Leopold Center - Leopold Center lends support for Whiterock Conservancy

The Leopold Center is helping to launch a new nonprofit effort in west central Iowa that has an innovative board and mission, and access to an unusually large and diverse land area that will be used for research in sustainable land management practices.

Whiterock Conservancy was formed in December 2004 to manage a land donation to the state of Iowa from the Garst Family of Coon Rapids, Iowa. The first gift, a 1,290-acre tract announced in January 2005, was channeled via the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation (INHF) until Whiterock achieves its nonprofit status from the Internal Revenue Service. Principal donors are Mary Garst and her five daughters. The six women say that more land will be donated yearly until the total gift reaches more than 5,000 acres. This is about seven square miles of land, making it one of the largest land donations ever made in Iowa.

Of the total planned donation, about 4,300 acres are in a contiguous tract starting in Coon Rapids and extending eight miles down the Middle Raccoon River valley into Guthrie County. Most of this property had been acquired over the years by Mary’s late husband Stephen Garst, an avid conservationist and hunter. The lands contain bromegrass pasture and limited crop ground (most currently enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program), reconstructed prairies, timber, oak savanna, rare side hill seeps, and numerous fishing ponds.

The Leopold Center is one of three founding organizations with representation on the nonprofit Whiterock board. Fred Kirschenmann of the Leopold Center currently is board president. Also represented are the Iowa Department of Natural Resources by Mike Brandrup and the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation (INHF) by Mark Ackleson. These three organizations control the board, which also includes Robert G. Riley, Jr., of Des Moines, as well as Liz, Rachel and Jen Garst.

Being designated as what the IRS calls a “supporting organization” to the Leopold Center, INHF and DNR, Whiterock’s mission is to use its land area to support the overlapping missions of these three entities. INHF is a nonprofit conservation group that, to date, has worked with numerous Iowa landowners to protect about 80,000 acres throughout the state.

The heart of Whiterock’s mission is to use its land area as an innovative experiment in multipurpose land use. The new entity aims to simultaneously 1) protect and restore the area’s natural resources, 2) open large parts of the area for low-impact public use and environmental education, and 3) conduct research and demonstrations on land use methods that are both environmentally and economically sustainable.

Whiterock is spending most of its first year engaged in planning. Advisors throughout Iowa have been providing their time and expertise on committees that attempt to turn the new entity’s mission statement into a work plan that will evolve in stages. The Leopold Center Advisory Board also has a subcommittee that will consider how the Center can work best with Whiterock.

One of Whiterock’s first steps will be to coordinate multiple researchers and institutions in designing and conducting baseline research on soils, water quality, historic land use, current plant communities, and populations of birds, animals and insects. Down the road, the results of interventions (burning, mowing, grazing) will be recorded, as well as visitor data and impacts.

As indicated by its three-part mission, Whiterock’s land management, research and educational focus is on multipurpose land use, whereby the same tract might be simultaneously managed for biodiversity, agricultural income (notably grazing), paid hunting, income-generating tourism, and environmental education. A central goal is to share research data and methods with area farmers, landowners, nonprofit organizations and governmental entities as they consider their own land use practices and environmentally-friendly alternatives.