The Kenneth J Branch Memorial Fund for College Classes

LLA is proud to announce the Ken Branch Memorial Fund for College Classes at the Leopold Houses and Aldo's "tramping" sites.  Ken was a great friend and advisor to LLA and he will be sorely missed.  This wonderful memorial fund supports college class studies in the natural sciences, conservation and history in Burlington, Iowa where Leopold was born and raised.  It will help to defray the costs of their stay at the Leopold Compound.

 Rev. Dr. Kenneth J. Branch (PhD in sociology) was a "student" of Aldo Leopold and taught at Midland Univ. in NE and Bethany Lutheran College in KS. While his subjects were sociology and anthropology, Ken always managed to work in Leopold's Land Ethic.  Ken loved his visits to the Leopold Compound with his wife, Linda, a Burlington native. And he enjoyed experiencing all the Leopold tramping sites. Ken initiated the Leopold Exchange Program with Bethany Lutheran biology & English classes.

Leopold Exchange Program 

The Exchange Program is set up to help visitors absorb some of Aldo's youthful discoveries.  LLA takes the "Leopold and the Roots of the Land Ethic" program to the group to give them some background on new layers of Leopold history.  Then they visit Burlington to walk in Leopold's  footsteps--taking tours of the Leopold Compound and Aldo's tramping sites.  Sometimes groups stay overnight in the Leopold Childhood Home.  Aldo's life was so deep and so rich that there is not time absorb it all in one day.  So this two pronged approach gives the visitor background and more time at the site to just "have a moment" with Aldo.   

Two exchanges are currently in progress and more are planned.

Bethany College, Lindsborg, KS  and

University of Ankara, Turkey with Professor Ufuk Ozdag.

If your group is interested in participating in the Exchange Program, please call 319-759-5062 or email brower406@aol.com.

2019    Augsburg University River Semester, Minneapolis, MN

In October LLA hosted Augsburg University from Minneapolis as part of the Leopold Exchange Program that gives visitors a chance to absorb some of Aldo's youthful discoveries.  LLA President, Steve Brower, took the "Leopold and the Roots of the Land Ethic" program to Minneapolis in late September so that the students and community would have some background before the students visited Burlington. 

Then Wilderness Inquiry of Minnesota guided the Augsburg University 2019 River Semester Class down the Mississippi from Lake Itasca to the Gulf in Voyager canoes.  The group included an overnight stop at the Leopold Compound to learn about Leopold's significant childhood.  We were happy to provide a relief to their camping with warm beds and a home cooked meal in the Leopold Childhood Home.

 9 members of the Augsburg     Environmental Studies program visited the Starker-Leopold House.  Aldo's grandparents, the Starkers, emigrated from Germany to Burlington in 1850.  In addition to the Auggies, the class included scholars from Europe, sponsored by the German Foreign Ministry for the "Year of German-American Friendship."

Site visits included a walk through an oak savannah being restored by LLA in the Native Land Management Program.  The private land contains over 60 large bur and white oaks.  The area is believed to be one of the Leopold Family's Sunday Picnic grounds.

The canoers were excited to stretch their legs in the woodlands.  Steven scrambled up the oak burls in sandals!

The group also took a hike along the Indian Trails south of the Leopold Compound to experience some of Aldo's old tramping grounds that include escarpments with small water falls, fossils and Back Hawk Springs.

2018         Black Swamp Conservancy                                                                                 and 577 Foundation, Perrysburg, OH

2016-17       Les Cheneaux Club, Huron, Michigan

2016-17      Homestead 1839     Burlington, IA

2016     Burlington Community School District, Burlington, IA

2015     Aldo Leopold Foundation, Baraboo, WI

2014     Prairie Land Conservancy, Macomb, IL

2014     Leopold Center For Sustainable Agriculture, Ames, IA

2012     Midewin National Tall Grass Prairie, Midewin, IL

2011     Port Louisa National Wildlife Refuge, Keithsburg, IL

2011     Sustainable Living and Environmental Planning Dept.,                     Maharishi University, Fairfield, IA