Guide to Significant Wildlife Habitat - Door County Web Map

Former Astronaut Kathryn Sullivan, the first woman to walk in space, relates with clarity how she
became a citizen of the planet in a recent special issue of Time Magazine. She confesses that as you
circle the planet at intervals of 90 minutes you cannot help but acquire a very different perspective of the
world.
“All the colors and patterns you see – the visible evidence of the complex
working of the natural systems that make our planet habitable – seem both vast
and precise, powerful and yet somehow fragile. You see volcanoes spewing smoke,
hurricanes roiling the oceans and even fine tendrils of Saharan dust reaching
across the Atlantic. You also see the big, gray smudges of fields, paddies and
pastures, and at night you marvel at the lights, like brilliant diamonds, that reveal
a mosaic of cities, roads and coastlines — impressive signs of the hand of
humanity.
Scientists tell us that our hand is heavy, that we are wiping out other species
at an unprecedented rate and probably transforming our climate. Will the
immense power of global systems withstand the impact of humanity? Or is it
possible that our collective actions will change the nature of our planet enough to
cripple its ability to support life?
I no longer believe that we can wait for all the scientific data needed to
answer these questions conclusively. We must recognize immediately what it
means to be citizens for this planet. It means accepting our obligation to be
stewards of the earth’s life-giving capacities. As homeowners, we wouldn’t neglect
or damage our houses until they weren’t fit to live in. Why would we do that with
our planet?” ©2002 TIME, INC. reprinted by permission.
Kathryn Sullivan, who as a Navy Reserve captain, flew three space shuttle missions
now resides in Columbus Ohio where she is president of the
Center of Science & Industry. (www.cosi.org)
It’s interesting that Aldo Leopold’s vision of stewardship and a land ethic resonate from miles
above the earth. The phrase “think global – act local” offers a perspective from which each of us can be
citizens of the planet as stewards of the natural communities in our neighborhood. Stewardship can take
many forms, from increased local efforts to eliminate pollution from streams and creeks, to seeing
nature’s landscapes as community assets.
The hope for this publication is that it helps to generate increased interest for preserving the
remaining wildlife habitat and natural areas in each of the communities described in the following
seventeen sections. Collaboration among local, state and federal agencies, citizens and landowners will
be essential in developing new and creative methods to accomplish what will, at best, be a difficult task.
It is not our purpose to identify how or when these places should be protected or who should help
to protect them. Many organizations and citizens will need to be involved in evaluating more precisely
where protection efforts can best be focused and which preservation or protection strategies are most
appropriate. Successful efforts will most likely depend on the area’s landowners. Their vision of the
future will play a major role in determining if, when and how these places are protected.
– Introduction – 13