Happy Fall, Climate Land Leaders!

Interested in staying with other Climate Land Leaders for the 2026 Practical Farmers of Iowa annual conference? We have reserved an AirBnB Jan. 9-11. Please RSVP for lodging and/or the CLL Saturday supper here by Dec. 8. Questions? Email sarah@climatelandleaders org. Conference registration is on your own.

Are you attending the Perennial Farm Gathering March 11-13, 2026 in Dubuque, Iowa? If you are and would like to stay with other Climate Land Leaders at an AirBnB, let me know (teresa@climatelandleaders.org)

And now onto Resources you have sent in:

Jodi Reese (IA) was featured in this radio story on SW Iowa’s water defenders

From Meg Nielsen (WI/MN):

Book recommendation: Birding to Change the World: A Memoir by Trish O’Kane

From Todd Western III (IA/MN):

Iowa Farmers of Color conference, Dec. 6, Ames, Iowa

From Alanna Koshollek (WI):

–WI extreme weather and climate services roadshow Dec. 2 in Rhinelander and Jan. 20, 2026 in West Salem

–Zoom presentations on Menominee agriculture, Nov. 13, and Menominee forestry, Nov. 20

From The Acreage (WI):

Event: Seed to Stem: Flower farmers about the floral industry and the beyond-beauty benefits of locally grown flowers. Nov. 15, Osceola, WI

From Tim Welsh (IA/Thailand):

Chris Jones: “The problem isn’t the cattle, which can help manage the energy flows and ecology of a farm better than the smartest ecologist. The problem is how they’re usually raised—in feedlots or other types of confined systems, divorced from biological systems that benefit from the presence of ruminants.”

Wendy Johnson (IA) was interviewed in the Daily Yonder: Government shutdown/trade wars hit farmers’ bottom line hard 

From Teresa Opheim (MN):

–10 largest IA landowners (see attached)

–Mature forests resist wildfire, because they hold more moisture

From Deb Jacobi (IA):

Couple donate 38,300-acre cattle ranch to the nonprofit Ranchers Stewardship Alliance, which they helped develop.

From Maggie McQuown (IA):

Why volunteer corn could spur challenges in 2026: “Just another example of treating the symptom with a bandaid and not dealing with the root cause of the problem! (Pun intended!) Production, extractive ag continues to dig itself into a deeper and deeper unsustainable hole!”