Cathy Irvine, left, listens as Dr. Laura Jackson (off frame) speaks about Cathy’s most recent donation of land which has allowed the Irvine Prairie to expand from its original 77 acres to almost 300. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

RURAL DYSART – Last Friday afternoon on local conservationist Cathy Irvine’s farm located roughly five miles north of Dysart as the crow flies, a special ceremony took place in a meadow tucked between a grove of nut trees and a former soybean field. Some 60 people had gathered to officially dedicate the Irvine Prairie expansion — an expansion that triples the prairie preserve to nearly 300 acres as a result of a second land donation from Cathy.

The dedication ceremony was hosted by John Fritch, Dean of the University of Northern Iowa’s College of Humanities, Arts and Sciences under which the Tallgrass Prairie Center (TPC) is housed. TPC has managed the Irvine Prairie since its founding in 2018 when Cathy originally gifted 77 acres to UNI and the people of Iowa in memory of her late husband, farmer David Irvine.

Dressed in blue jeans, sturdy hiking boots, and a Raygun-made shirt that proclaimed “Make Iowa Prairie Again,” Cathy sat in the front row of chairs beside her good friend and TPC director Dr. Laura Jackson, listening intently for roughly 30 minutes as speaker after speaker – including the president of UNI, Mark A. Nook – expressed their gratitude for her gift while also describing in various ways what the expansion will mean for prairie restoration in the state of Iowa.

As part of his introductory remarks, Fritch described Cathy as “remarkable” – a retired special education teacher from the Waterloo Community School District who set about to make a difference because, in her own words, it was simply the “natural” thing to do.

Natural, Fritch said, to not only return land to its native, prairie state for future generations, but also natural in the sense of giving to others – others whom Cathy will likely never know, who will come long after she is gone.

Daryl Smith, center, considered by many to be the father of prairie restoration work, smiles as he is celebrated on the occasion of his 85th birthday which coincided with the Irvine Prairie expansion dedication held in rural Dysart last Friday. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

Fritch then thanked Cathy and invited her to address the gathered group which included not only representatives from UNI, but also state Sen. Eric Giddens of Cedar Falls, students and staff from the Tallgrass Prairie Center, Green Iowa AmeriCorps members, Cathy’s friends and family including her sister Mary Gilchrist and her cousin Mary Mehlhaus, and even the father of prairie restoration himself, Professor Emeritus Daryl Smith who was celebrating his 85th birthday that day.

In her careful, reassuring voice, Cathy took the microphone and gave a very short, but very poignant speech that more than likely left everyone in the audience who knows her personally wanting more.

“Today we’re here to dedicate this area in memory of my husband David who loved this land,” Cathy began. As she spoke the wind lightly lifted the leaves on the trees behind the audience, dust blew down 55th Street from a passing farm truck, and the prairie expansion’s parcel located directly behind Cathy seemed to swell in the Iowa winds.

Cathy then quoted Willa Cather, a 20th Century journalist and novelist, calling the quote one of her favorites.

“We come and go, but the land is always here,” Cathy quoted. “And the people who love it and understand it are the people who own it – for a little while.”

Cathy Irvine addresses the audience during the Irvine Prairie expansion dedication ceremony held on her rural Dysart farm this past Friday, June 9. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

“My little while is over,” Cathy then said, eliciting a few tears in members of the audience. “But I look out here and I see Brian Pippert, the farmer who’s farmed it … [And] all the other prairie friends and enthusiasts and family that are here today — I trust you to take over the stewardship of this land.”

Cathy then ended her remarks and attempted to retake her seat but Dr. Jackson had other ideas, inviting her back up to accept several gifts including a bouquet of prairie flowers picked earlier that afternoon by Jackson’s UNI and AmeriCorps students.

The flowers were “all things that are in bloom right now,” Cathy proclaimed as she accepted the gifts, before encouraging everyone to take a walk later in the restored prairie and find “their own swag.”

Stewardship

For those who have followed Cathy’s journey to becoming a respected conservationist in the state of Iowa, her words on Friday – however short – spoke volumes. For it is not the accolades nor the recognition that Cathy has sought all these years through her gifts – it is rather the passing of the baton.

