South Dakota - Partnerships, Stone Soup

Carl Madsen saw a vacuum he didn't like. South Dakota farmers don't have the specialized machinery needed to plant the warm season native grasses that are ideal for wildlife and waterfowl in prairie pothole country. Madsen, the Private Lands Coordinator with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) in Brookings, helped form a partnership to buy 30 specialized grass-seeding drills that conservation districts can rent to operators during a five-year period. FWS; the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks; and Ducks Unlimited put up half the cost (one-third each) of the machines; local conservation districts put up the other half--either themselves or with help from local partners.

According to Madsen, this has enabled purchases none of the partners possibly could have afforded alone. If each of the 30 drills seeds 1,500 acres per year, Madsen figures, "45,000 acres of native grass could be planted annually. In five years, this would add up to 225,000 acres." This is no insignificant share of South Dakota's Conservation Reserve Program acres, many of which are newly enrolled and need to be seeded to new cover.

One local example is in Lake County, where Natural Resources Conservation Service District Conservationist Chuck Lebeda says half the funding for a $15,600 drill seeder came from the statewide partnership. The rest came from the Lake County Conservation District ($2,300), the Izaak Walton League ($2,300), Pro-Pheasants ($2,300), and the Lake Campbell Improvement Association ($1,000).

Madsen calls this approach "stone soup," after a children's story he used to read to his kids. "It involved soldiers during the Napoleonic wars taking food from defenseless villagers as the armies marched through the countryside. When the villagers said they had no food, a couple of soldiers offered to make 'stone soup.' The soldiers provided the stone, and various villagers tossed in potatoes, carrots, and other vegetables. And pretty soon, there was soup for everybody--villagers and soldiers alike. For me--and for my kids, I hope--the moral of the story is that you can always accomplish something if everyone works together to make it happen."

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