Pearl Louise Pohl was born in 1887, the daughter of Richard C. and Maude L. Pohl. She completed the LaFayette Grammar School in Chicago in 1901 and graduated from West Division High School in Milwaukee in 1906. Pohl then attended the Milwaukee State Normal School to prepare herself for a career in elementary education. She graduated in 1908 and began teaching in the same year.
In her long career as an elementary school teacher, which lasted until her retirement in 1953, Pohl combined her interest in education with a strong interest in conservation. She eventually became one of the foremost advocates of conservation education in public schools in Wisconsin. Her interest in conservation issues can be seen from her early membership in the Izaak Walton League of America. The Milwaukee chapter of the league was chartered in 1922, the same year that the national organization was formed. Pledged to be the “defender of woods, water, and wildlife,” the league quickly grew into the largest conservation organization in the country. It was an active lobbying organization that paid particular attention to the issues of water resources and pollution.
Pohl's main interest was in conservation education, and she worked for years with the Education Committee of the Wisconsin Division. In 1936, she and a group of conservationists were instrumental in securing passage of a state law that made conservation education mandatory in Wisconsin public schools. Her own belief that conservation was a way of life that should be taught early was reflected in her efforts with her own sixth grade classes. Her field trips to farms to study soil conservation, tree-planting in the Kettle Moraine, and programs on the Milwaukee River Basin exemplify her approach. Pohl summarized her experience in an October 1949 article in the Wisconsin Conservation Bulletin entitled “Teaching Conservation to the Urban Sixth Grader.”
Pohl continued her conservation activities after her retirement. From 1952 to1954 she served as the president of the Milwaukee Chapter of the Izaak Walton League, and thereafter she served as secretary for six years. In 1960 she formed a women's chapter of the League, the La Budde Memorial Chapter to honor her friend and fellow conservationist, Wilhelmine La Budde. The aim of the chapter was to provide inspiration and opportunity for other women to follow in La Budde's footsteps. Pohl served as president of the La Budde chapter until 1974.
In addition to her work with the Izaak Walton League, Pohl was also active in several other conservation groups. Among them were the Citizens Natural Resources Association of Wisconsin in the early 1950s; the Wisconsin Council for Conservation Education, of which she was a founding member; and the Environmental Education Council of Greater Milwaukee, which she promoted in the 1970s. In addition, she worked to form a speaker's bureau on conservation issues to speak at PTA meetings. In 1956 Governor Walter Kohler appointed her to the committee to Keep Wisconsin Clean and Beautiful.
Pohl received many awards for her activities on behalf of conservation and conservation education. Most notable among them are the 1948 Izaak Walton League Award for accomplishments in conservation education and the 1976 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters award for distinguished service to Wisconsin. Pearl Pohl died in June, 1982.
