Rural Missouri - April 2022 - 14

RM | OUTDOORS
PROTECTING AN OUTDOOR LEGACY
Partners overseeing the Chariton Hills Conservation Bank tour one of the tracts in northern Missouri. The bank comprises 1,300 acres of land
protecting maternity habitat for the Indiana, northern long-eared and little brown bats, and is the fi rst of its kind in the nation. From left: Burns &
McDonnell National Mitigation Lead Paul Sherman, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Deputy Field Supervisor John Weber, Missouri Conservation Heritage
Foundation Executive Director Tricia Burkhardt and MCHF board member Gene Gardner.
Missouri Conservation Heritage Foundation celebrates 25th anniversary
by Zach Smith | zsmith@ruralmissouri.coop
a need in an area that's not covered by a budget, that's
where people can look to us. "
M
issouri's outdoors is a great place to have fun,
but maintaining access and enjoyment for future
generations is a serious business. Just ask
donors to the Missouri Conservation Heritage
Foundation - or one of the 2,740 Missourians who picked
up an MCHF license plate last year - why they put their
money where their passion is, and the answer is the same:
Heritage worth celebrating is worth continuing.
" We want to protect and conserve the natural
resources in Missouri, " says MCHF Executive
Director Tricia Burkhardt. " Ultimately,
that's what we're here for. "
The nonprofi t was created in 1997 as a supporting
organization of the Missouri Department
of Conservation. The foundation's fi rst task was
administering the Stream Stewardship Trust
Jefferson
City
Fund, which has funded more than $6 million of
stream protection efforts including habitat for the
rare Niangua darter. Since that time, MCHF's reach has
expanded and its profi le is rising. In 2021, the nonprofi t
funded more than $1 million in projects, grants and scholarships
and received contributions from 6,345 new donors.
" People in Missouri certainly understand the importance
of conservation, " Tricia says of the state's one-eighth-ofone-percent
Design for Conservation Tax. " But if there's
14 RURAL MISSOURI | APRIL 2022
Over its 25-year history, MCHF's goal has grown to help
fund multiple conservation-oriented initiatives from the
local level all the way up to the international projects with
ties to Missouri conservation. No project is too big or too
small to catch the foundation's attention, whether funding
a new ADA-accessible fi shing dock, nature center education,
family fi shing days, outdoor programs for veterans
or habitat conservation in Central and South America for
migratory birds which travel to Missouri.
As part of that mission, MCHF partnered with the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Burns & McDonnell
in 2018 to develop the state's fi rst conservation
bank. The bank allows development projects to
purchase credits to offset unavoidable environmental
impacts. Burns & McDonnell's land,
comprising 1,300 acres in northern Missouri,
is protected in perpetuity - through a conservation
easement held by MCHF - to provide
maternity habitat for the Indiana, northern longeared
and little brown bats.
" They hibernate in the caves by Hannibal, but they have
babies, raise them in other areas and then travel, " Tricia
says of the bats. " We're hoping by making them extremely
healthy before they go into hibernation that will help them
overcome any disease pressure or disturbances. "

Rural Missouri - April 2022

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