MFHA HUNTING HABITAT CONSERVATION AWARD WINNERS FOR 2005
IROQUOIS HUNT

[excerpt from Covertside March 05 Issue by Norman Fine]

The Iroquois Hunt Club and its members have provided a model of activism for all North American hunts concerned with the preservation of natural habitat: a model of what can be done rather than accepting defeat. If the hunt’s actions could be boiled down to their essence, they would shout, “Stop complaining and do something!” The depth of commitment by the members and the breadth and scope of what they are accomplishing is extraordinary. The MFHA and the Chronicle of the Horse recognized those efforts at the Annual Meeting of the MFHA in New York City on January 28, 2005.The jointly sponsored Hunting Habitat Conservation Award for 2005 was presented to the Iroquois Hunt. The trophy was accepted by Jack VanNagell, Joint-MFH; Lucy Breathitt, long-time Iroquois member and conservation activist; and Margaret Graves, executive director of the Bluegrass Conservancy.

Nearly thirteen hundred acres comprising thirteen separate properties in the Iroquois hunting country have been placed in conservation easement. Four property owners donated conservation easements totaling nearly seven hundred acres, and nine farms in the hunting country have sold easements to Fayette County through the county’s Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) Program. Before being saved in perpetuity, some of these farms were headed for development.

The real story of the hunt’s commitment to preservation, however, is not the total acreage saved to date. Indeed, that’s an on-going effort. The important lesson for the rest of us is how the hunt leadership along with an impressive number of hunt members have been individually active and politically involved over the years in establishing the infrastructure and climate for their current preservation efforts.

They have placed land in conservation; have provided leadership to local conservation organizations; have sponsored educational seminars for landowners and for children; and have promoted conservation through political service. Examples within the Iroquois hunting country:

CONSERVATION
•Dr. Jack Van Nagell, MFH and his wife, Betsy, purchased a three mile long disused railroad bed, slated to be paved for a bicycle path, and, together with 565 acres of their Brookfield Farm, placed it all in a conservation easement thus saving a natural wildlife corridor and preserving a large parcel of open space. Betsy Van Nagell has been hunting with the Iroquois since she was a child, and much of that Brookfield Farm acreage has been in her family for almost one hundred years.

• Jerry Miller, MFH purchased a three-hundred acre tract of woods and meadow bordering historic Boone Creek and placed it in trust as a wildlife preserve.

• Van Nagell also purchased 320 acres of meadow and forest along the same creek that was being considered for development of homes, and it is scheduled to be placed in conservation easement with the Bluegrass Conservancy this year.
ORGANIZATIONAL LEADERSHIP
• At least one hunt member has served on the Board of Directors of the Bluegrass Conservancy since its inception in 1995. Currently, two member are on the Board. Fifty-eight hunt members are members of and contributors to the Conservancy.

• Two hunt members serve on the Board of Directors of a nature sanctuary at the edge of the hunt country.

EDUCATIONAL EFFORTS
• The Iroquois Hunt and the Bluegrass Conservancy co-hosted an educational seminar for local landowners presented by Stephen Small, Esq., author and leading national authority on preserving family lands. (Mr. Small has also been a contributor to Covertside on this subject.)

• When Pony Club children and other youth groups visit the kennels or hunt with the Iroquois, the Masters use the opportunity to discuss not only hound and horse care with them, but the importance of land and habitat preservation as well.

• Van Nagell and Margaret Graves, executive director of the Bluegrass Conservancy, presented a conservation seminar at the Lexington Horse Park to Pony Club members and their parents, who had come from all over the U.S. for the Pony Club’s Fiftieth Anniversary Jubilee and Festival last year.

POLITICAL SERVICE
• One member introduced Senate Bill 168 in the 1976 Kentucky General Assembly and secured its passage. The bill established the legal framework for conservation easements in Kentucky.

• One member has served on the Urban County Council and the Land Use Committee. It was largely through her efforts that the county’s Rural Land Management Plan was adopted.

• One member served the maximum allowable terms on the county’s Planning Commission and now serves on the Board of Adjustment evaluating requests for variances and conditional use.

Although Margaret Graves doesn’t hunt, both her parents and her uncle hunted with the Iroquois. She urges all hunts to hook up with a local conservancy. The effort must begin somewhere, and establishing that relationship can be a good first step.

Van Nagell agreed. “What we are accomplishing wouldn’t have happened without a strong partnership with the Bluegrass Conservancy,” he said.

Iroquois member Lucy Breathitt, in her forty-ninth year hunting, has a long history of conservation activism. When her late husband, Edward “Ned” Breathitt, was governor of Kentucky, he got President Johnson to come to the state and survey a section of western Kentucky where proposed strip mall development was imminent. That area, known as “Land Between the Lakes,” in which lies the largest body of water between the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico, is now preserved as a federal wildlife area as a result of those efforts.

The road to success is not always easy. Lucy Breathitt recalled a council meeting where someone stood and referred to her as “that blue-haired nature Nazi.”

“I have worn that as a badge ever since,” she said.