Stan Temple honored for 2014 passenger pigeon commemoration efforts
Stan Temple, an emeritus professor of forest and wildlife ecology and UW Beers-Bascom Professor Emeritus in Conservation, was recently given the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology’s first-ever Special Recognition Award. Temple, who is also a senior fellow at the Aldo Leopold Foundation, was selected to receive this award for his leadership of the statewide and national commemoration of the 2014 centenary of the extinction of the Passenger Pigeon, a “teachable moment” about the problems of human-caused extinctions.
Among other activities, Temple gave over 100 presentations in 20 states and 2 Canadian provinces; spearheaded the restoration of the Passenger Pigeon Monument at Wyalusing State Park (made famous in Aldo Leopold’s poignant essay “On a Monument to the Pigeon”); published over a dozen articles on the pigeon; was featured in a public television documentary film; hosted a two-day symposium in Madison; and even convinced a local brewery to produce Passenger Pigeon IPA to promote public awareness.