Outdoors: Coon Creek project overcame skepticism, 95-year-old Madison man says

Tim Eisele
Special to The Capital Times  —  6/07/2008 10:19 pm

Jack Densmore of Madison remembers the skepticism of many of the farmers who were asked to take part in the Coon Creek Watershed Demonstration Project.

The 95-year-old resident of Oakwood on the city's west side recalls that one of the first farmers to sign up for the project -- a soil conservation program in western Wisconsin in the early 1930s -- was even ostracized by his brothers and neighbors.

But in the end, that man's efforts proved to be a good example of the benefits of the program, which reshaped viewpoints on farming and literally saved the property of hundreds of area residents.

"The farmers were very skeptical of the program at first, thinking that those who cooperated were selling their farms to the federal government," Densmore said. "But, many of them came around and came to realize that soil conservation practices were good."

Densmore was just a young man out of forestry school at the University of Minnesota when he began working as a forestry consultant on the project for the Soil Conservation Service. He said one of the problems was that the farmers were planting their crops up and down hill, rather than along contour strips.

"I worked on the Coon Creek Watershed Project from 1935 to 1937, working with farmers advising on forestry practices and also worked with a Civilian Conservation Corps crew planting trees and fencing woodlands to keep cattle out," Densmore said.

Densmore, who retired in 1972 after a 40-year career with SCS, said that he had the chance to meet Hugh Hammond Bennett, who was very enthusiastic about soil conservation efforts. He also met and worked with Aldo Leopold, and years afterward had Leopold give a presentation to a Madison Kiwanis group in which Densmore was active.

Tim Eisele
Special to The Capital Times  —  6/07/2008 10:19 pm