Conservation - Saving Land and Changing Lives

Tom Duffus, our Upper Midwest Director, shares how protecting land at a state park in Missouri also dramatically improved the life of a local farmer.

November 20, 2009

Last week, I participated in a barbeque celebration in Missouri, where we’ve added some key farmland/former wet prairie to Pershing State Park. At first, the celebration seemed like a typical gathering of what we call the “alphabet soup of agencies”—the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Missouri departments of conservation and natural resources.

But this was much more than official acronyms. This was an assembly of people who have dedicated themselves to this place—and to a vision for restoring and protecting it—for 15 years. I could only be humbled by the commitment, tenacity and dedication of all these people over such a long period of time.

The best part of the day, though, was meeting with the farmer, Mr. Zell, whose land we bought. Mr. Zell said he wanted to see me before I left town. I drove up to Mr. Zell’s farm—his new farm, the one we helped him exchange for the one we bought. He was glad to see me. I helped him load soybeans into his grain elevator, and we talked about the weather, the harvest and his family. He took photos of me with his cell phone, and insisted on a photo with just the two of us. (Farmers usually avoid cameras.) The harvest was a great one, and the wet weather—though always a subject of complaint—was easy to deal with now that he was no longer farming a wetland and fighting back nature with an old levy and water pumps.

A hearty farmer through and through, Mr. Zell cried. His life had been changed. And I realized that we change the map in our work every day—and that is monumental and historic. Sometimes, what I need to be reminded of is that we actually change people’s lives—forever. Land conservation is good for people. It is good for nature, but mostly, it is for people.

This work also changes my life—every time we close on a deal.