Lessons in Stewardship

Two centuries ago, Joseph Nicollet traveled through southern Minnesota and labeled it as the Undine Region, a reference to the water spirit that inspired the legend of the Little Mermaid. Ponds, sloughs, marshes, lakes, and rivers filled the region with so much wildlife that the French scientist marveled at the wetland paradise. Yet less than a generation ago, the waterfowl in this region had been so depleted that a boy shooting the rare Canada Goose earned a profile in the local paper. The young boy turned out to be Mark. Jenzen, who taught lessons in environmental stewardship to both students at Maple River and to his own family. 

Although the Canada Goose population has rebounded in recent decades, it took careful stewardship to keep the natural wonders witnessed by Nicollet available for the next generation to appreciate. Now fifth grade teacher Cory Roeker teaches similar lessons once taught by Mark Jenzen.  On Saturday, February, Roeker hosted two large groups that not only learned about the plight of local waterfowl populations but were then able to build their own duck houses. As Mr. Roeker introduced both groups to the successful rehabilitation of wood ducks in the area, retired teacher Mark Jenzen watched on as an educator and representative of Ducks Unlimited. 

Then the power drills came to life.

(Madeline assists Granda Dan as he secure the next piece to the wood duck house)

Dusty Drager, who had his son with him, helped organize the program through the Maple River Community Education program. Having witnessed the “early days of hammer and nails,” he and several other adults helped supervise the teams of builders. One of the builders was Madeline, she was able to spend the morning with Grandpa, retired Maple Custodian Dan Meyer. Despite it being a Saturday, Madeline gladly came to school to learn something they normally didn’t do during the week. Of course, her favorite reason for doing the project was to be with her Grandpa, who “knows how to do stuff.” With Mr. Roeker taking the large group through each step, Madeline helped her grandpa line up each board as they created a fully-functional duck house equipped with a cleanout door and a branded “MR 24” on the front. When all finished, Madeline described the whole process as “pretty fun.”  Once the building was done, the teams rotated to the Ducks Unlimited table for a bag of goodies before watching an educational video in Mr. Nienhaus’s room. 

With the high school shop filled with building teams, another group visited Mr. Nienhaus’s room for an educational video on wood ducks.

Watching the whole process, Jenzen identified what made the program successful: “Ownership with the kids. They now say, ‘this is part of what I did. I'm now controlling what might happen in the population of birds.’ And every time they drive by it, they're gonna say, ‘Hey, Hey”, and actually what's going to get to be 15 or 16 they’re not going to take their .22s out and shoot them.”

Each student learner and adult partner received information about how to properly hand the finished duck houses for effectiveness. According to Roeker, “It  is up to the kids and so they provided them with information in writing and then they got to see areas that but if they have any doubt as to where to put it or how to put it up, they have my contact information or I also told them I would be happy to put it up for them and find their nest boxes.”  Another reason for the program was timeliness. As Roeker explained, “every year in January, February, we go and clean them out. And that's the fun part because then you get to see if the wood ducks used your nest box.” 

For such a grand undertaking, Roeker had a lot of help. The Blue Earth County Soil and Water and the Maple River Chamber provided financial aid while Nordaas American Homes provided all of the lumber. Assisting the program, Ducks Unlimited have out prizes and Delta Waterfall sent a representation to help teams create functional houses. Roeker also credits the aid of Mr. Sheeley’s shop class for getting the material ready. “Very, very important. And not only with this wood duck project are we being able to expose kids to actually building it, but then (Mr. Sheely’s) students had took ownership in it as well by cutting them all out.” 

(Courtesy of Ducks Unlimited, Mark Jenzen and his daughter Erynn give out prizes to participants.)

For Mark Jenzen, he not only witnessed former students taking ownership in protecting the environment he was also joined by his daughter Erynn for the afternoon. For the Jenzen family, their involvement goes far beyond a single Saturday in February.  

Upon moving to the Minnesota Lake area, Jenzen started the area’s first chapter 46 years ago. As Erynn explained, “it's one of those things as kids then we grew up around it and we grew up going out and obviously, through his biological and natural science teachings and things we kind of grew up in the area. Along with Mark’s involvement, all three of his now adult children have taken leadership roles. For Erynn and her brother Ethan (Litchfield), they serve as zone chairs while sister Robyn  serves as Regional Vice Chair.  While building duck houses is a great first step, Erynn has taken her stewardship to another level. “I have become more active with the public policy side of things too, and becoming part of that committee and trying to be a voice with some legislators. These are the bills that are active in the area. Things that are important for conservation. So trying to kind of take on these things.”

The family’s efforts in conservation has been noticed by the Ducks Unlimited organization. Erynn explained, “As a new campaign, they were kind of looking for some faces to do that. They kind of decided that this would be a good place to feature a family so what they did is they printed it in the magazine, and then they actually framed, framed that and gave that to us at the state convention. And it was kind of fun. It was unexpected.”

Four members of the Jenzen family (Robyn, Erynn, Mark, and Linda) pose with the plaque awarded to them by Ducks Unlimited. 

Collin Nienhaus and son gave up their time on Saturday to help bring the Wood Duck Challenge program to Maple River

Dusty Drager and KC Reuter prepared bags of wood shavings while teams assembled the duck houses. 

(Originally Published with the Maple River Messenger).