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• A Legacy of Conservation

  The Nature Conservancy has protected a million acres across Minnesota, North and South Dakota over the last 65 years, which is really exciting. But we don’t own a million acres.

  The Nature Conservancy has a series of preserves, a little over 100,000 acres in Minnesota, North and South Dakota.

  We helped create places like Tettegouche State Park, the Glacial Ridge National Wildlife Refuge and the rest of that conservation is done in a lot of other ways. It’s in partnership with private landowners with protection agreements of land.

  We are so fortunate in Minnesota to have voters and residents support conservation, and they supported conservation nearly 20 years ago by passing the Land and Legacy Amendment.

  Through the Outdoor Heritage Fund that was created from that amendment, we’ve been able to protect, just The Nature Conservancy alone, over 22,000 acres in Minnesota. We should be very proud as a state for the legacy that we’re leaving our children in land and water conservation.

  One of the amazing things we’ve been able to do with the Outdoor Heritage Fund is really expand the Northern Tallgrass Prairie, which is some of the last remnants of Tallgrass Prairie in the state of Minnesota.

  I would say long-term ranchers, long-term farmers, how they found it is how they want to leave it, if not better.

  I think the longest piece of property that I’ve had in an easement has been five years. Long term, I think it’s going to be a really good thing.

  We simply couldn’t do conservation without private landowners. Conservation easements are a critical tool. First of all, they’re voluntary; private landowners want to protect their land, and this is an opportunity for them to voluntarily protect their land, assuring the management practices that they hold dear are going to be held on their land and that they can preserve what they have while continuing to work their lands and earn an income for their families.

  There’s definitely some benefit to this. I mean, it eases the whole payment schedule. It opens up another door if another place up or downstream comes up that would possibly connect to the one you have, you can make things work.

  It is really exciting to have hit this million acre milestone in our three-state chapter, but we are not slowing down. We have so much work yet to do. We have strategies to get land and water conservation done on the ground. We need our partners in the public sector. We need our nonprofit partners to work side-by-side with and we need private landowners and our donors to continue to work with, to achieve even more conservation so that we are leaving an incredible legacy for our children and grandchildren.