Passion for Wild Things–A Poet’s Perspective on WLFW Conservation

Ranch manager Martin Moore (right) and NRCS District Conservationist Paul Clark savor the view of redcedar removal work on the Moore ranch in Oklahoma.

There’s a lot of science and strategy behind what the Lesser Prairie-Chicken Initiative does within the NRCS Working Lands For Wildlife partnership. But those efforts are fueled and made successful by the love and caring that landowners and the resource managers who work with them feel for the land. A poem by  Ritch Nelson, NRCS Nebraska State Wildlife Biologist beautifully captures this conservation spirit.

Wild Things 

A wise man named Aldo, once wrote of ‘wild things’
The chance to find a pasque flower; chart when a bird sings.

The delight these things offer to enrich our lives.
The harmony of nature for which man strives.

He joined up with Bennet on Wisconsin’s small farms,
For good soil and water, to keep critters from harm.

T’was back in the thirties but the concept lives on.
Conserve the resource before it is gone.

Degraded landscapes are taking a toll.
Private landowners play a critical role.

Much wildlife lives on our working lands.
We can save these key species if we all lend a hand.

The chickens that range ‘cross the southern High Plains;
Where ranchers and partners are taking great pains,

To restore the grassland and supply more fodder.
Nest success up; prescribed fires burn hotter.

While in the southeast, down under the pines,
Plans for the tortoise are making headlines.

For they offer many a critter a home,
In burrows dug deep in the sandy loam.

The outlook now better for a small, lowly toad.
When we partner together and take a new road.

Out west in the spring a large bird is booming,
And meanwhile threats to its life-blood are looming.

But livestock and grouse can be on the same page;
Persist side by side in a vast sea of sage.

Throughout Appalachia, a warbler calls out –
Counted in data, the biologists tout.

In southwest Montana a new day now dawns;
Streams clear and free-flowing where the grayling will spawn.

The bunny fares better with succession set back;
With the woodcock and ruffed grouse also on track.

The Oregon chub, a small fish – delisted;
Thriving in floodplains with oxbows so twisted.

Big rivers that flow through the land of the bear,
Support wooded swamps on lands we now share.

And with each new cub, the black bear secures
A more solid footing, their future endures.

All that is done, the efforts we take,
Is for the whole sum, not just for the sake,

Of one target species but rather the web;
The cogs on a wheel, as time flows and ebbs.

There’ll always be more ‘wild things’ to conserve;
To be more proactive and not just observe.

Rural communities of neighbors and friends,
Are much more complex for they do extend,

To soil and water, plants, animals, air –
The whole ecosystem for which we care.

For shouldn’t we love, admire and respect?
To build a land ethic to help us connect,
The humans to resources, we dare not neglect.

Pulling together, we now take a stand
To follow our calling, helping people help the land!