Conservationist, retired educator, and now officially ‘Environmental Hero’ Cathy Irvine of rural Dysart pictured with her 2022 Heroes Among Us award on March 18, 2023 in Cedar Falls. The organization is now seeking nominations for the 2023 awards. PHOTO COURTESY OF CAROL BOYCE

CEDAR FALLS – Cathy Irvine added one more accolade to her conservation cap last Thursday in Cedar Falls by receiving the 2022 Environmental Heroes Among Us award from MercyOne Waterloo and Cedar Falls Foundations.

Irvine, a retired teacher, has spent much of her retirement working to preserve tracts of land in and around Dysart including the 292 acre Irvine Prairie located in northwest Benton County’s Bruce Township and the Viola Irvine Nature Preserve in Dysart.

At the 17th annual awards ceremony and breakfast held at the Diamond Event Center in Cedar Falls on March 18, Irvine was celebrated as one of nine “local heroes who have done something extraordinary to benefit others and their community,” according to the Heroes Among Us program.

Irvine was nominated for the award by her friend and fellow retired teacher Carol Boyce, a 2013 Heroes Among Us honoree, with input from Director Laura Jackson of the University of Northern Iowa’s Tallgrass Prairie Center and Cathy Wieck of the Dysart Tree Board.

When asked if she ever envisioned herself living the life of a celebrated conservationist in her retirement years, Irvine – ever humble – admitted she did not.

“I had no notion that my actions would attract attention beyond the sphere of the projects,” Irvine said.

Irvine’s full award biography is printed below.

Environmental Hero – Cathy Irvine

Your 2022 Environmental Heroes Among Us recipient is Cathy Irvine of Dysart.

Before retiring, Cathy had no problem sharing her love and passion for the environment during her teaching career. Allowing students to go outside to be a part of something bigger than themselves, Mother Nature.

“I am a retired teacher of 32 years for students with special needs,’ reflects Cathy. “I love lowa, and I wanted them to love lowa, so we planted trees, flower bulbs and picked up trash. It was part of the teacher’s role to help them grow to love their environment.”

Fast forward into Cathy’s retirement years, her dedication to the environment around all of us grew even stronger. In fact, this past fall Cathy gifted to the University of Northern lowa’s Tallgrass Prairie Center, 220 acres in Benton County. This is on top of the already 70 acres she gifted to UNI back in 2017 and 2018.

“My husband and I lived on a farm and when he died, I was feeling like I did not have a purpose and I didn’t know what to do,” remembers Cathy. “The only connection I could think of was his love of the farm and my duty as a steward of it to start Tallgrass Prairie Center.”

Cathy admits she had the love of the prairie, but the Tallgrass Prairie Center had the knowledge and made it what it is today. In addition to protecting and developing prairies, Cathy took her energy and interest in woodlands in 2022, creating a nature preserve in Dysart at the home of her husband’s great grandparents.

“It was originally deeded to Joseph Dysart in 1878 but it was eventually sold, and we inherited it,” recalls Cathy. “We know the land was never stripped of its trees. In fact, some of the walnut trees on the land are more than 150 years old. It is like a Hartman Reserve Nature Center in Waterloo for people to enjoy as is.”

The nature preserve, as well as her legacy gift for UNI’s Tallgrass Prairie Center, will truly enhance the lives of all who visit for a generation to come.