Cuddeback nominated for conservation award

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Larry Cuddeback's interest in making agriculture environmentally friendly has earned him a nomination for the Lawrence and Eula Hagie Award.

One of the largest conservation awards in Iowa, the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation (INHF) presents the Hagie award annually to a person who has demonstrated an outstanding commitment to the protection of Iowa's resources and encourages others to do the same. Endowed by a fund from the Hagie family, the award was named after Lawrence and Eula Hagie by their daughters Jan and Ila Jeanne to memorialize their parents' commitment to environmental protection.

Cuddeback is a farmer from Brighton who has also served as commissioner for the Washington County Soil and Water Conservation District since 1983. With 400 acres of land, he is active in both wildlife habitat restoration and prairie restoration.

"For me it's a total lifelong commitment," said Cuddeback. "I'm sure there's others in this state that are doing the same thing. And God bless them for it."

According to nominator Caryl Leopold Smith of the Washington County Soil and Water Conservation District, Cuddeback is the model farmer, restoring wetlands in the 1980s before most people knew it was important.

"Larry is a farmer who has done a superior job of improving the quality of his farm," said Smith. "Erosion levels are below the recommended tolerable level on all acres by using terraces, waterways and crop rotations- along with no-till farming on acres in row crop production. The complete resource situation is always considered when undertaking a project, which is one characteristic of a true resource manager."

Since 1984, Cuddeback has raised more than 300 blue birds on his farm and surrounding county roads as part of a bluebird trail, in addition to five Kestral falcon boxes. In 1987, he assisted the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) barn owl restoration project and is currently maintaining one nest box.

Cuddeback also hosts conservation tours for youth day camps and summer school classes.

Locally, Larry is famous for his Christmas trees at his Morning Star Christmas Tree Farm, planting 1,000 trees annually with 30,000 trees overall. Nominator Steven P. Anderson, executive director of the Washington County Conservation Board (WCCB), said that Cuddeback is a living demonstration of how agriculture can be environmentally friendly.

"Larry is a truly deserving candidate," Anderson said. "He's managed to support a family on relatively few acres while adding and incorporating ponds, wetlands, prairies and forests."

Cuddeback is one of four Hagie Award nominees from across the state. The winner will be announced at the end of the summer and awarded with $1000 and a hand-carved acorn sculpture.

INHF is a nonprofit, member-supported organization that has protected and restored more than 76,000 acres of Iowa's wild places, and is currently working statewide on about 60 land and trail projects throughout the state. In Washington County, INHF assisted WCCB in protecting the Statler Woods project, the English River Wildlife Area and Schmetter Wetland.

For more information, e-mail Cathy Engstrom, Director of Communications, or call (515) 288-1846.