President's Corner:
Planting Conservation

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This article first appeared in INHF's Spring 2007 magazine.

By Mark C. Ackelson, INHF president

As this magazine shows, the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation accomplished a lot of conservation last year. However, these successes still happen one place and one family at a time.

Many of our 2006 accomplishments were years in the making. The seeds might have been planted by a question on a membership renewal card, a landowner request for information, a referral from a friend or conservation group, an onsite visit from a staff member or a combination of all.

To ensure future conservation, we must plant seeds now—and you can help. The sixth edition of our Landowner’s Options booklet is hot off the press. This free booklet outlines several methods of permanent land protection. It contains colorful photos, user-friendly language, real-life examples and handy references.

Landowner’s Options is particularly meaningful to me because I oversaw our first edition in 1982. INHF was still a fledgling organization, but we recognized an information need among Iowa landowners and their advisors. I canvassed the nation’s best land trusts, using their publications as models. In the intervening 25 years, INHF has distributed more than 18,000 copies of our first five editions—and has become the model for many other state publications.

Yet, even today, I’ll occasionally meet a landowner who pulls out a well-thumbed, first edition of the booklet—a seed germinating decades later.

So—if you are or know of a landowner, family member, legal or financial advisor interested in permanent land protection, see page 18 about requesting free copies. We’re also happy to meet individually or in groups with interested landowners, conservation organizations, professional groups (such as lawyers, financial planners or appraisers) and others.

Someday these pages may describe a conservation success that you helped plant.

 

For more information, e-mail Cathy Engstrom, Director of Communications, or call (515) 288-1846.