Climate Land Leaders Turns Five!
“The best thing to happen to me in my farm ownership journey”
Five years ago this month, a small group of farmers and landowners planted the seeds of a new initiative called Climate Land Leaders in the midst of the burgeoning COVID-19 chaos. We couldn’t foresee how it would grow. We only knew we had a shared passion to care for the Earth with the objective of responding to a drastically changing climate.
Climate Land Leaders now includes nearly 200 people
who steward 50,000+ acres across the Midwest.
Weekly, we welcome new participants like land steward Colleen Carey (WI). Right now, Tim Welsh (IA) and other Climate Land Leaders are sharing their 2025 conservation goals, a signature activity for our group. Participants, like Rozina Kanchwala (IL), meet regularly to exchange ideas, provide information and share expertise, at both in-person meet-ups and through hundreds of zoom meetings.
Colleen Carey
Tim Welsh
Rozina Kanchwala
When asked what he noticed about our organization, a new Climate Land Leader cited these words: engagement and purpose. Yes, we surely are engaged – not just with each other through our informative meetings, but with the wider world.
Our members are quoted in articles from rural weeklies to the New York Times. They contact their elected officials, serve on policy committees, and testify before legislatures, as Hannah Bernhardt (MN) did last week.
We engage because we have purpose, and that purpose includes doubling down on our commitment to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. We are excited to introduce our new Indigenous Advisor, Teresa Peterson (Dakota), who is guiding our equity efforts during this time of terrific assault on our values of inclusion and care of creation.
Hannah Bernhardt
Teresa Peterson, photo credit Ne-Dah-Ness Greene
Climate Land Leaders embrace a passion to care for the soil that provides our food and gives us life. And we seek to do it in ways that nurture our planet and its myriad plant, animal, and human communities. As one Climate Land Leader recently said: “The Climate Land Leaders Initiative is the best thing to happen to me in my farm ownership journey.”
As we celebrate our fifth anniversary, I look forward to journeying into the future knowing that we stand together in our devoted stewardship of the land. And – amidst great turmoil – we are growing stronger.
