The Conservation Community

At a recent Madison Conservation District board meeting, the group’s discussion was deep in the details of planning for the 2015 Conservation District Banquet.  This is a major annual event that we do with the Ruby Valley Conservation District every spring, and pulling it off involves all of the requirements for hosting a large social gathering.
As we talked, we went over all of the logistics and planning details – a good location, a convenient time of year, a great meal, an entertaining schedule, and live music.  Planning the event is much like hosting a wedding, except we have to make sure that the cost is reasonable and that the sponsors who support it are recognized and thanked.

As we considered the fine planning points, one of the supervisors mentioned that we need to remember to focus beyond just the “how” of hosting this event, and remind ourselves and the attendees the “why” of hosting the event.  Much like the real reason for a wedding can get lost worrying about the color of the dresses, and what kind of cake to serve, we needed to take a minute and pause to remember the heart of the banquet.

It was a worthwhile moment, and certainly worth sharing to the broader public.

So the question in a nutshell, is why do we put the energy into hosting the Conservation District Banquet?   Who does it serve and why is it important enough to carry out every year?

To answer this, first we must recognize the importance of social gatherings in our rural setting.  As humans, we are social by nature and we require the company of other people to meet our basic needs.  One need look no further than the history of community centers during early settlement times to see that these gatherings are an important part of our regional fabric.   When one lives and works in relative isolation, the company of others becomes an essential requirement for life.

Second, we must recognize there exists a subset of our community that sees the world with a broader focus in terms of managing natural resources.  This viewpoint is neither new, nor unusual, but it helps define the members of what I call the conservation community, who are the primary attendees of the annual banquet.

While many in the audience have differences in their political or philosophical viewpoints, they share the perspective that land management practices are important in the long term for our region.  In this regard, they form a community of their own.

From some of the early efforts to help remedy the impacts of the dust bowl, our nation saw groups of local individuals working together in this manner to make better land management decisions.  In order to turn the tides and start making improvements, these groups had to evaluate current practices and determine if those approaches were sustainable for the future.  When the answer was no, they had to be the leaders to take risks in trying new practices, some of which had never been seen before.  One can be sure there were eyebrows that went up and whisperings about these unusual approaches.

Doing this was sometimes hard, but it was made slightly easier by the fact that they weren’t doing it alone.  Even if the members of their conservation community were small in number, they were united in their goal of trying new things for the betterment of the larger community and for future generations.

Today, this approach persists.  The local conservation community sees things differently, and realizes the need to strike a balance with the needs of the land while nourishing their communities and families.

It is a stark viewpoint from what many see farmers and ranchers of today- one where landscapes and resources are bent to the will of the agricultural producer.  On the contrary, members are inclined to learn from each other as they try new things, ignoring the scoffs of their neighbors and the assumptions that their practices will fail.

A colleague described this same scene played out in a book about farmers in the northern part of Montana, who bucked the trends of generations of producers in that area while they sought a better way to keep their land and families secure.

One theme from the book describes how these innovators relied on each other to support their attempts, together forming a group where information could be shared and problems solved.  Thus continuing to serve the finest role of a conservation community- assisting one another with challenges while collectively celebrating successes, even at the smallest of scales.

As we finalize the preparations for the banquet, it is with this larger goal in mind that we put together the evening plans.  We hope to create a setting where folks from all walks of life can gather to celebrate the value of the conservation community and the people and groups that work to this end.

With a good meal and great company, we know that the attendees will see a promising future for our area by seeing that the work being done is accepted and valued by others in the room, and maybe some stories will be told that keep the momentum moving forward.

Sunni Heikes-Knapton