The End of an Era

Some may say that dirt was created when she was born just so she could grow her native plants. I’m not so sure that is true. But what is true is that Donna VanBuecken has a passion for the health of the Earth by planting native habitats. And equally, she loves to share that passion with others.

This is an excerpt from the Wild Ones Journal
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To learn and share with like-minded people, in 1986 she joined a very young organization, called “Wild Ones Natural Landscapers Ltd,” which got its start in Milwaukee.

In the fall of 1994, a group of wildflower enthusiasts were called together by the Winnebago County horticultural agent, Rosemary Eiden, to form a possible interest group. They held their introductory meetings at Donna and John’s house, with a tour of their backyard prairie. Donna told the group about an organization in Milwaukee called Wild Ones and she suggested that they invite some Milwaukee members to their next meeting. That was the beginning of their chapter. Since they were from several neighboring counties, they called the chapter, the Fox Valley Area chapter. They chartered in November 1994 with Donna as the first President. Back then, all chapter presidents were on the national board.

In 1996, Donna maintained the membership list as a contractor for national Wild Ones. Membership by then was over 1500. That year, she also helped develop the Fox Valley Area Chapter New Member Handbook.

In 1998, she became the first Wild Ones Executive Director through her company Accent on Natural Landscaping Inc. There were 18 chapters and 2,356 members. The following year, she helped Joy Buslaff create the Wild Ones New Member Handbook, using the Fox Valley Area Chapter’s handbook as an example.

Donna helped update the national bylaws, which reduced the board to 15 directors. At this time in 2000, teleconferencing was used for board meetings.

In the following years, Donna was involved in a number of things that helped spread the word about landscaping with native plants. Some of these were:

• A video, A Tapestry of Learning: Creating School Natural Areas for SFE Program under the direction of then SFE Coordinator Steve Maassen.
• National website in collaboration first with Mark Charles and then Peter Chen.
• The first online discussion group (before there were e-programs).
• Published 25 Years of Wild Ones: Native Plants, Natural Landscaping in collaboration with Carol Chew.
• Coordinated the 25 Year Anniversary Celebration Annual Membership Meeting with Madison (WI) Chapter.
• With producer Mike Syverson’s help, updated Wild About Wildflowers video to DVD.
• With the assistance of Cartoonist John Klossner designed the “Die Buckthorn Scum” and “Garlic Mustard Spreads” Wild Ones t-shirts.
• Collaborated with Janice Stiefel’s husband John to publish Janice’s book The Inside Story, which was dedicated to Wild Ones.
• With the assistance of the Fox Valley Area Chapter, filmed and created a DVD of Doug Tallamy’s presentations The Value of Having Native Plants in Our Yards and Creating Healthy, Biodiverse Neighborhood Corridors.
• Encouraged Wild Ones to join the Monarch Joint Venture partnership, our first official partnership.
• With the national Monarchs Committee, helped to develop the Wild Ones Wild for Monarchs Campaign and finalized the Wild for Monarchs Native Plant Garden Recognition program.
• Partnered with Moving for Monarchs which includes filming “Dance for Life,” second in the Moving for Monarchs video series.
• With the help and support of volunteers from the Fox Valley Area Chapter and the community developed the WILD Center through Phase II demonstration gardens and the prairie.
• With the help of staff, held six annual conferences here at the WILD Center.
• As of 2015, despite the Great Recession, with the assistance of staff has helped Wild Ones reach the 4,000 member threshold and 50 chapters.

Over the years, employees were added to the staff through her business, Accent on Natural Landscaping.

In 2005, Donna brought to the board the idea of purchasing an ecocenter property which would become the Wild Ones headquarters. The following year, the fundraising began. In 2007, Wild Ones purchased the building along with 3 acres for $250,000. In 2008, Wild Ones purchased the rest of the 16-acre site. Four acres of the upland was leased to GW Partners, LLC to store clean materials used in cleanup of PCBs in the Fox River. This additional income allowed Wild Ones to own the entire WILD Center property debt-free. Total cost $850,000.

Donna’s WILD Center Advisory Committee came up with the name, WILD Center, which means Wild Ones Institute of Learning & Development. Over the years as Executive Director, she personally solicited approximately $1.2 million in donations and grants including a very large Legacy donation from her friend Elmer Krushinske.

Former Board member Marty Rice wrote the following.

Donna’s impressive leadership and long-term vision brought Wild Ones from her home’s dining room, spare bedroom and garage to this beautiful WILD Center on 16 acres in a preserve along the shore of Little Lake Butte des Morts. As impressive, with Donna’s help and the generosity of a couple of very special anonymous Wild Ones members, we are fortunate to own the entire property debt free.

Wild Ones was also a recent recipient of a very significant donation, which will help carry us into the forefront of the native plant movement, thanks to Donna.

A testimony to her dedication and ability to multi-task: she kept Wild Ones humming even while turkey hunting at their family shack in the woods.

On a more personal level, as a former treasurer and Finance Committee member I can say there were divergent opinions on finances, yet her respect for others and calm demeanor kept us moving ahead on a positive track.

Written by Tim Lewis