Open door conservation at Earth Heart Farms

A guest blog by Climate Land Leader Vicki Rae Harder-Thorne. Vicki Rae and her family steward Earth Heart Farms in Ottawa County, OH.

My sense of environmental stewardship started with growing up on Mom’s family land. Our Grandparents lived a very frugal lifestyle where reduce-reuse-recycle and free-range chickens were part of everyday life, not just marketing terms. I still have handstitched quilts and crocheted rugs that Grandma made from old clothing!

Vicki Rae’s grandfather, Otto Hehl, with her mother, Lois Rae, circa 1940

Grandpa had a very strong relationship with the land. He called himself a caretaker and understood that his partnership with the soil could help the crops thrive. He tasted the dirt to know what to plant next. He didn’t like the corporate influence that promoted chemical solutions, and he was devastated when he needed to harvest 7 acres of hardwood to increase his tillable land. When I was about 10 years old, he told me that he believed people took too much land from wildlife, and if he could afford to do it, he’d give it all back.

Lois Rae (Hehl) Harder collecting seeds, 2016

My parents honored that wish, spending nearly 3 decades transitioning the farm into a native grassland through the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). As charter members of Black Swamp Bird Observatory, they offered access to birders during Biggest Week in American Birding. Mom was active in passerine migration, hawk watch, and Ohio’s 10-year bald eagle restoration program. They maintained a bluebird trail and purple martin rigs. With near-daily diligence, invasive plants such as purple loosestrife and teasel were under control; the land lush with native forbs, grasses and sedges; and along the creek, acorns from the old oaks grew into new saplings.

About 8 years ago, I spent a gorgeous October day working in the fields with Mom, and I felt the connection to my ancestors, heard the call from the land, and knew I’d come back someday to continue her legacy, to honor our grandfather’s wish, to help heal the land for generations to come.

Expanding conservation, welcoming learners

My family founded Earth Heart Farms^TM with a conservation mission to revive and protect our soil, air and water resources; to help people learn about the natural world, and our place in it; to demonstrate how choices affect the health of habitats, and how small steps create big change – a legacy for living that sustains the land in the same loving way it sustained my family for generations, and supported Tribal Nations before us.

Aerial view of Earth Heart Farms, 2023 (Photo courtesy of Ohio DNR)

We aimed to pursue this mission with community and governmental agency partners, creating open space for education, research, healing and recreation: K-12 STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics) classes; research on soil, air and water health relating to carbon sequestration and mitigation of harmful algal blooms; eco-activities that include birding, art, habitat stewardship, herbal medicine, indigenous history, land restoration and climate adaptation; and community monitoring of the ecosystem’s wildlife and resource.

Building on a 30-year legacy and our grandfather’s wish, revitalization of the site began in October 2022, through the Lake Erie Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) and H2Ohio. This included a controlled burn to help remove invasive plants; reseeding of the upland grassland areas to increase pollinators; planting of 2,600 native trees and shrubs in a riparian buffer as well as excavation of emergent wetland areas.

That same year we launched our STEAM-enhancement program and have since welcomed over 400 students and 14 educators from 6 local schools. Year 3 adds over 400 students, and 8 educators from 7 more schools! Field trips provide hands-on outdoor lab experience where students and teachers can study biodiversity, ecosystems, extreme weather, air-soil-water health, our upstream effect on harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie, and environmental science careers. Returning students see big changes, such as a lush grassland returning after an 80-acre burn, and changes in topography and biodiversity after the wetland excavation.

Continuing legacy, looking ahead

There is ongoing site restoration, along with monarch tagging, monitoring bluebird trails, reconstruction of the purple martin rigs, and monthly bird counts. We’re in discussion with our community partners about projects that include birdhouse monitoring, building an owl winter habitat, soil legacy, creating documentaries, solar on the barn, tribal history and land acknowledgment, peer leadership, implementing biochar, and a bat study.

We envision private lands access continuing through community engagement in partnership with area schools, universities and conservation groups. Our vision for Earth Heart Farms also includes a Conservation Easement in Perpetuity and a Cultural Use Easement to offer tribal people access for activities, including ceremony, medicinal foraging, hunting and fishing. I look forward to watching the habitat change over time and to growing the partnerships and programs with our conservation allies and citizen scientists.

Sometimes the scope of the project feels daunting. Besides the need for infrastructure funding and labor, I live in Illinois. I’m grateful for our dad’s willingness to manage daily activities, and to our collaborators for their unwavering support. At times it feels like an exercise in futility – when I read statistics about habitat loss or watch another woodland cut for yet another development, I close my eyes, take a few deep breaths, and remember how fortunate I am to have this opportunity to improve our world. I see the face of my grandson, hear the thrumming of woodpeckers, smell the wet earth, feel the wind on my face, taste the nectar of red clover, and I know exactly why I keep going.

I’m aware every day that I couldn’t have done this without my family’s commitment to the land, forever grateful for the relationship that both my grandfather and my mother had with the land and all its creatures. While they are hard acts to follow, I’m giving my best effort to fill their muck boots.

Vicki Rae Harder-Thorne

Gratitude

We couldn’t have done this without the foundation our parents built with the conservation community and are fortunate to have continuing support from several organizations.

Our restoration project was a cooperative effort between the U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Services Agency, Ottawa Soil & Water Conservation District, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service – Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program, Ohio Division of Wildlife, Ducks Unlimited, and the Great Lakes Fish and Wildlife Restoration Act with a portion of funding provided by the H2Ohio Program and the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.

STEAM programming has been funded through Ohio EPA’s Ohio Environmental Education Fund, University of Toledo’s NASA-funded GLOBE Mission EARTH, NOAA’s B-WET program; and is a result of collaboration with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ H2Ohio Initiative, Green Creek Marsh Conservancy, Friends of the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, Black Swamp Bird Observatory, Park District of Ottawa County, Ohio Bluebird Society, Ohio Ornithological Society, and The Nature Conservancy.