Conservationist Cathy Irvine, left, pictured alongside Tallgrass Prairie Center director Dr. Laura Jackson last Friday on Cathy’s farm located north of Dysart during the Irvine Prairie expansion dedication. The expansion parcel is visible behind the pair. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

Stewarding the land to the best of your ability is a very rural and a very Iowa thing to do. As a steward of the land, Cathy embodies both.

She is a female landowner and a widow – a combination that is quickly becoming more and more common as the farming population in Iowa trends ever upward.

But what she has chosen to do with her and David’s land as the years slip by is unique.

With no children to continue the stewardship, Cathy placed her land where she has felt it would bloom best – in the care of the next generation of local Iowans, many of whom have never seen, let alone touched a prairie despite the prairie ecosystem having long ago gifted the state its bountiful soils.

Following Cathy’s remarks, UNI President Mark Nook spoke next. While thanking Cathy and David, he told her, “This is going to be a laboratory, a living laboratory. A walkable laboratory.”

The Irvine Prairie located roughly five miles north of Dysart as the crow flies pictured on Friday, June 9, 2023. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

After Nook, the president of the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation (INHF), Joe McGovern briefly took the microphone, summing up what many were probably thinking about Cathy: “I would listen to her talk for hours. … It gave me goosebumps.”

And then Dr. Jackson spoke, both as the director of TPC – and by extension the Irvine Prairie – and as Cathy’s friend.

She called the expansion “an astonishing gift,” while also expressing a desire to stitch the work she and her TPC students and staff complete at Irvine Prairie into the greater local fabric.

“[TPC] is becoming a proud member of this community – this rural community,” Jackson said. “We want to make a positive contribution in this community and provide UNI students and local schoolchildren – anybody who will come out – with extraordinary learning opportunities. And opportunities to just experience what prairie is.”

She thanked several local people who have contributed to the success of Irvine Prairie over the last five years including Cathy’s tenant farmer – now TPC neighbor – Brian Pippert, as well as Union High School science teacher Craig Hemsath and North Tama Junior High science and social studies teacher Jean Matzen, both of whom have brought class after class to Irvine Prairie on field trips.

Champion dancer Lennox Lasley, a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin, performs a prairie chicken dance on Irvine Prairie last Friday afternoon as part of the preserve’s expansion dedication ceremony. PHOTO BY SOREN M. PETERSON

While Irvine Prairie will no long produce corn and soybeans, Jackson said, it will instead produce a “renewal of the human spirit” for all who visit.

Irvine Prairie is a place, Jackson continued, “where children can come to learn about the prairie” – something that was top of mind for Cathy as she made her initial donation.

Following Jackson’s remarks, those who were interested were invited to move across the road to the original parcel for a prairie chicken dance performed by Ho-Chunk champion dancer Lennox Lasley.

Prairie chickens, known for their spectacular mating dances, “need large expanses of prairie,” Jackson explained.

“[T]hey’re an iconic species – we probably couldn’t get one here. They need several square miles of grassland. But they’re still iconic to this place. … They did used to be very common here.”

Inviting Lasley to dance was “a meaningful way to celebrate this land and the original people who were here,” Jackson said.

Later, as Lasley performed his dance on what was once an agricultural field farmed by David Irvine, a male red-winged blackbird lighted on a tall slip of last season’s big bluestem just down the hill from the dance and those gathered around Lasley.

While perched, the bird sang its dripping trill many an Iowa farmer is familiar with due to the species’ tendency to nest alongside fields in both grassy waterways and ditches.

The bird called, Lasley danced, and Cathy Irvine smiled in wonder.

Her little while not quite over yet.

To find the Irvine Prairie which is open to the public, navigate to 1173 55th Street, Dysart. Park on the south side of the road in the grass, near the stone marker. A portable bathroom facility is available.

A male red-winged blackbird perches on a stalk of last season’s big bluestem at Irvine Prairie last Friday afternoon in northwest Benton County’s Bruce Township. PHOTO BY SOREN M. PETERSON