Area Watershed Association Honors Local Citizen with Watershed Stewardship Award
The Lower Sugar River Watershed Association presented Paul Roemer with a Watershed Stewardship Award at their 10th Annual Meeting held recently at Three Waters Reserve. The award is given annually to honor a member, citizen, organization, landowner, or business in the watershed whose work and leadership demonstrate dedication to the care and enjoyment of our water resources.
Paul Roemer, 2024 Watershed Stewardship Award recipient
Watershed Stewardship Award recipient Paul Roemer of Brodhead ‘mounted on bike with cart’ traveling to one of several native prairie plantings he has established and cares for to beautify and benefit his community.
Board Treasurer Nate Gingerich presented the award with the following comments he prepared:
“Paul Roemer has been a tireless advocate for native plants in Brodhead for decades. A fundamental and admirable part of this advocacy has involved establishing and maintaining native tree and prairie plantings in public spaces throughout the city. Paul spends countless hours trimming, weeding, planting, observing, and impressively, burning these areas. However, Paul has perhaps had an even more significant impact in the community, and watershed, as an educator, specifically in summer school sessions developed and conducted from 1988 to the present, in which he has guided class after class of 8-10-year-olds through several weeks of sustained joyful contact with nature. There have likely been many more than 1500 (perhaps more than 2000) “Cabin Kids”, multiple generations, (many community members,) who have “adopted” a native plant and cherished several weeks of play and instruction in the curated natural space of the Marjorie J. Blackford Arboretum. A population, a polity, a community, that shares a reflexive fondness of nature and an awareness of some of its special features, is surely well-positioned to realize positive outcomes in the stewardship of its lands and waters. I believe Paul has, in a very real and impactful way, led our community in this direction. Paul Roemer, mounted on bicycle with cart, is an iconic local touchstone, symbolic of positive action.”
Marjorie J. Blackford Arboretum
The prairie garden and restored cabin at the Marjorie J. Blackford Arboretum, where Paul’s ‘Cabin Kids’ program is offered.
In accepting the award, Paul recounted many memorable paddling experiences and his love for the Sugar River since moving to Brodhead 55 years ago. One experience involved a near collision with a Cockspur hawthorn tree while paddling with his future wife Alice. In his effort to avoid the formidable 2-inch spines, he swamped both his new Grumman aircraft aluminum canoe and their picnic lunch! In the end, he relates, Alice married him anyway. As a member of the Green County Land and Water Conservation Committee, Paul expressed his appreciation for the 13-years of watershed advocacy by the watershed organization.
To enjoy Paul’s work, and the multitude of wildlife visitors you will no doubt encounter, visit the Putnam Park Covered Bridge, the Marjorie J. Blackford Arboretum, Albrecht Elementary, the Brodhead Memorial Public Library, the Sugar River Trail Terminus, and Headgates Park.
Lupine
Paul’s native prairie garden at Putnam Park Covered Bridge with wild lupine in bloom.
The Lower Sugar River Watershed Association is a 501(c)(3) non-profit public charity conservation organization based in Brodhead WI, dedicated to empowering citizens with experience and knowledge to steward land and water resources in the Lower Sugar River Watershed. LSRWA administers the Lower Sugar River Field Station at Three Waters Reserve. For more information and to get involved in our organization and field station program contact info@lsrwa.org and fieldstation@threewatersreserve.com.
