If you Google the definition of conserve you’ll get: Conserve — to protect (something, especially an environmentally or culturally important place or thing) from harm or destruction.

Imagine my dismay at finding out that the Springbrook Conservation Education Center in Guthrie County, Iowa, had been closed since March of 2017 and the five brick buildings were scheduled for the wrecking ball. This gem has served adults and children from all over the state for 48 years. In 1975, it became a National Environmental Education Landmark. I think we need to protect this gem and put it back to good use.

Please join me from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. Sept. 9 at the Mary Barnett Memorial Library, 400 Grand Street in Guthrie Center, for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ open house to collect comments on future planning and improvements at Springbrook State Park. 

If you are asking yourself “why,” Remember what Luther Standing Bear said: “The old Lakota was wise. He knew that man’s heart, away from nature, becomes hard; he knew that lack of respect for growing, living things soon led to lack of respect for humans too.”

We need to bring everyone back to nature.