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Harold Kruse © TNC Archive

“I learned to take care of the earth, and that's important. We all have to do something. I just do what I can." Harold Kruse

Harold G. Kruse, 86, died July 9, 2011, at Maplewood Nursing Home, where he had been living for the past seven years. His was the passing of an extraordinary individual, a beloved and respected conservationist of the highest rank. Many of us care about the environment, but relatively few of us actually defend it. Harold devoted virtually his entire life to preserving and protecting, in his words, "the natural beauty of our area, and particularly the biotic diversity of the Baraboo Hills and the Lower Wisconsin River."

Harold and his sister Caroline grew up on Hickory Hill Farm, two miles south of Loganville. He attended country school for eight years, walking the mile and a half to school through woods and fields, a formative influence no longer an option for today's school children. Opportunities for nature exploration were also provided by a quieter time than exists today; work horses, not tractors, for example, were still being used at Hickory Hill during Harold's childhood. Another major influence was his grade school teacher, Vera Moll, a nature enthusiast who brought nature books to school, and also introduced the children to Ranger Mac's weekly radio program on conservation. Fishing trips were also fond childhood memories. These years, Harold recalled, were "the most enjoyable years of my life."

He had considered a career in forestry, but this was not to be because of World War II. His choice after high school graduation in 1943 was military service or a job deemed essential for the war effort; Harold secured a deferment to work on the farm for the remainder of the war. His readings during these years included the writings of prominent philosophers such as Albert Schweitzer and his reverence for life, but perhaps the most influential book in Harold's life was Louis Bromfield's Pleasant Valley, in which the author emphasizes such farming methods as contour plowing and nitrogen-fixing cover crops. This book and also organic farming literature convinced Harold that his future lay at Hickory Hill, where, he wrote, he "could maintain the family farm, provide a good home for my own future family, enjoy nature, and set an example of good land management which others would hopefully follow." In 1951 he married Carla Ochsner; the Ochsners are also several generation residents of Sauk County. Market gardening - raising vegetables for the Madison farmers market and local restaurants - became the Kruses' most successful farming venture.

His commitment to the environment is perhaps best illustrated by his discovery in the early 1940s of Honey Creek Valley in the southwestern corner of the Baraboo Hills; he was so taken with the natural beauty and birdsong that he vowed "right then and there" to do whatever he could to preserve this valley. His opportunity came in 1956 when he led the first of what would become annual hikes in the valley for the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology (WSO). This outing led to a decision by the WSO Board a year later to establish a nature preserve at Honey Creek.

The Wisconsin Chapter of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) began its Baraboo Hills project in 1962; the next year, because of his familiarity with the area and with local people, Harold was invited to join. He became a keystone of the project, and is richly deserving of all the awards he's received. He negotiated with land owners, arranged land purchases, led field trips, posted property lines and repaired fences, helped build the Honey Creek Nature Center, served as a Wisconsin Chapter Trustee of TNC from 1968 to 1984 and, in general, became TNC's local ambassador and advocate.

He was also active in a number of other organizations, including the National Farmers Organization, Natural Foods Association, Friendship Rural School Historical Society, Baraboo Range Preservation Association, and the Citizens Natural Resources Association, for whom he testified against the use of DDT in the late 1960s and 70s.

He also found time to write a history of land protection in the Baraboo Hills; a collection of nature essays entitled Birds In My Life; and (edited by his daughter Gretchen) a collection of his letters to local newspapers, which includes resumés of his involvement in local zoning disputes.

He was raised fundamentalist Lutheran, but as a young man began to question his religion and soon became a Free Thinker and a longtime member of the Free Congregation of Sauk County.

He remained upbeat throughout his life, despite hard times and, in his later years, failing health. When asked how he found time to do all the farm chores which could be overwhelming, raise a family, and contribute so much to conservation, he replied, "By taking time away [when] I probably should have been making money - now we have no money, but we do have a lot of memories. I learned to take care of the earth, and that's important." On another occasion, he said that "we all have to do something. I just do what I can." What he did, and what he bequeathed, is beyond measure.

By Ken Lange