Real Green People: A conversation with nature enthusiast Les Winkeler - The Southern
Les Winkeler, pictured above, grew up on a farm in Clinton County. He's a longtime columnist for The Southern's weekly Outdoors feature.
Les Winkeler obtained his journalism degree at SIU and proceeded to work and write for several small weekly papers before joining The Southern in 1989.
Real Green People is a monthly feature that puts a spotlight on folks who are being the green change they want to see in the world.
I think it’s safe to say that Les Winkeler has written more about hunting, fishing and general nature-watching and appreciation in Southern Illinois than perhaps anybody ever has.
For me, Winkeler’s weekly Outdoors feature and column in The Southern Illinoisan were the highlights of the Friday edition of the paper. Thankfully, Winkeler has continued to pen his weekly pieces for The Southern in retirement.
Mike Baltz: Many people would love to write about the outdoors for a living. Where’d you get your love of the outdoors and how did you get to The Southern?
Les Winkeler: I grew up on a farm in Clinton County, although we weren't farmers. But, we had pastures and woods to roam around in. We lived about a mile from Beaver Creek, so many spring and summer days were spent fishing for bullheads. My dad hunted and fished a lot when he was a kid, but the nature of his job didn't allow him to hunt as an adult.
However, dad took us fishing a lot when we were kids — most frequently to the spillway at Carlyle Lake. And some evenings after work he’d just drive us around the lake to look at the water and the trees. Although he didn't talk about his love of nature, there was an inherent reverence that we gleaned from dad.
But like most young boys, my passion was sports. That definitely came from dad. Dad taught me to root for the underdog. He taught me to charge ground balls, no matter how counterintuitive it seemed. He'd spend hours hitting me flyballs, although I remained a terrible outfielder throughout my life.
When I realized I wasn't athletic enough to play the games at any level after high school, I decided the next best thing was to be a sportswriter. So, I got a journalism degree at SIU and proceeded to work and write for several small weekly papers.
At the weeklies, I was a jack-of-all trades. I covered city councils, the courthouse, police reporting and sports for the newspaper. I was directly involved in production -- burning and bending plates to put on the press. I unloaded the press as the newspapers rolled off. If we missed the 5:30 mail truck, I had to pile bags of newspapers onto my pickup and haul them to nearby towns.
I got hired by The Southern in 1989 to be the outdoors and recreation writer. I had an outdoors page and a recreation page each week. And, I would normally cover one sporting event each week. Eventually, the recreation page went away and I covered more sporting events.
MB: As an Outdoors writer, was there a balance you tried to strike between maybe traditional Outdoor writing and more Nature writing?
LW: Initially, I wrote ‘hook-and-bullet’ stories. I loved going on hunts and fishing trips with people accomplished in those fields. Every story was a learning opportunity. I was particularly impressed with some of the fisherman, especially the bass and crappie guys. I grew to understand that fishing was more than just luck.
About midway through my career at The Southern, the editors at the paper were urging me to do more nature-oriented stories. I resisted at first, but I really was interested in knowing what birds I was hearing singing and learning more about the natural history of the area. So, I started expanding more into nature-based stories. That naturally, at least for me, led directly to becoming more environmentally aware. And one of the things that confounds me to this day is why so many hunters and fisherman refuse to identify as environmentalists — the pursuits they love depend on a healthy environment. But, I digress.
As opposed to my features, my columns have been kind of reflexive. If something strikes my fancy or pisses me off, I'll write about it. People have told me I've taken some courageous stands over the years. I really never thought about that, I just wrote what I was thinking. I have tried to use a touch of humor through the years. I think humor goes a long way to disarm people. And people are less apt to feel you're being preachy if you make them smile occasionally.
MB: What are some of the greatest conservation improvements/accomplishments that you’ve seen down here in the last several decades?
LW: I think the greatest thing is the restoration of the Cache River area. The area looks completely different now than when I first saw it 30 years ago. I love the fact that the World Shooting and Recreational Complex was built in Sparta. It brings people from all over the world to Southern Illinois. The revival of wild turkey, river otters and bobcats in Southern Illinois have been great conservation success stories, too.
One of the things I'm looking forward to is what the state and federal governments do to the Mississippi River floodplains in Alexander County. The constant flooding and the situation with the levee makes agricultural use seem foolhardy in the future. It would be awesome to see much of that land revert to wetlands. If large tracts are converted to public lands, I believe that would be an incredible drawing card for the region — the Everglades of the North.
MB: What keeps you hopeful about the future of ‘wild lands’ and ‘wild things’ in Southern Illinois and beyond?
LW: I see passion and enthusiasm in young people. Young people give me hope, in general. But I think one upside of the pandemic is that it forced Millennials and those younger to "pause," and what they saw was that we cannot sustain an economy and a civilization based on fossil fuels and consumption. And because they have to live in the future, unlike us baby-boomers, they are looking for solutions. And I believe they will find them.
2021-05-07 21:03:19Z
https://thesouthern.com/news/local/real-green-people-a-conversation-with-nature-enthusiast-les-winkeler/article_d0ad78bd-b700-5fe5-aa5c-15821a2e7f11.html
CBMimQFodHRwczovL3RoZXNvdXRoZXJuLmNvbS9uZXdzL2xvY2FsL3JlYWwtZ3JlZW4tcGVvcGxlLWEtY29udmVyc2F0aW9uLXdpdGgtbmF0dXJlLWVudGh1c2lhc3QtbGVzLXdpbmtlbGVyL2FydGljbGVfZDBhZDc4YmQtYjcwMC01ZmU1LWFhNWMtMTU4MjFhMmU3ZjExLmh0bWzSAZ0BaHR0cHM6Ly90aGVzb3V0aGVybi5jb20vbmV3cy9sb2NhbC9yZWFsLWdyZWVuLXBlb3BsZS1hLWNvbnZlcnNhdGlvbi13aXRoLW5hdHVyZS1lbnRodXNpYXN0LWxlcy13aW5rZWxlci9hcnRpY2xlX2QwYWQ3OGJkLWI3MDAtNWZlNS1hYTVjLTE1ODIxYTJlN2YxMS5hbXAuaHRtbA
les
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Real Green People: A conversation with nature enthusiast Les Winkeler - The Southern"
Post a Comment