Face Of This Place
Clint Miller
Most often we find that childhood experiences guide us toward our passions and, ultimately, our careers. Do you have a specific memory that has shaped your personal relationship with nature?
My dad ran a butcher shop inside a grocery store, where he received four weeks of annual vacation. One week was dedicated to Thanksgiving and deer hunting, and the other three were dedicated to adventure. He and my mom put together elaborate "themed" vacations exploring the U.S., so my younger brother and I got to travel to dozens of states. The ones that stand out for me are our western National Park vacation and our eastern Civil War vacation. These trips forever instilled in me a sense of wonder for our historic, cultural and natural world. I must have passed the same sense of adventure along to my own children who have spent many vacations touring almost every state in the U.S. with us, and now spend a lot of their time traveling on their own.
Clearly your love of the environment is abundant; how did you find yourself at The Conservation Fund?
I started my career as a Wildlife Biologist—working from Florida, throughout the Great Plains to California and Alaska. Over time I started managing land and eventually became very interested in protecting it. Since 1997, I’ve been involved in direct land conservation projects—seven years of which I spent working on Conservation Easements. The Conservation Fund is the best of the best of the national land trusts. I was delighted and humbled to have been recruited to work at the Fund by my good friend and mentor Tom Duffus (Vice President, Midwest Region).
What is it about the work you do every day that you love so much?
Helping people. As much as I enjoy protecting or conserving a great wilderness area, recreational trails, or historic site, it is the people I meet and the work I do to make their projects or dreams come true that makes me happy to come into the office every day.
You’ve been involved with the Fund’s projects in South Dakota for 6 years. What do you love most about the state?
I lived in South Dakota for four years, and raised my kids (Ben and Jack) to school age there. My wife (Patty) earned her nursing degree at South Dakota State University. The people of South Dakota are some of the most honest, hard-working, down-to-earth folks you will ever meet. However, it's taking in the wide open spaces and watching towering thunderstorms roll across the prairie that I love the most.
Good Earth State Park was an exciting project that began in 2011. How did our conservation efforts there about?
My involvement with Good Earth State Park began when I met landowner Buzz Nelson—an introduction that came from park visionary Doug Hofer, State Park Director. Buzz and I met over coffee from a thermos in a cold double-wide trailer back in December 2011, and from there we struck a deal that moved forward the State’s vision of Good Earth State Park and the Blood Run Historic Site. This deal would also allow the Nelson’s to leave a family legacy.
If you had to describe this area to someone who’s never had the opportunity to visit, what would you say makes the landscape so special?
An oasis in a black desert. Large parts of the upper Great Plains have long ago been converted from native prairie to cultivated fields of corn and soybeans. Unfortunately that is still happening. Places like Good Earth State Park, for a variety of reasons, were spared the fate of the plow. After traveling across the miles and miles of corn and soybean fields (left fallow or black in the winter) you then arrive at the oasis known as Good Earth State Park and it becomes clear why this place is special and has been preserved.
What’s happened at Good Earth State Park since the project started? Were there key players/partners who were critical to its success?
South Dakota State Parks is now working to construct infrastructure for visitors. After an extensive planning process with local residents and native American tribes, they have developed a vision that celebrates both the natural and spiritual nature of Good Earth State Park. South Dakota Parks and Wildlife Foundation, have provided critical funding for the acquisition, and are actively working with the State to secure additional land and funding. I am grateful to have played a role in Good Earth State Park's creation.
Helping people. As much as I enjoy protecting or conserving a great wilderness area, recreational trails, or historic site, it is the people I meet and the work I do to make their projects or dreams come true that makes me happy to come into the office every day.
