Conservationist Aldo Leopold, the author of A Sand County Almanac, and his UW-Madison colleagues were the pioneers of what today is called restoration ecology. Their outdoor laboratory was the UW Arboretum, where they were the first to restore prairies to their original glory. The best-known prairie, Curtis Prairie, played a role in an Oscar-winning Disney documentary.

Read the full Isthmus story by Thomas Straka, October 25, 2018