Big Heart at Big Wall

By Zoe Stonetree on October 22, 2024 in Blog


Aerial of Big Wall Lake by Ross Baxter

Photo by Ross Baxter

"He was a unique individual,” Mitch Weller says about his father, Milton Weller. “He believed tremendously in people. When he advised students on where to go in life, most of them followed the path.”

Milton W. Weller taught in the Department of Zoology and Entomology — now the Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management — at Iowa State University from 1957 to 1974. During his tenure at ISU, Dr. Weller published dozens of scientific articles on birds, especially Iowa’s resident and migratory wetland species. He also advised thirty graduate students. This number would nearly double over the course of the next twenty years as Weller pursued professorships at the University of Minnesota and Texas A&M University, where he held the prestigious Caesar Kleberg Chair in Wildlife Ecology until his retirement in 1994.

In 1997, Dr. Weller received the Aldo Leopold Memorial Reward for distinguished service to wildlife conservation — the highest honor bestowed by The Wildlife Society. Many of his publications, including several books, are still used to teach on waterfowl and wetlands today.

As Dr. Weller’s teaching and research progressed, his focus shifted toward the marsh and wetland systems where many of his early study species made their homes. After Weller passed away in 2017, Mitch Weller chose to honor his father’s legacy through a gift to INHF, dedicated specifically to protecting Iowa’s wetlands. As it happened, Big Wall Lake — where INHF has worked on land and water protection projects for more than a decade — was both a field site and a personal retreat of his father’s for many years. Mitch’s gift allowed INHF to secure an additional 140 acres surrounding the lake to the northeast.

Photos of Mitch Weller and wife at Big Wall Lake and Dr. Milton Weller

This September, former students and family of Dr. Weller (pictured right) joined together with project partners for a dedication of the Weller Tract. Left, Mitch and wife Bobbie Weller stand near the rock dedicating the property. Photos by Joe Jayjack, INHF and provided by Mitch Weller.

“When it turned out that the Big Wall Lake project was there,” Mitch says, “I knew that was a special interest.”

The largest glacial lake in Wright County, Big Wall Lake has a long-standing reputation among researchers, waterfowlers and birders as a hotspot for migratory wetland birds, who often use the lake as a “stopover” to rest and refuel as they move through Iowa. Despite the area’s reputation as a bird haven, the recent history of the lake tells a more complicated story. Most of the land surrounding Big Wall Lake was privately owned and farmed throughout the twentieth century. Between 2012 and 2020, INHF collaborated with several conservation-minded landowners to protect and restore 647 acres surrounding the lakebed and eliminate two agricultural drainage wells. INHF’s projects built upon the work of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), whose wetland easement program had previously funded restoration and ag drainage well closures on over 550 of those acres. These efforts have improved water quality, added wildlife habitat and increased public access to the lake.

Map of Big Wall Lake Projects

The map above shows the Weller Tract in orange, parcel #5, along with the other additions INHF has helped protect.

The new Weller Tract will be owned by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and managed by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources as part of the Big Wall Lake Wildlife Management Area. Like the rest of the established Big Wall Lake WMA, the addition will be open to the public for hunting, hiking, kayaking and more. Among the addition’s unique features are its especially intensive wetland and prairie restorations.

“The donation from the Milton Weller family allowed us to bump that prairie species count way up,” says TJ Herrick, Iowa DNR Facilities Engineer, about the newly restored prairie. “I think we’re above 120 species — but, probably more importantly, we’ve seeded it at a seeds-per-square-foot that’s substantially higher than what we could normally do.”

As of spring 2024, the DNR has completed prairie seeding, supplemented with funds from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, on portions of the addition outside of the wetland restoration area. In August 2024, Ducks Unlimited completed work on their comprehensive wetland restoration plan, disabling tile drainage throughout the property and removing multiple human-made berms, allowing the lake to expand closer to its historic limits. Meanwhile, the construction of new berms will allow the area to retain water and create wetlands without encroaching onto adjacent farmland. This extensive restoration was possible thanks to engineering, design, surveys, investigations and leadership from Ducks Unlimited.

Sora, photo by Larry ReisWaterfowl, like the Sora (Porzana carolina) pictured left, may be the biggest beneficiaries of these restoration projects. Restoring wetland and upland areas will create more nesting habitat for a wide variety of species.

“Big Wall Lake is the largest freshwater marsh in central Iowa,” says Dr. Jim Dinsmore, Professor Emeritus of Animal Ecology at Iowa State University — and former undergraduate student of Milton Weller. “A lot of people don’t realize how important that upland area is, and Big Wall Lake was very much suffering from a lack of upland areas. And now, about half the area around the lake is in public ownership. That will make a huge difference for the lake.”

Jim Dinsmore is among a group of students of Dr. Weller who have kept in touch through regular reunions. Last spring, a group of former students came together from around the country for one such gathering. They chose Big Wall Lake as their meeting place.

“My father had the ability to pick the right people, and to drive them,” says Mitch, who also made the reunion trip to Big Wall Lake. “But he always treated them like family. They were his kids.” It is a testament to Dr. Weller’s impact as an educator that so many of his students — some of them now in their eighties and nineties — continue to gather to celebrate his legacy.

Offering his own account of Dr. Weller’s impact, Jim Dinsmore reflects on an important conversation during his time as an undergraduate student.

“I was doing well at Iowa State, but I didn’t know what I was going to do with my education.”

Dr. Weller’s advice set Jim on a new trajectory — one he would share with many other students in Weller’s sphere of influence.

“He changed my life,” Jim says, “Once I got done talking with him, I realized there was a life path available for me. He told me what it was.”

The 140-acre addition to Big Wall Lake was formally dedicated to Milton W. Weller earlier this fall. Like the relationships Dr. Weller shared with and forged among his students, Mitch Weller’s gift reveals the mark of a life focused on the land, water and wildlife that make up our home places.

“The Big Wall Lake area was Dad’s happy place,” Mitch emphasizes. “Had he been able to take this trip and see everything that everyone involved has done, he would be very, very pleased.”