Save The Woods Foundation

For several years in the 1990’s I was a member of a Des Moines conservation organization called Save The Woods Foundation, Inc. It was formed in the 80’s by Chris Janson to save several acres of woodland adjacent to his boyhood home and a city park from development. The land at risk was a heavily wooded valley with a stream running through it. Many different kinds of trees made up the small forest and a wide variety of flowers were scattered throughout, a scenic and peaceful little patch of land. Chris formed the Foundation as a nonprofit and entered into a contract with the owner of the property to purchase the land. He then set about building up the foundation, forming a board of directors and trying to raise money. A few years later I joined the board and created and edited the Foundation newsletter, The Green Milieux. We tried every kind of fundraiser we could think of, applied for grants, solicited businesses for donations and tried keeping and expanding our dues paying membership. Several times we came close to loosing the land from lack of money but we kept plugging away. Finally after several years of saving Save The Woods we reached our goal. The Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation provided the remaining money to pay off the land and seven acres of beautiful woodland was added to Beaverdale Park in Des Moines, Iowa with a perpetuity clause that it could never be sold or developed. With the vision of Chris Janson and the thousands of hours of volunteer hard work of our members, not to mention the generous donations of local businesses and the community and other nonprofits, that peaceful little valley is still there.