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Ryan Klindt's soybean field borders Sugar Creek, important Topeka shiner habitat.

Ryan, with his wife, Kelly, and sons Nolan, left, and Jared. The Klindts accepted an agreement not to farm or allow cattle on land near Sugar Creek and a few of its tributaries.

  
 
article imageHelp for a Neighbor

“They just looked for volunteers and provided incentives.”

Good fences make good neighbors, but when your neighbor is a little minnow on the verge of extinction, a stream easement is much better than a fence. That’s the thinking behind the cooperative agreement the Missouri Conservation Heritage Foundation recently reached with Ryan Klindt of Harrison County.

The agreement protects crucial habitat for the Topeka shiner, a federally endangered species that hangs on in only a few Missouri streams. Klindt’s property borders a stretch of Sugar Creek where Conservation Department fisheries biologists often find the endangered fish.

“I’ve seen them, too,” Klindt said, “but I never paid much attention to them.”

Klindt owns 208 acres on which he grows corn and soybeans and raises about 200 head of registered Red Angus cattle. In return for a payment that came from the Stream Stewardship Trust Fund, he’s agreed not to farm or to allow cattle in a strip of land that ranges from 60 to 180 feet from the creek and a few of its spring-fed tributaries.

Klindt said he can still hunt the property or lease it for hunting, and he can log it with Conservation Department approval. “It really didn’t take anything productive away,” Klindt said.

Klindt works full time on his property and 2,000 other acres he rents. “I had to look at the agreement from the farmer’s side,” he said. “I lost about 4 acres of crop ground, but I’ve got a lot of walnuts planted so if anything it may actually increase the value.”

Klindt said he appreciated the way the Conservation Department handled the agreement. “They didn’t come in and try to enforce anything,” he said. “They just looked for volunteers and provided incentives.”

Klindt said several neighboring farms, including the family farm he grew up on, have entered into similar agreements. He estimated that his family’s two farms alone protect about a mile of Sugar Creek. triangle

Meeting Next Generation Goals

The Conservation Department looks for opportunities to help private landowners work for the benefit of conservation. This is so important in Missouri because more than 90 percent of the state is privately owned. Although the Department manages conservation areas for the benefit of natural resources, the only way to ensure that Missouri has abundant wildlife, clean water and healthy forests is to encourage and help private landowners incorporate good conservation practices into their land management.

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