Wisconsin magazine of history: Volume 86, number 4, summer 2003

              JENS JENSEN AND
HS.^'-.-i --A-
Courlesy of Ihe aulhor
By William H. Tishler and Erik M Ghenoiu
Historians of Amencan wilderness conservation would do well to remember the name "Friends of Our Native Landscape," First established in 191 8j the Friends was one of the earliest pri¬ vate oi^anizations dedicated to conservation and the first such significant organization active in the Midwest, The Friends counted among their ranks some of the country^s foremost conservationists (Stephen Mather^ the first director of the National Park Service^ and Aldo Leopold^ father of wildlife ecology and distinguished professor at the University of Wisconsin)j writers (Vachel Lindsay and Wisconsin native Hamlin Garland^ and philanthropists (Henry Ford and Gussie Rosenwald), The Friends were also responsible for a great deal of direct conservation work. In Wisconsin alone^ from their first major project^ the Richmond Park ofthe Rock of Gibraltar^ to their last^ the Toft Point natural area in Door County^ they had a hand in dozens of parks^ educational pro- gramSj the development of rural planning^ highway beautifi- cation^ and forty years of environmental legislation. Perhaps the most important of their accomplishments^ however^ was
L£fi: Jens Jensen sought and embraced the drama that life and
nature had to offer Eighty-three years of an extraordinary life are
capturedin this photo, taken in 1943
that the Friends of Our Native Landscape embodied the preservation philosophy of its founder^ the visionary land¬ scape architectjensjensen,jensen^s ideas about people^s rela¬ tionship to nature ofTered an original^ highly valuable lesson of appreciation that still resonates today. His legacy has enhanced the lives of not just Wisconsin residents^ but count¬ less other Americans,'
Jensjensen was born to an affluent family in southern Denmark in 1860 and emigrated to the United States in 1884^ apparently to escape his family^s disapproval of his fiancee^ Anne Marie Hansen, The couple settled in Chicago in 1886j and within a few years Jensen worked his way up from laborer to a position of authority within the Chicago West Parks District^ where he served as a park superintendent until 1900, During these first fourteen years that he worked for the city^ Jensen staked out a position for himself in the new profession of landscape architecture^ learning on the job how to transform vacant spaces into parks and gardens. He also made many friends among the architectural^ literary^ and wealthy elite of Chicago society^ which helped him gain com¬ missions when he moved into private practice for five years. In 1905 he returned to the West Parks District as superin¬ tendent and landscape architect^ a position he held for the