Writing Your Own Story

"When we signed the legal papers that made us landowners, we felt happy and lucky. But we didn’t feel like real landowners until the land started to fill with our memories—the elm branch where we saw bluebird parents feeding their speckled young, the quiet creek bend where muskrats played, the steep slope where we pulled invading sweet clover to help blooming prairie violets.

... By the time our conservation easement was ready, we were as happy to sign it as we had been to sign the land ownership papers. Now we can look at our land and know that the bluebirds, muskrats, and prairie violets have a safe future. It’s a good feeling.”