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Re: Farmers and Conservation

I too share many of your views Chris. I have worked on prairies for the past 
thirty years in Missouri and I have also worked directly with farmers for the 
past twenty years, so I feel I know at least a little about both sides. In 
many cases it is a problem of perception. There are a lot of farmers that 
view a prairie as a field of "weeds" that might spread to their fields. When 
you point out to them that most prairie species can't or won't invade their 
fields, many are surprised by it. I love prairies and never cease to be 
amazed by them, so it's difficult to understand how other people could look 
at it and not feel the same way I do about it. The problem too is that we 
ourselves know and understand what needs to be done, but we haven't done 
enough to bring others to see and understand our points of view. If we want 
our programs and projects to succeed we have to do a lot more to educate and 
inform those who oppose us. We all know that there are important "medicinal" 
plants out there on the prairie, Echinacea being one. If you sell folks on 
the idea of protecting biodiversity because there might be important crop 
plants in the mix, you will bring them one step closer to the goal of helping 
them to value the beauty and other esthetic qualities of these areas as well. 
Too often we want to jump directly from the idea to the end goal without 
first preparing the way to achieve it. A good principle that I learned in a 
Dale Carnegie course many years ago was "begin in a friendly way." You don't 
start out by attacking a person's values and then expecting him not to become 
defensive or angry. 

Doug LeDoux
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