History

The Organization's History
The Iowa Wildlife Center was born thanks to the generosity and foresight of many committed people. The Alma Natura Trust proposed and nurtured the original concept and provided significant funding. We are off to a wonderful start with committed people and organizations giving us a lift as we create a truly remarkable wildlife rehabilitation and education center. Won't you join us in the adventure? It is through your belief in this project that we will build the foundation of a sustainable wildlife center.

The Land's History

The Iowa Wildlife Center is fortunate to have found Nan Bonfils and Don Adams, owners of the organic Full Circle Farm, early in the search for land on which to build the facility. This conservation-minded pair of educators and farmers were immediately interested in the proposed project and the more they learned about it the more they wanted the Center to be located on their property. Bonfils and Adams made the site available to IWC at a bargain price, which gave us another wonderful boost forward.

The land has historically been a family farm for over 50 years. For a brief period between 1979 and 1981 a sizable hog confinement was slated to operate on the land. Legislation regulating large livestock confinement operations would not become law until 1995 and citizens were concerned about this chosen site largely because it was located within a mile of the Ledges State Park. A grassroots outcry from the neighbors and surrounding communities stopped the operation before any hogs arrived, but not before buildings were erected and a wastewater storage cell was created.

Bonfils and Adams were among the neighbors who spoke out. Adams had grown up adjacent to the property, and he and his wife were then running an organic farm across the road. His father, Harold Adams, owned the woodland and pasture adjacent to the confinement site. When it became apparent that the confinement project was not going to succeed, Bonfils and Adams purchased the site and added it to their organic farm. They affectionately called it "Harm's Way", partly because they had taken it "out of harm's way".

A Time of Contented Cows

Before the confinement operation disbanded, buildings were dismantled and only foundations, water pipes and electric lines remained behind. Bonfils and Adams put two small wetlands in the Conservation Reserve Program and let Full Circle Farm cows and calves quietly graze pasture that they had overseeded with native grasses and flowers. In summer honey bees zipped to and from their hives focused on their foraging flights. The woodland rested.

After decades of providing beef to local people and a whole foods grocery store in Ames, Full Circle Farm was scaled back. The decision was made to sell some land at the same time the founders of the Iowa Wildlife Center were pouring over maps and driving the countryside in search of a perfect property for the Center. 

(Photo, right: Property buyers and sellers "toast" with cherry tomatoes. Left to right: Derrick Grimmer, his wife and founder Lynne Brookes, Bruce Ehresman, sellers Nan Bonfils and husband Don Adams, and founder Marlene Ehresman) © Mark Ackelson/INHF

Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation Steps Up 

The Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation (INHF) played a vital role at this point doing what it does best -- working with landowners to protect land for conservation. Mark Ackelson, INHF President, worked with Adams and Bonfils during the purchase period. Joe McGovern, INHF Land Stewardship Director, was instrumental in setting up a shared part-time land stewardship position between IWC and INHF, sharing a Conservation Corps Iowa crew of five for a day of stewardship work and advising IWC staff on land stewardship issues.

To learn how INHF's president, Mark Ackelson, aided both Bonfils/Adams and IWC, and how the IWC's executive director is associated with INHF, visit http://www.inhf.org/mag-2009-summer/wildlifecenter.html.

INHF staff continue to provide on-going project leadership by retaining title to the land until IWC acquires nonprofit status and offering to be the fiscal agent on an interim basis to enable fundraising to begin. 

(Photo, left: Derrick Grimmer, husband of founder Lynne Brookes, Bruce Ehresman, husband of founder Marlene Ehresman, and INHF's Mark Ackelson explore a wooded ridge on the property that will be home to the Iowa Wildlife Center) © Lynne Brookes