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For Kristin Thiel, a relatively routine afternoon at her work – one that involved planting thousands of acorns alongside a group of Boy Scouts – doubles as a favorite story of transformation. Today, those acorns have grown into trees that form a corridor between two of the Mequon Nature Preserve’s densely forested areas. “You can walk under the branches,” Thiel adds, smiling. “That’s why I never want to leave. I love getting to enjoy, quite literally, the fruits of our labor.”
Backed by a master’s degree in botany from Concordia University, Thiel joined the organization as preserve manager nearly 20 years ago, and was the organization’s sole employee for eight years. She was given a singular, albeit mighty, charge: To restore 510 acres of North Shore farmland, the largest protected green space in Southeastern Wisconsin.
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Since, Thiel literally has broken ground tens of thousands of times – planting native seedlings, removing invasive species, and breaking drain tiles that farmers installed to divert water off the land. “We want the opposite,” she explains. “We want to let that natural water return to the land.” Water bubbles up within 24 hours of breaking the tiles, adds Thiel.
“When I started, I was handed a 150-year master plan,” Thiel says of the restoration efforts. “We’re about 25 years into that, and we’re actually 25 years ahead of schedule.”
The next quarter-century is filled with big dreams. Environmental education is central to the preserve’s mission, and the organization currently serves approximately 10,000 students annually. The space restraints of its current education center, however, have limited its capacity, and Thiel says she’s had to turn away student groups. And so now Thiel is working on ways to build the preserve’s capacity – perhaps with a different kind of groundbreaking in the future. “I don’t want to turn down a child anymore,” she says. “I want to be able to serve more and more children, and so does my team.”
