Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation: Dreams From My Father

A brother and sister and their spouses protected the Boone County land they inherited as a tribute to their father, Harold Adams (pictured here).

Growing up near Ledges State Park and the McCoy Wildlife Management Area, the Adams kids spent plenty of time outdoors. Their father, Harold Adams, farmed and worked for the Iowa Conservation Commission (now the Iowa DNR) at the Boone Wildlife Exhibit. There, Harold took care of the animals, gave occasional tours and mentored student interns from Iowa State University.

This rapport with wildlife and nature was instilled in his son Don and daughter Nancy at a young age. It even led Don to his own 20-year career in conservation: teaching outdoor education, minimum-impact camping and wilderness ethics to teens and adults, as part of the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) in Lander, Wyoming.

Don and Nancy inherited the land where they once explored an abandoned homestead, looked for Indian artifacts, and searched for mushrooms and the first spring flowers. Today these 44 acres are part of a certified organic farm that is managed by Don and his wife, Nan Bonfils. Its pasture holds a decades-old bluebird box trail, while short-eared and long-eared owls winter-roost nearby.

The siblings planned to sell the property, but they first wanted to protect its natural resources—while protecting the eastern border of the McCoy Wildlife Management Area from unwise development.

As 2007 closed, Don Adams and his wife of rural Madrid, along with Nancy and her husband, Donald Ross, of Boone donated a conservation easement to INHF on this site. They feel the easement donation is both “the right thing to do” and a fitting tribute to their father.

“I’m so happy things worked out the way they did,” noted Nancy. “This is exactly what my father would have wanted.”