Picturing Success

---

This article first appeared in INHF's Summer 2008 magazine.

Cover photo by Tim Ackarman

Participants at the Anglers Bay dedication event study critters along the shoreline.

Our cover photo was taken at Anglers Bay, our newly dedicated project on Big Spirit Lake. It captures not only a moment in time, but also our dreams for this site’s past, present and future.

The picture doesn’t show the long conversations with landowners and partners that put the project in motion. It doesn’t reveal the anxiety our staff and board felt as we launched this $6.67 million project, our largest fundraising effort to date.

Berkley Bedell, local resident, former congressman and INHF member, was among several wise people I consulted on whether or not INHF should tackle this difficult project. Berkley made three observations: Protecting this site is very important. I doubt this much money can be raised. You fail only if you don’t try. And then Berkley and Elinor Bedell made a commitment to help!

So we tried — along with the landowners, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, our state legislature, and 1,077 donors. Today you’re looking at the pictures of our success and partnership.

But we can’t rest on our laurels. At any given time, the Foundation is working on about 30 land and trail projects — plus our ongoing communications, policy and restoration efforts. The $14.5 million Ankeny to Woodward Trail, described on pages 8-10, is our current insomnia project. But someday this trail, like Anglers Bay, will be a place for Iowans to explore nature, make intergenerational memories or quietly bask in nature’s solitude.

With your help, we’ll keep converting such visions into pictures — and places — that you can enjoy.

- Mark C. Ackelson, President