Paul J. Olson | Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame

1909 – 1993
Inducted 1989

“The trouble with most conservationists is they are basically prophets of doom … Doomsaying is the wrong way to attract people, certainly young people. So I am the cheerful ecologist. Let’s take the young to the hills and woods and show them the glories. There is a future … ” – Paul J. Olson

“The most potent combination of education and conservation in Wisconsin.” That’s how the Wisconsin State Journal described Paul J. Olson, a Madison area educator whose interest in nature and personal dedication to conservation became passions for life.

Olson helped save the prairie chicken from extinction in Wisconsin. He observed their mating dance in Portage County in 1958, and figured the only way to save them was to save their habitat. He bought 40 acres, then spent a year raising money to pay for it. That was just the start. Olson used his public relations skills, foresight and personal commitment to talk a friend into buying another 40 acres and to convince a millionaire to share in land acquisition costs. Between 1958 and 1984, Olson almost single-handedly raised $140,000 to buy 5,000 acres in the Buena Vista Marsh area of Portage County. Owned by the Dane County Conservation League, nearly 12,000 acres of habitat is managed for prairie chickens.

He also began what may be the nation’s first “worklearn” program. As principal of Midvale Elementary School, Madison, Olson was asked to develop a summer program for high school students in 1953. The innovative approach gave class credit for four to six hours of work on conservation projects, such as stream improvement. Students shifted to forestry management work after Olson was able to secure 300 acres of virgin oak forest in 1958, which became the Madison school forest under his management. The work-learn program was a model for many other schools as well as the DNR’ s youth conservation camps.

Olson was also a founding member of the Wisconsin chapter of the Nature Conservancy in 1960. He served as president for 18 years. He helped raise $2 million and acquired several unspoiled parcels including Chiwaukee Prairie in Kenosha County, Baster Hollow in Baraboo Hills, Toft Point in Door Couty and Ferry’s Bluff in Sauk County.

He was president of the Prairie Chicken Foundation for 20 years and long-time secretary of the Dane County Conservation League. He also served on the state Conservation Commission from 1959 to 1982. In 1982, the DNR Board named 4,000 grassland acres in the central Wisconsin’s Mead Wildlife Area the “Paul J. Olson Area.”