monday's mulling: earth day

Marie Aull was considered the godmother of the environmental movement in the Miami Valley. She was a founding member of the Garden Club of Dayton in 1922 and a beloved environmentalist and naturalist. As both a conservationist and gardener, Aull loved Dayton and its natural beauty, and devoted her life to preserving it. Marie’s vision for preserving green space and educating the public about the conservation movement also extended to playing key roles in the founding of Cox Arboretum, the Beaver Creek Wetlands Association and the Park District of Dayton and Montgomery County.

Married to Dayton box manufacturer John Aull, Marie’s real journey began after her husband died in 1955. Two years later, she donated 70 acres of their idyllic property to Miami Valley residents—a swath of land that has since expanded and is now known as Aullwood Audubon Center and Farm. Not only is Aullwood the Midwest’s first Audubon nature center, it is one of the nation’s finest.

Having no children her passion for conservation and horticulture, which they both shared, intensified. She was driven to educate all around her to safeguard the planet, to avoid the abundance of waste all around us. She wanted to protect the environment when it was not really on any contemporaries’ radars.

Marie Aull was ahead of her time. In 1957, when she first approached former National Audubon Society President John H. Baker about creating Aullwood, it would be another 12 years before the Cuyahoga River Fire—Cleveland’s pollutive disaster—helped fuel the modern day environmental movement. Conservation was a nascent concept, and Aull was a visionary.

Five years later, when proposed development threatened the springs and creeks surrounding Aullwood, her reputation was sealed. Aull purchased the 120-acre Antrim Farm adjacent to the nature center, donated a portion to the National Audubon Society, and augmented her natural sanctuary with a family farm—complete with livestock, crops and reverence for agrarian life.

In 1977, Marie donated her home, its private garden, and a $300,000 endowment were given to the park district. She continued living in her home, which overlooks the Stillwater River, while keeping her garden open to the public. In 2000 a new education wing was named for her; and in 2002 Aull died at age 105. Her ashes spread at Aullwood, alongside her husband, beneath a 500-year-old sycamore tree.

This woman exhibited a love of nature and of mankind because she sported the theory that our lands were in need of better care so it could be preserved for other to enjoy in the years to come. She is a testimony to what one person can do to make things better for "aull."

Sources: Dayton Magazine and Five Rivers MetroParks website.