BISMARCK — If you’re not good to the land, the land won’t be good to you.
That was a message from one of several North Dakota ranchers who spoke about conservation in the state during a video presentation at the North Dakota Natural Resources Trust’s 40th anniversary celebration on Tuesday, Sept. 22.
The trust — whose mission is to preserve, restore, manage and enhance wetlands and wildlife habitat across North Dakota — held the anniversary celebration at the Gateway to Science Center in Bismarck. More than 130 people attended the event to laud and learn about the organization. Guests, including ranching partners and representatives from various state agencies, were invited by the trust for the occasion.
The event was more than only celebrating a milestone year; it was about honoring the conservation work that has been accomplished to date and about looking ahead.
Over its four decades, the trust has positively impacted more than a half-million acres through its work across the state. But it wasn’t a one-shop effort. It couldn’t have gotten it done without help from others, according to Executive Director Keith Trego.
“For us, it’s all about partnerships,” he told the Grand Forks Herald.
Andrew Weeks/Grand Forks Herald
Or as Heather Husband, Meadow Lark Initiative coordinator, calls it: “conservation through collaboration.”
The trust — originally named the North Dakota Wetlands trust — was created out of a controversy surrounding the Garrison Diversion Irrigation Project in the late 1970s and early ‘80s. Congress eventually preserved the Garrison project through the 1986 Reformulation Act, and thereafter the trust was formed. The Dakota Water Resources Act of 2000 broadened that mission to include grasslands and riparian habitats as part of its conservation efforts, which resulted in the name change it is known by today.
Prior to the event on the 22nd, the Trust held exhibits at the Gateway that depicted the work of the organization.
The Meadowlark Initiative provides information to landowners about programs and practices available through private, state and federal conservation partners to establish and manage native perennial grasses, install grazing infrastructure and develop working grasslands for sustainable livestock grazing.
Andrew Weeks/Grand Forks Herald
The Dakota Legacy Initiative’s mission is to facilitate partnerships between the conservation agencies that better serve producers.
The Central Grasslands Roadmap is a collaborative guide to increase conservation of North America’s Central Grasslands and aims to give them needed attention and resources.
The North American Bird Conservation Initiative is a forum of government agencies, private organizations and bird initiatives helping partners across the continent meet common conservation objectives.
Trego said 40 years is a milestone, but there’s still a lot that must be done.
To the Grand Forks Herald, he said the future will look like more of the same: partnerships and conservation. The trust, he said, will continue to look for new opportunities to build strong relationships.
To the audience, he said: “North Dakota has a unique conservation community that is more cohesive than other states.” But “we’ve got a lot of work to do. That’s why we’re all here — we have the same interest … to move conservation forward.”
Andrew Weeks is an award-winning journalist who has reported for newspapers and magazines. Prior to joining the Grand Forks Herald as its outdoors editor, Weeks was editor for several years of Prairie Business, a publication of the Grand Forks Herald and Forum Communications Co. Before that role, he was outdoors editor for a daily newspaper in Idaho.
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