Fitting honor: Dunn, Aylward names will live on at Burr Oak Woods

This week’s frigid air has left the Kids’ Fishing Pond at Burr Oak Woods as solid and smooth as a billiard table. But it’s frozen, seasonal conversion in no way reflected the warmth surrounding it, or attention to it on Friday afternoon.
Cold as the thermometer might have read at Blue Springs’ Conservation Area, there, absolutely, was a feeling of warmness in the hearts of the dozen or so people who gathered there to give new meaning to the pond as well as the Discovery Trail leading to it.
The dozen (or so) were there to put a human persona on the two popular attractions, thus make them even more meaningful because of the names now attached. If you venture out there today you’ll see that it is the J. Ernest Dunn Jr. Discovery Trail and the W. Robert Aylward Kid’s Fishing Pond.
And while most future visitors, eight or 80, will probably skip past the signage and get right down to the fun of what each of these sites offer, it is important to note that these names didn’t just simply pop out of some political favor folder – and the names Dunn and Aylward honor both the sites and the men with the association of each other.
Who are Dunn and Aylward? Obviously, caring and highly involved people in their families and Kansas City community. Among their many passions, they shared a common commitment to nature. Together, they also served as commissioners of the Missouri Department of Conservation from 1977 to 1983.
They were chosen on Aug. 22 to the commission by then-Governor Joseph Teasdale.
So how does the popular Burr Oak Woods figure into the equation? Well, less than six months after their appointment, the bulk of acreage that makes up the 1,000-plus-acres of the conservation area, was acquired. And a year before their terms expired in 1983, the facility was officially dedicated.
“There wasn’t a single moment I didn’t enjoy,” Aylward said proudly Friday of his tenure on the commission. “And with Ernie on there with me, there was never a dull moment.”
Commissioners, generally, fly to their monthly meeting at various locations around the state. That meant that since they were both from Kansas City, Ernie and Bob would always fly together.
“I asked Ernie one time if something happened to the pilot if he thought he could handle the plane. ‘ABSOLUTELY!’ he said. When he was a Marine he had had 100 or so dive-bombing missions!”
Of course establishing Missouri’s first-ever nature center, was only part of the great outdoor mosaic they helped establish for the people of Eastern Jackson County as well as the entire state. The Conservation Department’s roots go back to 1935, but it was in 1976 when the full dream was realized with the citizens approval of Amendment 1, establishing a permanent conservation sales tax. Its positive impact on every county in the state is incalculable and has established Missouri’s Conservation Department as the country’s model.
Passage of the initiative in ’76 and Dunn and Aylward’s appointment in ’77 is no coincidence.
It is no surprise that Aylward’s name is attached to an impoundment. In the summer of 1977, heavy rains in Big River watershed caused a lead mine tailings pile to pour what was estimated at 100,000 cubic yards of white, floury tailings into the river. Investigations showed that over 30 miles of the Big River were affected by the pollution. The entire Big River area had a sordid history of pollution.
Several environmental and conservation groups, including the Conservation Department, as well as Governor Teasdale, got involved. Commissioner Aylward was especially concerned about the degradation of a good Ozark smallmouth bass stream and the Commission ordered the staff to take what steps it could to save the stream.
Sadly, Ernie Dunn was not at the event Friday afternoon. He died in October.
But two of his sons, Dan and Peter, were very much in attendance and their pride and love of their father was apparent.
“He loved being in the outdoors, just loved it,” Peter said. “It had a calming effect on him and he became very quiet when he got outdoors. He felt closest to God when he was in the outdoors of Missouri. He was a very humble man and I think this ceremony today would have embarrassed him.
“My father was passionate about several things. He was passionate about his relationship with God … about his country … about his profession … and, absolutely, passionate about the state of Missouri.”
Although JE Dunn, the construction company his father had created and he had taken to a national level, is known for building much of our community, it is Ernie’s dedication that has built much of this state’s conservation heritage. It was personal for him.
“John, I just cannot put my Missouri Conservationist, issue 6, June 2007, away to the shelf without telling you how great your article is,” he wrote John Hoskins about an editorial the director had written (entitled The Future of Child’s Play).
“I wasn’t raised on a farm,” Ernie continued, “but early on I had a real love for the outdoors, and the majority of my seven sons acquired that same great feeling. Your article made me feel that, if more families were at least exposed to the factors you so beautifully describe, we would have young people more in tune with the way the world should be.”
Those words of Ernie were written just over a year ago. Today, because of men and women who share his and W. Robert Aylward’s commitment, we have trails and ponds where, in fact, young people can be more in tune with the natural world as they have, thankfully, created.