Businesses fund Nature Conservancy’s entry in Springfield

Adam McLane: The watershed is an asset running through the Ozarks’ backyard.

For one of the world’s largest environmental aid organizations, establishing a foothold in Springfield required some help from businesses in southwest Missouri and northwest Arkansas.

In July, The Nature Conservancy – ranked No. 21 in Forbes’ 2015 list of the 50 largest U.S. charities based on private support – received $500,000 in startup funding from Springdale, Ark.-based Tyson Foods Inc. The gift was split evenly between state chapters in Arkansas and Missouri, with Missouri’s half funding a new program – the Western Ozarks Water Initiative.

Although the conservancy has a footprint in all 50 states and in 35 countries, it lacked a permanent presence in southwest Missouri. Drew Holt, whose position as initiative coordinator was created with an undisclosed part of the funding, said its purpose is to improve the water quality of the Elk and Spring rivers’ watersheds between Billings and Carthage and south across the state line.

“This is a high priority from the standpoint that there are water quality concerns from the Department of Natural Resources,” Holt said.

A fact sheet published by the state agency in March 2014 shows the Spring River has exceptionally high levels of phosphorous from an unknown source, and both rivers have high levels of nitrogen produced by runoff containing animal waste.

Although safe for swimming, fishing and watering livestock, untreated surface water can carry bacteria. Together, the roughly 3,000 square miles of watershed provide drinking water for a population of nearly 190,000 in the state, according to the Missouri Watershed Information Network.

“It’s important to us to work with the organization on water quality projects in northwest Arkansas and southwest Missouri because we have a lot of operations in the area and it’s our home,” Tyson Foods Senior Vice President and Chief Environmental Officer Kevin Igli said via email.

According to a company news release, operations in the region include eight processing plants and seven wastewater pretreatment facilities, as well as 800 contract farmers and 14,000 employees.

Collaborative spirit
Businesses closer to home also lent the conservancy a helping hand.

In November, Green Circle Projects LLC founder Matt O’Reilly provided space for Holt’s office alongside Holly Neil, executive director of the Missouri Stream Team Watershed Coalition, in the Cast Workspace Cooperative at Farmers Park.

Considering it’s a six-month agreement and full-time desks at Cast lease for $450 per month, the office donations amount to $2,700 for each nonprofit.

“Office hoteling is not a new idea. Bringing users with similar needs together leverages that idea, particularly when operating budgets are tight but worker output and expectations are higher than normal,” O’Reilly said via email. “It is an impact investment with good returns for our regional environmental bottom line.”

It’s that spirit of collaboration that made Springfield the right choice for a local basecamp, said Adam McLane, The Nature Conservancy’s Missouri director.

“There’s a culture of viewing natural resources as precious and an investment where people recreate,” McLane said of the city, noting the watershed has its own tangible value. “It’s an economic driver in many ways, so it’s an asset running through our backyards.”

Kurt Hellweg, CEO and board chairman of Springfield-based American Dehydrated Foods Inc., said the food processor is reliant on a clean water supply for its protein products derived from chickens and eggs.

“Agriculture is all about renewable resources,” Hellweg said. “We’re just renting this earth from our grandkids, and you always want to leave it a little bit better than you found it.”

Stephanie Hurt, a senior portfolio manager for BKD Wealth Advisors and three-year trustee of The Nature Conservancy’s state chapter, said the scope of companies impacted by the nonprofit’s work doesn’t stop with Tyson and ADF. The organization, she said, has to “pitch a bigger tent” in attracting support from individuals and the local community of water-dependent businesses, from large-scale industries and health care companies to local breweries and beverage bottlers.

“We’re talking about water resources and how important they are to the local economy – whether it’s input to production or from a recreation standpoint,” Hurt said. “We’ve got the headquarters of Bass Pro [Shops] here. How important are rivers and lakes to the business of recreation?”

Downstream impact
Entering its assessment phase, the conservancy’s initiative joins the efforts of Ozarks Water Watch, James River Partnership Basin and Watershed Committee of the Ozarks, among others.

Kimberling City-based Ozarks Water Watch has a similar focus on water quality in the Upper White River.

“Our resources are pretty limited – we have six staff – and it’s a huge watershed that we’re covering already,” said Senior Projects Director Gopala Borchelt. “We definitely couldn’t do it all.”

The groups also have different strengths.

According to CharityNavigator.com, The Nature Conservancy posted 2014 revenue of $834.5 million and spent $529.5 million toward conservation programs. While Ozarks Water Watch doesn’t have that kind of financial power behind it – the annual budget runs under $1 million – Borchelt said businesses on both sides of the state line have representation on its board. The companies include Herschend Family Entertainment, Bass Pro, O’Reilly Hospitality Management LLC, Cargill Inc., Ozark Mountain Bank, Wal-Mart and Tyson.

Although the organizations are working to improve and preserve two different geographic areas, Holt said the same nutrient-rich sediments threatening the Ozarks’ ecosystem have a literal trickle-down effect: the Elk, Spring and White rivers – among others in the central U.S. – all drain to the Mississippi River Basin and eventually the Gulf of Mexico, creating a deoxygenated dead zone the Environmental Protection Agency called the second largest case of hypoxia in the world’s waterways.

“The western Ozarks is not by any means a huge area, but ultimately it does contribute to the load,” Holt said, who’s now making site visits to identify and prioritize the Springfield office’s projects aimed at controlling stream bank erosion. “Our local efforts have global significance.”