This summer, The Nature Conservancy’s CEO, Jennifer Morris, spent three days crisscrossing Missouri’s Ozarks, traveling from river raft to fire tower to experience some of the state’s most treasured landscapes.
The journey offered a close look at the people and partnerships working to protect these places and the communities and wildlife that depend on them. It was also a glimpse of how TNC’s ambitious 2030 goals take shape on the ground, in spring-fed streams, sprawling forests and habitats that support species found nowhere else on Earth.
As the leader of The Nature Conservancy, the world's largest environmental nonprofit, Morris oversees conservation efforts spanning more than 80 countries and territories. Her visit to Missouri offered a chance to see firsthand how that global mission takes shape in the Ozarks through the work of TNC and its partners. What stood out most, she said, was the shared commitment she witnessed everywhere she went.
“It was evident that everyone I talked to cared so deeply that, no matter what organization they reported to, they were willing to put aside institutional lines, roll up their sleeves and get the work done. That’s very special," says Morris.
Reflecting on the trip afterward, Morris distilled what she had seen into three themes: parks, partnerships and people.
2026 Annual Report
2026 marks The Nature Conservancy’s 70th anniversary in Missouri. Read about our achievements over the past year for nature and people. View the report.
Parks
After lodging at Echo Bluff State Park, Morris and her traveling companions woke early to float the Current River. She was joined by TNC Chief Marketing and Communications Officer Meg Goldthwaite and Missouri’s leadership team.
Paddling the cool, clear waters, they soaked in views of dolomite bluffs, which Goldthwaite described as “like something out of a storybook.”
The Current and Jacks Fork rivers were the first river system protected as a national park area, now Ozarks National Scenic Riverways. The watershed is both an economic engine (1.3 million park visitors spent $66.8 million locally in 2023) and a biodiversity hotspot, with more than 35 species of global significance.
Missouri’s state parks similarly shelter wildlife and boost the economy—a return of $1.5 billion statewide on a $68 million annual budget, according to a University of Missouri study. TNC is a key partner in the state’s conservation efforts. Roughly a tenth of Missouri Department of Conservation land has passed through TNC. In the Current River watershed, we’ve conserved more than 12,000 acres through our Ozark Conservation Buyers Fund.
On the raft, the value was counted in minks spotted (two), a wealth of kingfishers, turtles, herons and countless fish species.
“Missouri has some of the most beautiful parks I’ve ever seen,” Morris says. “And why? Because residents know the park system is the magic of Missouri, and they invest in that year after year.”
Partnerships
The following morning, the travelers headed for Stegall Mountain in Peck Ranch Conservation Area. The view from Stegall’s fire tower sweeps across miles of oak-hickory forests and igneous glades more than a billion years old.
For decades, TNC has teamed up on prescribed burns in this rugged landscape with the Missouri Department of Conservation, National Park Service and a host of other partners. The burns protect the glades from being overrun by trees and maintain habitat for native species, such as collared lizards.
Today, visitors see thousands of unbroken acres, but it’s multiple parcels of protected land quilted together by partners. TNC’s Thorny Mountain Preserve is next door, and Ozark National Scenic Riverways lies just beyond. Even Peck Ranch is an amalgamation, expanded by 5,600 acres in 2022 when TNC transferred our Chilton Creek preserve—the epilogue to a 1991 land deal that saved 80,000 acres.
People
On the last night, Morris spoke to supporters at a dinner at Finley Farms in Ozark, hosted by Missouri’s Board of Trustees.
She reflected on the scale of TNC’s global ambitions, including goals to conserve 10% of the ocean by 2030, protect 1.6 billion acres of land—twice the size of India—and improve 620,000 miles of river, enough to circle the globe 25 times.
But Morris emphasized that progress on those ambitious targets depends on the local conservation work happening in places like Missouri.
Every stop was a reminder. Whether meeting with partners from a half-dozen agencies, chatting with trustees or putting on waders to examine streams with TNC staff, there was a direct path from world-changing strategies to places and people in Missouri.
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