In 1990, she took on a new challenge-- helping the Conservancy establish a conservation project in Nicaragua designed to protect forest habitat for migratory birds and other native wildlife.

Emily served as a Nature Conservancy trustee for 40 years, including as Chair of the Wisconsin Chapter’s Board of Trustees in 1995 and 1996. When she wasn’t volunteering her time and considerable energy to the Conservancy, she played important leadership and philanthropic roles with many of the state’s conservation and environmental organizations including the Natural Heritage Land Trust, 1000 Friends of Wisconsin, Environment Wisconsin, the Sierra Club, Madison Audubon Society, Gathering Waters Conservancy, the UW-Madison Arboretum, Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute, Northland College, Wisconsin Conservation Corps, and the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters.

“Emily was very good at prodding and pushing people to do things,” said Gene Roark, co-founder of The Nature Conservancy in Wisconsin. "She was not bashful about asking others to pitch in because she did so much herself."

Emily’s tremendous leadership has been recognized by many. The Nature Conservancy awarded her its highest honors, the Oak Leaf and President’s Stewardship awards. She was also a recipient of the State University of New York’s Sol Feinstone Environmental Award in 2004, and Gathering Waters Conservancy’s Bud Jordahl Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008. In 2010, she was inducted into the Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame.