Title: Lorrie Otto Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1930-2008 (bulk 1960-1996)

Creator:

• Otto, Lorrie (Mary Lorraine), 1919-2010

Call Number: Mss 1050; PH 6575; Audio 1461A; VBC 116-119

Quantity: 5.4 c.f. (14 archives boxes and 2 oversize folders), 21 photographs, 1 drawing, 1 scrapbook (1 flat box and 4 folders), 4 videorecordings, 2 tape recordings, and 1 compact disc

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Papers, 1930-2008 (mainly 1960-1996), of Lorrie Otto (Mary Lorraine Otto), conservationist, teacher-naturalist, and natural landscaping advocate, documenting her involvement in hearings before the Wisconsin Conservation Dept. (now the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources) that led to the 1970 statewide ban of the pesticide known as DDT, and her continued efforts to preserve and advocate for the natural environment. Materials document Otto's research and collaboration with colleagues and conservation organizations prior to, during, and after the Wisconsin DDT hearings. Also documented is her work and activities associated with promoting natural landscaping and her involvement in conservation groups such as Citizens Natural Resources Association (CNRA), The Nature Conservancy, and Wild Ones. Frequent or noteworthy correspondents include Senator Gaylord Nelson, Environmental Defense Fund scientist Charles F. Wurster, and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources conservationist Walter Edwin Scott.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss01050

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In 1919 Lorrie Otto was born Mary Lorraine Stoeber to Bessie and Ernest Stoeber in Madison, Wisconsin. She graduated with an art major from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1942 and two years later married Owen Otto, son of University of Wisconsin-Madison professor and famous philosopher, Max Otto. It was after she married Owen, who had a sister named Mary, that Mary Lorraine Otto began calling herself Lorrie Otto. She lived in Madison; Portland, Oregon; New York; again in Madison; and Milwaukee before settling down in 1952 with her husband and two young children, Patricia (Tricia) and George, in the Village of Bayside, Wisconsin. Bayside, located 12 miles outside of Milwaukee, was her residence until 2008, when she moved to the state of Washington.

Otto worked to conserve the environment as both a paid teacher-naturalist at Riveredge Nature Center in Newbury (Wisconsin) and as a concerned citizen. Prior to becoming a teacher-naturalist, Otto achieved two major environmental victories. One involved Fairy Chasm, a 19-acre wooded Lake Michigan ravine in her Bayside subdivision. In the early 1960s, the Fish Creek Park Corporation nearly sold the ravine to developers. Recognizing the beauty and worth of the ravine's ecology, Otto learned to identify all the rare plants, led wildflower tours through the woods, attracted media attention, and ultimately convinced enough shareholders in the corporation that the land was worth protecting. By 1970, Fairy Chasm was donated as a nature preserve to The Nature Conservancy.

The second major environmental victory for Otto was the banning of DDT in Wisconsin. After observing dead birds and bats in Fairy Chasm, Otto learned from University of Wisconsin-Madison ornithologist Joseph Hickey that DDT was the likely cause. Shortly thereafter Otto began speaking out against the use of DDT for controlling mosquitoes and Dutch Elm Disease. Not gaining much ground, Otto networked and joined forces with conservation groups, including the Citizens Natural Resources Association (CNRA), to petition the Wisconsin Department of Conservation (now the Department of Natural Resources) for an investigation into the health hazards of DDT. She befriended local scientists, researchers, and conservationists, including Walter Scott of the DNR, who regularly sent her reports, articles, press releases, and bits of proposed legislation, and Charles Wurster, a scientist and leader of a New York conservation group which later became the Environmental Defense Fund. With funds Otto raised through support from CNRA and other groups, Wurster and other experts testified in highly publicized hearings before the DNR. In 1970 Wisconsin became the first state to ban DDT. The scientists and lawyers who gathered as a single group for the first time in Otto's living room the night before the Wisconsin hearings then took the battle to Washington D.C. DDT was banned in the United States in 1972.

In the decades that followed the DDT hearings, Otto devoted her professional and personal life to the cause for which she is most famous: promoting natural landscaping (landscaping with native plants). Through forums such as a monthly column called “Lorrie's Notes,” Madison WHA-FM radio appearances, a Viacom cable television series she produced called Earth Care, and a variety of writings, conference engagements, public appearances, and adult education classes at Riveredge, Otto educated Wisconsin citizens, municipalities, and agencies about natural landscaping. In the mid 1970s, Otto again immersed herself in a highly publicized court battle, this time raising money for a New Berlin, Wisconsin resident, Donald Hagar, who wanted to maintain native plants in his yard. In 1977 Otto influenced a group of women to form the first chapter of The Wild Ones, a natural landscaping club that grew to dozens of chapters across several states during Otto's lifetime. In the early 1990s, Otto helped write and publish CNRA's roadside vegetation booklet, a project she worked on for several years.

Otto's efforts and successes conserving Wisconsin's lands, plants, and wildlife earned her many awards and recognition. She went from being nicknamed “The Weed Lady” to “The Godmother of Natural Landscaping.” In 1999 she was inducted into the Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame, an honor she shares with Aldo Leopold, Gaylord Nelson, and John Muir.

The Lorrie Otto papers document Otto's interest, involvement, and leadership in environmental conservation in Wisconsin, particularly in those conservation matters having to do with the banning of the pesticide DDT, and the natural landscape movement. The papers date from 1930 through 2008, with the bulk of materials created or gathered between 1960 and 1996. The collection consists of research materials, including articles, notes, publications, news clippings, and correspondence Otto created and gathered in the crucial years of the DDT hearings, as well as biographical news clippings, a scrapbook, subject files, transcripts of radio broadcasts, audio recordings of radio shows and interviews, VHS tapes of a cable television show she produced, and photographs.

The papers are divided into eight series: BIOGRAPHICAL AND PERSONAL MATERIALS, CORRESPONDENCE, DDT MATERIALS, RADIO SHOW TRANSCRIPTS, SUBJECT FILES, WRITINGS, AUDIO MATERIALS, and VISUAL MATERIALS. Within each series the materials are arranged either alphabetically or chronologically. The RADIO SHOW TRANSCRIPTS series is divided into three headings arranged chronologically by year to facilitate item level listing of the transcripts by date and title. The VISUAL MATERIALS series is divided into Biographical and Personal Materials and Subject Files headings to mimic arrangement of the textual files. Item level listing is provided for radio broadcasts on audio cassette and for photographs.

The BIOGRAPHICAL AND PERSONAL MATERIALS briefly highlight her childhood and the years between college and marriage, and comprehensively summarize her conservation work between the early 1960s and mid 1990s in a run of news clippings and magazine articles. The collection of biographical and personal materials is key to understanding the context of Otto's interest in environmental preservation, and provides glimpses into important moments of her career.

The CORRESPONDENCE series documents relationships and points of connection Otto had with family, friends, colleagues, and the general public. Specific letters and runs of correspondence are included here that were not kept by Otto in any particular arrangement or subject file, or that did not deal specifically with DDT. Correspondence of a more personal nature is housed in this series, although the series is not exclusively personal. The majority of correspondence is incoming.

The DDT MATERIALS series is a unique collection of research, publication, and publicity materials in the form of correspondence, legislative documents, reports, bulletins, newsletters, clippings, and personal notes from crucial years surrounding the DDT controversy. It documents the idiosyncratic nature by which Otto gathered research about DDT, from whom or where she gathered information, in some instances who sent the information to her, who she collaborated with in the years leading up to, including, and following the DDT hearings, and who she kept in contact with after DDT was banned. There is evidence of strong professional relationships between Otto and agency employees and scientists involved in the hearings, in particular Walter Scott of the Wisconsin Department of Conservation (now the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources) and Charles Wurster of the Environmental Defense Fund.

The RADIO SHOW TRANSCRIPTS series includes typed transcripts, many of them hand-marked with edits by a friend or by Otto herself, of Otto's broadcasts on WHA-FM radio in Madison between 1977 and 1979. The transcripts provide examples of Otto's writing and speaking style and represent her overall approach to communicating and promoting natural landscaping through the medium of radio programming. A subset of 1978 radio broadcasts not documented in typed form is provided on audiocassette in the AUDIO MATERIALS series.

SUBJECT FILES provide a sense of the variety and depth of Otto's environmental interests and the functions she performed as a naturalist, teacher, natural landscaping advocate, prominent member of the environmental professional community, and public speaker. The series provides evidence of the subjects that interested her most, were gathered to support a cause, or were used in support of her many writings and activities. The series is littered with examples of Otto's writings and correspondence about particular subjects, which for the most part are not duplicated in other series. With few exceptions the materials largely date from 1970.

The WRITINGS series is a unique combination of Otto's very specific writing projects as well as her general writings and ideas that spanned several topics and several years. Both the BIOGRAPHICAL AND PERSONAL MATERIALS and the SUBJECT FILES series should be cross referenced for examples of Otto's writing.

The AUDIO MATERIALS series contains recordings of a subset of Otto's radio broadcasts in 1978 and two interviews. The radio broadcasts fill the gap in programming documented by typewritten radio transcripts. They also capture Otto's voice and speaking style in the 1970s, which is complemented by later interviews. The Storycorps interview is particularly insightful about Otto's involvement in the Wisconsin DDT hearings.

The VISUAL MATERIALS series is arranged into headings for biographical and personal materials and subject files to match the textual collection. The biographical visual materials include photographs and transparencies, most of Otto herself, which were loose in the collection or were associated with scrapbook clippings, and a scrapbook of tributes to Otto's career made by friends and colleagues. Also included in this series are video tapes of four of Otto's Earthcare cable television shows. Background information about the television series is provided in the SUBJECT FILES.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Lorrie Otto, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 2007-2008. Accession Number: M2009-005

Processing Information

Processed by Kara Blue (Practicum student), May 2009.

Mss 1050	Series: Biographical and Personal Materials
Box   1 Folder   1	Articles about Lorrie, 1981-2007
Box   2 Folder   1	Awards, 1986-2003
Box   2 Folder   2	Book chapter drafts by S. Matteson, undated
Box   1 Folder   2-3	Scrapbook clippings, 1960-1996
	Series: Correspondence	⇧
Box   2 Folder   3	Film and book ideas, 1979-1980
Box   2 Folder   4	From Mrs. (Miki) L.E. Larson, 1963-1964, 1972, undated
Box   2 Folder   5-8	General, 1960, 1974-2006, undated
Box   2 Folder   9	LaBoule tree clearing, 1966-1967
Box   2 Folder   10	Outgoing to newspapers, 1970-1974, 1978
Box   2 Folder   11	Responses to Milwaukee Journal article, 1972
Box   2 Folder   12	Speaking and program engagements, 1975-1996
	Series: DDT Materials	⇧
Box   3 Folder   1-2	1957-1965, Articles, clippings, notes, and correspondence
Box   3 Folder   3	1966, Correspondence with L. Hoben, Joseph Hickey, Audubon
Box   3 Folder   4	1966, Legislative materials related to banning DDT
Box   3 Folder   5-8	1966-1967, Articles, clippings, notes, and correspondence
Box   4 Folder   1-2	1966-1967, Articles, clippings, notes, and correspondence (continued)
Box   1 Folder   4	1966-1967, Articles, clippings, notes, and correspondence
Box   4 Folder   3	1967-1971, Environmental Defense Fund materials
Box   4 Folder   4	1968, Hugh Iltis publications
Box   4 Folder   5	1968, Robert L. Burnap correspondence
Box   1 Folder   5	1968-1969, Citizens Natural Resource Association Report publications
Box   4 Folder   6-12	1968-1969, Articles, clippings, notes, and correspondence
Box   5 Folder   1-8	1968-1969, Articles, clippings, notes, and correspondence (continued)
Box   6 Folder   1-2	1968-1969, Articles, clippings, notes, and correspondence (continued)
Box   7 Folder   1-2	1968-1969, Michigan and Environmental Defense Fund
Box   7 Folder   3-5	1968-1970, Correspondence, mostly Charles Wurster
Box   7 Folder   6	1968-1970, Correspondence with Joan Wolf
Box   7 Folder   7	1968-1970, Select clippings telling the DDT story
Box   7 Folder   8	1969, Four State Conference
Box   7 Folder   9-10	1969, Michigan Environmental Action Council
Box   7 Folder   11	1969, Pro-DDT clippings
Box   7 Folder   12	1969, Silent Summer book idea
Box   7 Folder   13	1969-1970, Bruce Ingersoll correspondence
Box   7 Folder   14	1969-1970, Clippings and Otto's writings during hearings
Box   6 Folder   3	1970-1972, Articles, clippings, notes, and correspondence
Box   8 Folder   1-4	1970-1972, Articles, clippings, notes, and correspondence
Box   8 Folder   5	1974, Charles Wurster biographical materials
Box   8 Folder   6	1974, clippings
Box   8 Folder   7	1974-1979, Thomas Dunlap Wisconsin hearings thesis publication
Box   8 Folder   8	1978, 1983-1985, Correspondence with Charles Wurster
	Series: Radio Show Transcripts	⇧
	1977-1979
Box   8 Folder   9	Selected transcripts for M. Wells Christmas tape
	1977
Box   8 Folder   10	July 20, “Water”
Box   8 Folder   11	July 27, “Monarda”
Box   8 Folder   12	August 3, “Grotenrath; Wasps”
Box   8 Folder   13	August 10, “Wild Yards (Donna & Mary)”
Box   8 Folder   14	August 17, “Donahue & Milt”
Box   8 Folder   15	August 24, “Accommodating”
Box   8 Folder   16	September 7, “Mushrooms”
Box   8 Folder   17	September 14, “Sanctuary Mowed”
Box   8 Folder   18	September 21, “Goldenrods are not Guilty”
Box   8 Folder   19	October 5, “Environmentalist's Reward”
Box   8 Folder   20	October 12, “Sparrows”
Box   8 Folder   21	October 19, “Fallen Leaves,” and , October 26 letter from Helen
Box   8 Folder   22	November 9, “Bats”
Box   8 Folder   23	November 16, “Winter Shelters”
Box   8 Folder   24	November 30, “Winter Landscaping”
Box   8 Folder   25	December 7, “Insulation, Energy”
	1978
Box   8 Folder   26	January 11, “Save the Christmas Trees and Maybe the Ribbons, Too”
Box   8 Folder   27	January 18, “Mourning Doves”
Box   8 Folder   28	January 25, “Rabbits”
Box   8 Folder   29	February 2, “Snow Shoveling”
Box   8 Folder   30	February 8, “Screech Owl”
Box   8 Folder   31	February 15, “Blizzards, Birds & Niger Seeds”
Box   8 Folder   32	March 22, “Trowel Day”
Box   8 Folder   33	March 29, “Sediment and Suburban Schmaltz”
Box   8 Folder   34	April 12, “Gardening Yearbook 1978”
Box   8 Folder   35	April 19, “Bulbs & Hepaticas”
Box   8 Folder   36	April 26, “April - Bird's Eggs - Ideas”
Box   8 Folder   37	May 17, “Answering a Letter”
Box   8 Folder   38	May 24, “What's in a Name?”
Box   8 Folder   39	August 23 or 24, “Home from Prairie Conference”
Box   8 Folder   40	August 30, “Hazards for the Birds”
Box   8 Folder   41	September 6, “Madison's Proposed Lawn Ordinance”
Box   8 Folder   42	September 13, “Lipizzan Horses”
Box   8 Folder   43	September 27, “Goldenrods in the Sunday Paper”
Box   8 Folder   44	October 4, “Bayside Audubon Plantings”
Box   8 Folder   45	October 25, “Pasatiempo - Cheetahs - Gas Lights”
Box   8 Folder   46	November 2, “Animal Shelters 1978”
	1979
Box   9 Folder   1	January 3, “Convalescence (Shrews, Owl, Hawk, Red Squirrel)”
Box   9 Folder   2	January 17, “Shoveling Snow - Gymnasiums”
Box   9 Folder   3	January 24, “Par Donahue Lecture”
Box   9 Folder   4	January 31, “Geese”
Box   9 Folder   5	February 7, “Prologue to DDT Madison Hearing”
Box   9 Folder   6	February 14, “Keep Out of Reach of Children”
Box   9 Folder   7	February 28, “Geoffrey Standford Idea”
Box   9 Folder   8	March 7, “Replacing Inverts”
Box   9 Folder   9	March 14, “The Handyman Magazine Article”
Box   9 Folder   10	March 28, “Weeds in Snow”
Box   9 Folder   11	April 5, “Louise Erickson”
Box   9 Folder   12	April 25, “Spring Rites”
Box   9 Folder   13	May 23, “Honeysuckles”
Box   9 Folder   14	May 30, “The Ark on the Space Ship”
Box   9 Folder   15	June 6, “Bulldozer Alert”
Box   9 Folder   16	June 13, “Dandelions”
Box   9 Folder   17	June 23, “Rain Barrels at Audubon”
Box   9 Folder   18	June 27, “No-gas Summer (and Rain Barrels continued)”
	undated
Box   9 Folder   19	“Fourth of July Bouquet”
Box   9 Folder   20	June 28 or 29, “Spring Green Prairie”
	Series: Subject Files	⇧
Box   9 Folder   21	Abortion, 1973, 1977, 1994, undated
Box   9 Folder   22	Bats, 1977, 1979
Box   9 Folder   23-26	Bayside Environmental Committee, 1977-1980
Box   9 Folder   27	Bayside Middle School, 1992-1993
Box   9 Folder   28	Beechwood (Mequon), 1975
Box   9 Folder   29	Chiwaukee Prairie, 1985-1986
Box   9 Folder   30	Citizens Natural Resource Association, 1978-1995
Box   9 Folder   31	Conference planning, 1988-2004
Box   9 Folder   32	Covenant Christian Reformed Church, 1986
	Donald Hagar/New Berlin Court Case
Oversize Folder   1	Environmental voting records for Wisconsin state legislators, 1975-1976
Box   1 Folder   6-8	General file, 1974-1976
Box   10 Folder   1	News reporters, 1976
Box   10 Folder   2	Public relations, 1975
Box   10 Folder   3	Weed law, 1974-1977
Box   10 Folder   4	Earthcare program preview and graphics, 1983, undated
Box   10 Folder   5-8	Fairy Chasm, 1959-1996
Box   1 Folder   9	Fairy Chasm, 1959-1996
Oversize Folder   1	Fairy Chasm (Fish Creek Park Company) plat, 1930
Box   10 Folder   9	Fifth Prairie Conference, 1976
Box   10 Folder   10-11	Horicon Marsh, Canada goose control, 1967-1977
