APPLE RIVER — On Sept. 11, the Eagle Nature Foundation will be celebrating the life and accomplishments of Terrence N. Ingram and those organizations, which he created and led over the years, to protect the bald eagle and its habitat. This includes the Southwestern Wisconsin Audubon Club, Eagle Valley Environmentalists, The Eagle Foundation, and presently, the Eagle Nature Foundation.
Over the past 60 years he and they have accomplished many things. In 1964, he and his secretary, Judy Klinger Gibbon, counted the most bald eagles ever seen at one location in the lower 48 states, 158 birds. He discovered the first known valley used by bald eagles as a winter nighttime roost, which has been placed on their National List of Historic Places, and after being preserved by Eagle Valley Environmentalists, was named Eagle Valley Nature Preserve. In 1967-68, while teaching at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, he received the largest faculty research grant that year awarded by the Wisconsin University Board of Regents for his research on the bald eagle and color marking and radio-tagging red-tailed hawks. He also received an American Ornithologist Union research grant to study the bald eagle.
He is the only person in the nation to be deferred from military service to save the bald eagle. His draft board said that enough young men were dying to save freedom in the world and that someone needed to help save the symbol of that freedom. They must have then lost his file as he did not hear from them again.
He has discovered more (57) bald eagle nighttime winter roosts than any other person. He and his organizations have helped save more than 25,000 acres of bald eagle habitat throughout the Midwest. With grants from power companies, barge companies, government, and individuals, he has conducted more different bald eagle research projects than any other person.
Through his and his organization’s efforts they have been able to stop the destruction of bald eagle habitat by developers and government agencies throughout the Midwest. His testimony helped stop a proposed ski lift in Pere Marquette State Park in 1965. They stopped the Great River Road from going through Eagle Valley. They stopped a nuclear power plant from being built just a few miles North of Eagle Valley. They helped stop the destruction of the 6,600-plus acre Rice Lake Conservation Area along the Illinois River from being strip mined by a coal company. They helped stop a wind farm from being constructed north of Rochester Minnesota, which would have adversely affected seven bald eagle nests. They were unsuccessful in stopping the Federal Highway Administration from building the Central Illinois Expressway right through an eagle roosting valley, Napoleon Hollow, which was owned by the Illinois Department of Conservation at the time. He designed and they built one of the nation’s largest bald eagle captive breeding facilities at Eagle Valley. He discovered, named and preserved Ferry Bluff Eagle Preserve on the Wisconsin River. He discovered and named Oak Valley Eagle Roost in Illinois. He discovered bald eagles using Clarksville Island as a nighttime bald eagle roost.
In 1967 they organized the first Bald Eagle Days Celebration in the nation and made it into an Annual event that has over the years been held in 10 different states and Canada. Their efforts have been emulated by hundreds of communities across the country, which have conducted their own Bald Eagle Days Celebrations. They started the Bald Eagle Person of the Year Award, which during International Bald Eagle Day, honored some individual for their efforts in saving the bald eagle. For years Mr. Ingram was a member of the team and editor for the KY-TN-IL Bald Eagle Management Team’s Newsletter. While banding bald eagle young, the tallest bald eagle nest Mr. Ingram ever climbed to, was 120 feet up in a white pine in Northern Wisconsin.
Mr. Ingram has written several books about the bald eagle including “EAGLE” for Friedman Publishers and “The Plight of the Bald Eagle” for ENF. He has written the book “Silent Fall”. He photographed and produced the 35 mm film “Eagle Country”. He photographed and wrote four filmstrips for Coronet Films on the “Birds of Prey”.
For his efforts Mr. Ingram has been awarded many awards including: Who’s Who in the Midwest; Who’s Who in America; National Izaak Walton League of American Honor Roll Award; Sol Feinstone Environmental Award from Syracuse University; Outstanding Alumus Award from the University of Wisconsin/Platteville; Protector of the Environment Award from the Chicago Audubon Society; Distinguished Service to Conservation Award from the Dane County Conservation League; the Albert Nelson Marquis Who’s Who Lifetime Achievement Award; and has been named an Illinois Environmental Hero.
Tentative plans for the day’s celebration include at the Crossroads Church in Galena: a morning and afternoon flying birds of prey show, “Wings to Soar”, by John and Dale Stokes, from Trenton, GA; the final judging for a Senior and Junior high school essay contest; a fund-raising auction; presentations by people who have over the years worked with Mr. Ingram and the organizations; a possible trolley tour of Galena; culminating with a 6:30 p.m. banquet at the DeSoto House Hotel in Galena. Complete details for the event will be announced at a later date.
