[PCA] [EVENT] Wild Ones 25 Year Celebration (Milwaukee, WI)

[Plant Conservation]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For more information, contact:
Donna VanBuecken, executive director
Wild Ones Natural Landscapers
1-877-394-94553
execdirector at for-wild.org or woresource at new.rr.com
or one of the local chapter representatives as listed on the Wild Ones
website at http://www.for-wild.org/chapters.html

PRESS RELEASE

Wild Ones is celebrating 25 Years of Native Plants and Natural Landscapes

Although July 23, 2004 was the official 25th anniversary date, Wild Ones
will be officially celebrating their 25th anniversary on August 6 thru 8th
with their annual meeting/conference sponsored by the Wild Ones Madison
Chapter. Preregistration for Go Wild! and a reception will be held on
August 6th at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Union Terrace
beginning at 5:30PM.

Celebrants at the conference will have the opportunity to:
- Meet Lorrie Otto and take a bus tour to her Milwaukee yard and several
others in the Milwaukee area. (This is her 26th year of presenting these
bus tours.)
- Meet many of the original Wild Ones founding members.
- Attend sessions on gardens, how-to, critters, arts and science.
- Listen to compelling ecologist and author, Robert Michael Pyle who will
serve as keynote speaker for the conference at Saturday evening's banquet.
- Talk with native landscaping related vendors and purchase products.
- Tour one of a variety of ecologically focused sites.

Wild Ones was an outgrowth of a natural landscaping workshop offered by
Schlitz Audubon Nature Center in Bayside (Milwaukee area), Wisconsin in
the summer of 1977. Lorrie Otto, one of our Wisconsin Conservation Hall of
Fame inductees was a guest speaker. It started as a nucleus of nine people
who were intensely interested in the concept of native plants as an
alternative to lawns. A camaraderie developed as they attended lectures,
tours and plant rescues, and two years later, an organization sprouted
which they called Wild Ones Natural Landscapers, for which Lorrie Otto
continues to be regarded as the symbolic leader.

Being no common "garden variety" garden club, the organization attracted
the attention of others who had a sensitivity to land use in harmony with
plants and animals around them, and the little club has grown from 9 to
3009 continually active members from all over the United States and
Canada, and from one community in the Milwaukee area to 40+ communities
throughout the Midwest. As the organization has grown and matured, and as
it has expanded across the country, it has taken on a maturity that has
changed its original mission statement emphasizing education, to its
current mission statement that includes advocacy along with education.

Other special events during the celebration include the publication of the
"Wild Ones 25 Year History Book" which will be for sale at the conference,
the silent auction with many timely and memorable items for bid, and the
vote for the favorite photo at the Wild Ones Annual Photo Contest. And, of
course, the networking with fellow conference attendees.


More information about the conference, about Lorrie Otto and about Wild
Ones' place in the environmental movement, can be found on the Internet at
www.for-wild.org. Or, you can request written information by calling toll
free 877-394-9453 (877-FYI-WILD).

Donna VanBuecken, Executive Director
Wild Ones: Native Plants, Natural Landscapes

See our website at www.for-wild.org

Wild Ones promotes environmentally sound landscaping practices to preserve
biodiversity through the preservation, restoration and establishment of
native plant communities. Wild Ones is a not-for-profit environmental
education and advocacy organization.