Box   10 Folder   12	Irene Cull, 1966-1982
Box   11 Folder   1-2	Jacobus Park, 1986-1988
Oversize Folder   2	Marks' berms, 1988
Box   11 Folder   3	Marks' berms, 1988, 1996
Box   11 Folder   4	Mosquito spraying and wildlife concerns, 1973-1982
Box   11 Folder   5-7	Natural landscaping general file, 1976-1983
Box   11 Folder   8-10	Nature Conservancy, 1964, 1968-1969, 1975-1980
Box   12 Folder   1	Pesticide Task Force, 1984-1985
Box   12 Folder   2	Pesticides, 1970-1978
Box   12 Folder   3	Riveredge Nature Center, 1977, undated
Box   12 Folder   4-8	Roadsides, 1940, 1970, 1974-1976, 1980-1990
Box   12 Folder   9	Rogers Memorial Hospital, undated
Box   12 Folder   10	Shawano Lake, 1981
Box   12 Folder   11	Schwarzmeler articles, 1974-1976
Box   12 Folder   12	Silver Lake (Village of) mosquito spraying, 1979-1982
Box   13 Folder   1-3	Urban deer task force, 1993-1994
	Weeds
Box   13 Folder   4-8	Legislation and ordinances, 1974-1994
Box   13 Folder   9	Legislator correspondence, 1974-1976
Box   13 Folder   10	Soil and weeds, 1974, 1977, undated
Box   13 Folder   11	Wetlands, 1961, 1979-1982
Box   13 Folder   12	Wild Ones and Milwaukee Audubon Society, 1992-1994, 2007
	Series: Writings	⇧
Box   14 Folder   1	25 Years of Wild Ones, 2004
Box   14 Folder   2	CNRA - The First 50 Years: 1951-2001, 2001
Box   14 Folder   3-4	General writings, 1974-2006
Box   14 Folder   5	Managing Wisconsin's Roadsides, 1991
	Series: Audio Recordings	⇧
1461A/1	Jan Weller, Natural Landscaping with Lorrie Otto, 1989 November 8 Physical Description: Cassette tape
1461A/2	Radio Broadcasts, 1978 Summer/Autumn Physical Description: Cassette tape
	“4th of July Parade”
	“Animal Shelters for Halloween”
	“Bird Hazards: Windows, Burdocks, Temple Foot”
	“Chiwaukee Prairie”
	“Gas Lights”
	“Goldenrod”
	“Kathy Brummer on the Madison Lawn Ordinance”
	“Life Membership: The Nature Conservancy”
	“Madison Lawn Ordinance”
	“NSPS”
	“Ohio Prairie Conference”
	“Saving Habitats”
	“School pens”
	“Subdivision Recommendations”
	“Temple Smith”
1461A/3	Storycorps interview, 2007 May 15 Physical Description: Compact disc
PH 6575	Series: Visual Materials	⇧
	Biographical and Personal Materials
	Photographs and transparencies
Folder   1 Item   1	Charles Wurster, undated
Folder   2 Item   9	George Otto, 9 years old, with rue anemone, 1959 May
	Lorrie Otto
Folder   2 Item   10	with pale Erythronium, 1959
Folder   1 Item   2	at DDT hearings, circa 1969
Folder   1 Item   3-4	in front of her house, circa 1980
Folder   1 Item   5	in yard, circa 1980
Folder   1 Item   6	collage, undated
Folder   1 Item   7	with rain barrel, undated
Folder   2 Item   11	Tricia Otto and trillium, North Fairy Chasm woods, 1960
Folder   2 Item   12	Tricia Otto, 1961 May
Folder   1 Item   8	Vic Yannacone and gentleman, undated
	Scrapbook photographs
Folder   3 Item   13	Bayside school case display, 1989-1990
	Lorrie Otto
Folder   3 Item   14	DDT Hearings, 1969
Folder   3 Item   15	My Diversity of Life PR photo, 1974 January
Folder   3 Item   16	Missouri prairie conference, 1980
Folder   3 Item   17	1980 September
Folder   3 Item   18	Garden Club of America, 2000 September 5
Folder   3 Item   19	at Bayside School Assembly, undated
Folder   3 Item   20	with cup plant, undated
Folder   3 Item   21	in yard, undated
Folder   4 Item   22	Wisconsin roadsides graphic, undated
Box   1	Scrapbook, circa 1996
	Subject Files
	Earthcare video
VBC 116	Part 14, Milt's yard, 1983 July 28
VBC 117	Part 17-A, Lorrie's Yard, 1983 August 9
VBC 118	Part 16, Don Hagar, 1985 January 31
VBC 119	Part 33, Schomer Lichtner, 1991 February 15