Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation: Agrestal Wild Iowa Discovery Events, 2006

The Wild Iowa Discovery series is designed to stimulate public thought and discussion about the meaning and significance of "wildness" in Iowa.

Special announcement! Roger Gipple, who established the Agrestal Fund in 2004, was recently profiled in Cityview. Check out the article on Gipple and learn more about the man behind the Agrestal Fund and all of these great events.

January 2006 continuous event

Wild Iowa Email Discussion List

Sponsored by the Iowa Project on Place Studies at the University of Iowa and the INHF's Agrestal Fund in conjunction with the Second Annual Iowa Conference on the Wild. For more information about the email discussion list and its relation to the "Live Well, Live Wild" conference at the University of Iowa, check details on this site.

January 2006 ongoing project

Ioway Connectivity Project

This project's purpose is to create models which help us imagine how a wilder, more authentic, infinite and inclusive Iowa (Ioway) would look and feel--to our species and the others with whom we share this place. Get details.

February 20 - 22, 2006

Second Annual Symposium on Wildness & Wilderness: Restorying the Land

Located in Memorial Union, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa
Sponsored by the ISU Creative Writing Program, The Writers’ Bloc, INHF's Agrestal Fund, the Committee on Lectures, and the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences

The 2^nd Annual Symposium on Wildness and Wilderness will pursue questions of narratives of place—how the prevailing narratives of their habitats shape people and how might they be able to re-shape and re-imagine them with their own stories. The symposium will feature evening keynote addresses by three nationally-known writers, plus panel discussions, talks, musical performances and readings by ISU faculty from diverse disciplines across the university. Get details.

February 27 – March 3, 2006

Art for the Sky Residency by Daniel Dancer
Located at Capitol View Elementary School, Des Moines
Sponsored by INHF's Agrestal Fund

Daniel Dancer will spend a week at Capitol View Elementary, working with the students and teachers through presentations and assemblies about Art for the Sky, facilitating the creation of a gigantic cougar. The huge living portrait will consist of over 800 students, teachers, and Agrestal volunteers wearing special colored T-shirts provided by the Agrestal Fund. On Thursday, March 2 he will take an aerial photograph of the group forming a cougar shape on the East High athletic field. For more information about the activities at Capitol View Elementary School, click here.

March 3 and 4, 2006

"Water, Wildness and the Free Human Spirit"
Conference open to the public
Located at Plymouth Congregational Church, Des Moines
Sponsored by INHF's Agrestal Fund

Friday's daytime program includes two moderated panel discussions: Ethical Behavior in the Watershed/Rediscovering the Wildness in Water and Ourselves and Frogs, Large Predators, Connectivity, and the Law. Click for biographies on these Iowa advocates. That evening, conceptual artist, author and photographer Daniel Dancer will do a public presentation entitled “Offerings to the Wild: Art as Medicine for Earth and Ourselves" as well as a recap of his Art for the Sky Residency at Capitol Elementary School. Saturday morning's program is “Wildness and the Radiant Self: A Presentation on the ethics of human development,” by David Thomas. Saturday afternoon's presentation is "The Language of the Wild...recovering the forgotten voices of your own wild psyche” by Jade Sherer.

Get the schedule and more detail on programs by Dancer, Thomas and Sherer.

March 15, 2006

Deadline for the submission of the Second Annual Wild Iowa Essay Project
Sponsored by INHF’s Agrestal Fund and administered by The Iowa Project on Place Studies at The University of Iowa

The Wild Iowa Essay Project encourages thoughtful, effective writing about the wild in Iowa. The Project is not a contest so much as an organized opportunity to inspire people to think and write about what the wild is and could be in Iowa. Essays up to 3,000 words are invited from anyone regardless of age, experience or background. Essays may be submitted in “Youth” and “Adult” categories. Selected essays will be chosen by Essay Committee members for cash awards of up to $300. Awardees will be invited to read from their essays publicly at the Second Annual Iowa Conference on the Wild, “Live Well, Live Wild,” at The University of Iowa in Iowa City. Get details on this site or on their site.

