The year 1969 is in the news these days. Retrospectives 40 years later have focused on everything from Woodstock to anti-war demonstrations and the moon landing.
That year also marked one of the most important moments of modern-day environmentalism, and Madison was at the epicenter. The Wisconsin Legislature in 1969 voted to effectively ban the persistent pesticide DDT from use in the state. The action was a first in the nation.
The same year also marked the end of remarkable hearings in Madison that put DDT on trial in front of the nation. A small group of concerned state conservationists and an old-school professor from the University of Wisconsin-Madison asked the Department of Natural Resources to rule on whether DDT was a water pollutant under state statutes.