Conservation Voices
- Kevin Kilbane
- 3 hours ago
- 6 min read
During recent July 4th 250th anniversary celebrations, the song “America the Beautiful” rang out often “from sea to shining sea.” We have individuals and leaders of the past to thank for the beauty we enjoy now.
As we begin the next chapter in American history, how will we approach natural resources conservation in the years ahead?
Here are some local voices offering their thoughts:
Jain Young
Active in local environmental, food, and social justice organizations, including Save Maumee Grassroots Organization, Heartland Communities, Inc., The Workers' Project, Plowshares Food Hub, and Greenwood Ministries
“My personal observation is that the attention many people are giving to the rise of data centers will result in increased interest and support for conservation. There are also increasing struggles over water rights, as well as news items indicating that aquifers are being depleted. The prospect of water shortages will increase public interest. Conservation of natural spaces and habitats will continue to be adjacent to these high-profile issues.
“The recent defeat of the quarry in southwest Fort Wayne/Allen County gave a lot of people hope that the public can rise up and make a difference, but they must pay attention to be informed and work together.”
Paul McAfee
Little River Wetlands Project (LRWP) founder, first board president, and current board president
“I can certainly say from the time when I was young until now, environmental concern is way higher than it was then. Few were environmentalists back then. That was a while back. You were kind of a wacko, and to get anything done, you had to raise hell and chain yourself to trees and spike trees and do all kinds of stuff. And now it’s (conservation) acceptable. Not everybody is into it, but at least you can talk about it. …
“I don’t know if you followed this (Homestead Road) quarry thing much. And the data centers. It’s interesting to note how much people are opposed to those. Back in the day, you know, hey, it’s going to make money; it’s good.
“But now, people are noticing the environmental effects of that and, ‘We don’t want that.’ But then people still think that growth is so important. But yet these things are the results of growth and the cause of growth. So I think people are trying to balance what growth causes versus having growth. How can you have growth without gravel? How can you do all the stuff you do with your smartphone without data centers?
“What we really need to get to is a non-growth economy, a sustainable economy. Right now, I don’t think people see that. But I think they will because we’re seeing the effects of growth, and they don’t like it: noise and pollution and congestion and all that.”
Addie Farris
Executive director of the Eco Fest organization in Fort Wayne, which creates education and awareness about sustainable living
“I think interest in conservation will only grow. We saw a spike in attendance this year at Eco Fest. It wasn't a dramatic spike, but with attendance holding pretty steady the last three to four years, it was noticeable. With a lot of attention on the Google Data Center, and most recently, the fight against the new quarry, there are a lot of things happening in our community that are grabbing the public's attention. And those items both include a lot of environmental factors.
“There is a lot more attention given to native plants — I see it with local Facebook groups popping up as well as neighborhood associations and businesses working to incorporate more natives. I see more houses with rain barrels. I see more people engaging with our organization through volunteering or joining our board. I see more people showing up to city council meetings to raise concerns about environmental topics.
“The unfortunate truth is many people are choosing to engage because they sense a threat to conservation, and they are trying to do their part, whatever that may look like. But I feel hopeful, because the alternative could be to disengage.”
Bruce Kingsbury
LRWP board member and director of the Waterfield Environmental Resources Center (ERC) at Purdue University-Fort Wayne
(These comments are excerpted from the column “Conservation Depression — It’s a Thing,” by Kingsbury that appears under the “Education” tab on the ERC website, https://www.pfw.edu/erc. The column also appeared June 23, 2026, in the Journal Gazette newspaper in Fort Wayne.)
“Locally, I observe a growing interest in environmental concerns over the past 10 years, brought on in part by a refocus on our rivers as assets rather than liabilities, and the pride in the successes of entities such as ACRES (Land Trust) and Little River Wetlands Project.
“Resistance to data centers has emerged as a coalescing element in Fort Wayne and across the country, and the stalling of the quarry project in the Little River Valley shows that development does not always prevail at the expense of the environment.
“It turns out the degree of engagement by the community required to effect change is lower than you might think.