March 30, 2006

Deadline for the submission of Lakeside Lab Essays of Abandon Scholarship Project
Iowa Lakeside Laboratory summer programs
Sponsored by Friends of Lakeside Laboratory and INHF's Agrestal Fund
Located off the shores of Lake West Okoboji in Iowa

This is an essay contest about what wildness means to you. Winners get a scholarship to Lakeside Lab to take some of their summer courses. Iowa Lakeside Laboratory is a premier biological field station that offers field-based courses in plant, aquatic, prairie, insect, and general ecology; taxonomy; freshwater algae; nature photography; archaeology and other subjects. There are three summer terms, each four weeks long, as well as short courses. All courses can be taken for credit through Iowa State University, the University of Iowa, the University of Northern Iowa, and Drake University. For more information on how to win a Lakeside scholarship, check details on this site or visit www.lakesidelab.org.

April 1, 2006

Deadline for the submission of FairField Intern Scholarship Essay Project
2006 FairField summer internship program
Located in Fairfield, Iowa
Sponsored by the Sustainable Living Coalition and INHF's Agrestal Fund

The Sustainable Living Coalition located in Fairfield, Iowa offers a 10-week long program, in which participants live and learn together about solar power, organic gardens, rain collection, community service and much more. The program starts in June and goes into August. Included in the program is also an internship with a for-profit business or non-profit organization involved with a number of sustainable community development issues. The Agrestal Fund is offering a limited number of scholarships in the FairField Internships program, to be awarded through the essay contest. Anyone is welcome to apply. Get details on this site or at www.internproject.com.

April 24-25, 2006

The 2nd Annual Iowa Conference on the Wild - “Live Well, Live Wild: A Community Concourse on Un-domesticating and Rewilding”
Located at the Richey Ballroom, Iowa Memorial Union, The University of Iowa
Co-sponsored by The Iowa Project on Place Studies at The University of Iowa, Iowa Department of Natural Resources, The Standing by Words Center, The Ice Cube Press and INHF's Agrestal Fund

This “concourse” will ask attendees to confront themselves, each other, and our society in general regarding how we have lost the “wild” in Iowa specifically and our society generally, and how we can bring it back into our imaginations, our values, our actions, and our land. An e-mail discussion list will help begin the conversation before the conference, and all are invited to participate. Keynote Speakers will be Bill McKibben and Stephanie Mills. Get details on our site or visit their site.

June 2-4, 2006

30th annual Loess Hills Prairie Seminar
Located at the Loess Hills Wildlife Area northeast of Onawa, Iowa, in Monona County
Sponsored annually by Western Hills Area Education Agency for educators, students, park and conservation persons, community leaders, and citizens. With special support from INHF's Agrestal Fund.

The seminar is held annually in memory of its founder, Carolyn Benne, an environmental educator. The seminar welcomes people of all ages to come learn and foster recognition, appreciation and the educational use of those natural wonders found within eyesight in our communities. Choose from dozens of great programs, hikes and hands-on activites for all ages--including the AGrestal Fund's "Wild Ioway" public discussion at the INHF's Agrestal Fund "Wild Ioway" public discussion. Get more information at the official LHPS website, which will have the 2006 program schedule available in April.

June 9-10, 2006

Eco-Fair 2006 "The Future of Living on Earth: Envisioning an Abundant Planet"
Located in Fairfield, Iowa at the MUM Student Union Theatre
This two-day event is cosponsored by the Sustainable Living Coalition, the Fairfield Internships Project, Abundance Ecovillage and INHF's Agrestal Fund. It is part of the Agrestal Fund’s statewide Wild Iowa Discovery event series and will be featuring nationally and regionally known speakers. The event starts Friday evening and continues all day Saturday. The title for this year’s conference is “The Future of Living on Earth: Envisioning an Abundant Planet.” Topics such as energy, the built environment, and water will be addressed. A panel discussion will help present new ways of thinking about these issues. There will be booths devoted to green organizations and products, as well as food booths. Organic vegetarian meals will be available. Get the full description and daily agendas.

Mid-June, 2006 (date TBA)

Beyond Eco-catastrophe
Located in Fairfield, Iowa
Sponsored by the Sustainable Living Coalition and INHF's Agrestal Fund

This conference will be taking a look at the next steps beyond the current organic standards, beyond petroleum, beyond a global economy toward a vibrant local one, beyond the domesticated toward the wild.

This conference will serve as the kick-off to the FairField Internships Program. The internships run for ten weeks and focus on living and working in a sustainable environment. For more information about the internship and possible scholarships in relation to the internship click here.

Further information about the conference will be available on the sustainable living coalition web site.

2006 Wild Iowa Discovery Event Series

Sponsored by INHF's Agrestal Fund