Leaving a legacy of awareness

Ruekert/Mielke’s Nelson volunteers for environmental education

Doug Nelson, a water supply and wastewater supervisor at Ruekert/Mielke, spends time outside of work sharing his environmental expertise with students at his children’s school. Here, Nelson stands with students after a spelunking trip in the Cave of the Mounds in Iowa. Photo submitted by Doug Nelson

Doug Nelson’s connection to the land from a rural childhood led him to a career in environmental engineering.

But he said he fears growing up in an urban environment will prevent his children from experiencing nature in the same way he did.

That’s why Nelson, a water supply and wastewater supervisor at Ruekert/Mielke in Waukesha, spends his free time volunteering and teaching the benefits of environmental stewardship at his kids’ school.

“It is so much ingrained in what I do,” he said of environmental consciousness. “I’ve made it my life.”

Nelson said he sends his children, Emily Sparent, 16, and Chris Nelson, 12, to Prairie Hill Waldorf School in Waukesha because it focuses on environmental education.

“There’s an emphasis on the importance of the environment, the cycles of the year, the cycles of development” Nelson said. “The earth becomes part of that cycle.”

Nelson said he sees firsthand at his job the effects building and design choices have on the greater environment. He tries to help the next generation make the same connection during his volunteer time.

As a volunteer and field trip chaperone, Nelson camped, taught and went caving with students.

His children, other students and Nelson return from spelunking trips at the Cave of the Mounds in Iowa covered in mud, and his jeep bears evidence of those adventures. But he said the dirty interior is a pleasant reminder of a shared memory.

He said the school’s field trips complement environmental curriculum and provide valuable hands-on learning opportunities.

“Part of why we started (at the school) was because there are those types of opportunities,” Nelson said.

Beyond volunteering at Prairie Waldorf, Nelson also launched an environmental technology program while working as a professor at Morrisville State College in New York.

“It’s what I leave behind that’s most important to me,” Nelson said. “We trained a lot of people [and] made huge strides. The environmental training center now has four full-time and 21 part-time instructors. My whole objective was that it continues beyond me.”

His efforts to leave a legacy of environmental consciousness appear to be working.

He said all four of his children — he has two adult children living in New York — appreciate the natural world.

“Their attitude is, ‘Daddy works with poop,’” he said of his children. “I think all of them respect the environment because of what I do.”

— Melissa Rigney Baxter