“It may encourage you to hear that a review by Harvard’s (University) Erica Chenoweth of hundreds of nonviolent, sustained political uprisings revealed that every movement that actively engaged more than 3.5% of the population was successful.
“That threshold is perhaps so low because those we hear from are just the tip of an iceberg of the disaffected who are otherwise not voicing their opinion. And, thankfully, the same research has shown that nonviolent protests are twice as likely to succeed.
“Damon Centola and colleagues published a paper in Science in 2018 that showed that when around 25% of a population was motivated to promote a reasonable social change, it could prevail.
“The takeaway is that if a subset of the population is motivated to stand for reasonable change, they will succeed. So, one step toward effecting change is to actually express your opinion — as publicly as you can manage.
“Centola’s work found that multiple connections facilitate effectiveness. The more pathways — meetings, social media, coffee chats — the more resilient the momentum. This impact is observed in the data center and quarry concerns.
“At the individual level, it may also help to stay focused. Given the array of offenses these days, I suggest picking one or a few topics to focus one’s energy on so as not to become exhausted. And overly distributing one’s personal resources may be ineffective anyway.
“I also recommend staying informed so as to be able to speak with authority. Whatever the topic, seek multiple sources of information.
“Regardless of one’s position, credibility is an important component of persuasion, unless just making things up is satisfactory to you. And focus on the issue, not on the people involved.
“Ultimately, decisions about larger issues such as climate change, land use planning and environmental policy are largely made by our governmental representatives. For better or worse, those individuals may be motivated by financial drivers and a desire to be re-elected.
“But they do need to be elected, and an educated populace has a great deal to say about that."
NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
Here are some other thoughts on conservation and the future:
Rachel Alexander Cambre
From The Heritage Foundation, where Cambre was a former visiting fellow with the foundation’s B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies and the Center for Education Policy
(Summary of the report “The Conservative Roots of American Conservationism,” published Jan. 22, 2024, https://www.heritage.org/conservatism/report/the-conservative-roots-american-conservationism)
“America’s earliest conservationist thinkers, from Thomas Jefferson to Theodore Roosevelt, understood that protecting the nation’s distinctive landforms and landscapes would conserve far more than the natural resources the land provides. As important as those resources remain, equally vital is the relationship to the land that conservationism facilitates, connecting citizens to their ancestors and endowing them with a strong sense of place while nurturing in them virtues of humility, industry, manliness, and hope. In other words, American conservationism tends not just to the material health and wealth of America’s people, but to the health of its soul as well.”
World Wildlife Fund
“2025 Connected by Nature” report,
The survey’s key findings include:
More than eight in 10 Americans say they like or love spending time in nature.
73% of people surveyed view nature as a “defining part of American life and identity.”
People value nature for its role in “providing clean air and water, supporting physical and mental health, and offering daily enjoyment. At the broader level, Americans recognize how nature sustains food and water systems, reduces climate change, and protects wildlife.”
77% of survey respondents said nature is “critical for a steady supply of food and water.”
For most people surveyed, “national and global environments are considered strained or degraded, while local nature is perceived as stable and thriving.” Water pollution, climate change, air pollution and deforestation topped people’s list of concerns about potential threats to nature.
Three out of four Americans in the survey said caring for nature is necessary. “It is a responsibility shared across society that requires collective action involving individuals, communities, businesses and government.”
Pew Research Center
March 2026 survey of more than 3,500 U.S. adults, reported May 28, 2026 as “Americans Are Increasingly Pessimistic About Avoiding the Worst Effects of Climate Change.”
The top takeaways from the survey results include:
About six in 10 Americans said countries worldwide, including our own, won’t do enough to prevent the worst effects of climate change.
About 68% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning people said climate change is harming people in America “a great deal or quite a bit.” About 22% of Republicans and Republican-leaning people felt the same way.
About half of the people surveyed said tech companies can do a lot to address climate change, but few expect technology to solve future problems caused by it.
A majority of Americans said the U.S. government isn’t doing enough to address climate change.
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