Hello, it is still me...

Since I, Tony Saladino, was a child, I have sought ways to reconcile man and his environment. I studied widely, Anthropology, Physics, Meteorology, Geology and Limnology, among others. By immersing myself in nature, I learned things not in books.

As a young man, I often hiked along the Appalachian Trail, spent my time biking, caving, watching wildlife and wandering the mountains of Eastern Pa. One project I undertook was rebuilding a half-acre beaver pond that was on the side of my favorite mountain. The beaver had been gone a long while, after a summer of work I appreciated how much work it was! I made films about the seasons and the streams that cascaded down the hills near home. My summer job in college was working at a large camp outside Philly, after several years, I had taken hundreds of center city kids to the wild back forty for what I called “hobo cooking” and “temporary shelter” classes. Showing them how to live in nature with style, not going hungry or cold.

I worked for Citizens for a Better Environment after college. Research for that job let me study more about the Great Lakes and learn more about the environmental catastrophes we have created around their shores. This in turn led, to my 1987 bicycle ride around all five Great Lakes. During that trip I talked with thousands of people in person and tens of thousands more by newspaper, radio and television about ways to live more lightly on Mother Earth and how to minimize the impacts we all have on finite resources and the planet as a whole.  Returning to Wisconsin, I spent time as “Nature Guy” for the City of Green Bay Park and Recreation Department, again teaching children about our interdependence on the world around us. More and more people today are beginning to learn that our future and quality of life are intimately tied to that of the world around us.

Please forgive my long introduction; I’m sure many of my friends don’t know my whole story. Since my return to Green Bay from college in 1985, I have been planting trees across Northeast Wisconsin. At first, my only funding was my own tax returns, and after a hiatus of a dozen years or so, raising some of the best children around, my wife Nancy and I started ECO-Tours of Wisconsin, inc. a not-for-profit organization that operates with donations we raise for the purpose of planting native trees and providing fun tours with environmental and educational focus. Our ECO-Tours have planted over fifteen thousand trees to date. We are ready to purchase property in the watershed of Green Bay that we can use as a nursery for our trees, a retreat center, teaching facility, and community supported agriculture (CSA) farm. The land we plan to reclaim was a former gravel pit, and we will reestablish a native forest on this denuded property.

Our reforestation efforts have restored over fifty acres so far. We have planted on several dozen sites across Northeast Wisconsin, mostly in the Fox and East River Watersheds. We are now poised to purchase land on which we will introduce ecotourists to our work in a single location where they will see forty restored acres in one place. Our donations are from people like you, people interested in taking a tour, investing in something worth being proud of, people who enjoy nature and want there to be more of it, and those who see the value of more diversity in our local environment. You may want to give a legacy gift so that we can preserve land that will never be developed, or just want a child to have a chance to take a free tour with us. Planting a single tree can be a profound experience. We plant forests. Whatever donation you are inspired to give will assist us in bringing our efforts to a wider audience. ECO-Tours is for me the culmination of my life’s work. We ask for funding for this project now, to secure the farm by spring.

This Earth house design would make an excellent living space with adjacent work spaces.

We appreciate your assistance and urge you to give as much as you can. We have done much with limited funds, and your assistance reinvigorates the process. Four years from now we can easily cover another fifty acres with native trees, with your help.

Appreciatively, Tony C. Saladino-Director,

Our entire board, and future guests thank you as well. 

Visit us at: ecotoursofwisconsin.org or call: (920) 884-2224
find us through facebook or e-mail tnsaladino42@hotmail.com

Donate at Paypal, our account number there is the same as e-mail or send to: 1445 Porlier street, Green Bay, Wisconsin 54301