Oral History Interview, Laura Haefs (2283)

Abstract

In her 2023 interview with ecological restoration expert Bill Jordan, Laura Haefs details her experiences working for the fledgling Society for Ecological Restoration in the 1990s, housed in UW’s own Arboretum. She describes how she went from the role of assistant to coordinator, where she was a main administrator and in charge of a multitude of tasks including coordinating annual conferences which she later describes, writing newsletters, bookkeeping, and more. The two discuss the Journal of Restoration of Management Notes, which was the Society’s academic journal, and the unique situation in which the Society sprang from the journal, not the other way around. She mentions some big names in the field of restoration. Jordan and Haefs discuss the emergence of the idea of restoration and how it is an active process that goes beyond preservation. Haefs also speaks on how she felt when the Society relocated and the lack of recognition she and other employees received, and finally provides her thoughts on what she feels she accomplished working at the Society. This interview was conducted for inclusion into the Ecological Restoration Project of the UW-Madison Archives and Records Management oral history collection.