How important soil is to life! 95 percent of our food comes from soil. It is a natural resource that needs to be protected way more than it is today. Making soil takes years and requires practices that aren’t yet adopted by most farmers. The demand on soil for food production for humans and animals…

We have much to report about our year! The land stewards in the Climate Land Leaders Initiative built soil health, increased biodiversity and protected water so that ecosystems and communities will thrive in a rapidly changing climate. In 2023:

Climate Land Leader Seth Watkins shared this update with the cohort on our December 2023 call. Seth is a fourth-generation farmer in Southwest Iowa. I’ve spent the last 40 years trying my best to build an efficient and profitable crop and cattle operation. Like most of my fellow farmers I have followed a model that…

Integrating art – visual, written word, film and more – has been an important element of the Climate Land Leaders initiative since it began. Engaging with creative work inspires; it also helps us manage climate grief. Climate Land Leader Anna Geyer has been integrating art with her land stewardship for many years. This year, alongside…

Climate Land Leader Dick Sloan wrote the following piece, which was published in the Cedar Rapids, IA Gazette on October 7, 2023. I visited my doctor recently, as I do every year. We take the time to review my metabolic profile to confirm my health status. A simple blood test reveals that my CO2 levels…

Climate Land Leader Helen Gunderson recently shared this celebratory update from her farm in Pocahontas County, IA. “Following my grandfather’s death in 1956, our family no longer raised cattle on our land. I recall some of our early farm tenants having herds, but for over 40 years there have been no cattle on Gunderson land.…

Climate Land Leader Sylvia Spalding is helping her father write his memoirs. In response to a prompt we issued earlier this year, Sylvia asked her father: “What are sounds that you no longer hear?” We are delighted to post responses from this man in his 90s who grew up in Iowa and has long lived…

We’ve collected a lot of photos over our Initiative’s first three years – Climate Land Leaders hot and sweaty planting trees, exploring the diversity of a prairie, nervously speaking at events, reflecting with each other on their conservation progress. Here are five that always make us smile. First: Climate Land Leaders bring wide and rich…

Climate Land Leader Jane Shey of Algona, IA was profiled in Iowa Interfaith Power & Light’s “Faithful Farmer” series. Reprinted with permission. What do you grow? We rent our land primarily to farmers who produce corn and soybeans. We also have some hay ground and 400 acres in the Conservation Reserve and Wetland Reserve Program.…

With an eye toward climate resiliency and new markets, Climate Land Leaders Naima Dhore and Wendy Johnson are diversifying their farming operations with small grains. For Naima, millet represents a return to a cultural food that is suited to grow in a changing Minnesota climate. For Wendy, Kernza holds great potential as a perennial crop…