Climate Land Leaders: How to Conserve and Protect Your Land with Teresa Opheim

Corn is growing in parts of North Dakota where it didn’t used to grow. Citrus production has fallen 90% over the past two decades in Florida. Other areas have dealt with record rainfall, higher heat, or drought like they have never experienced before. Has the behavior of humans caused permanent alterations in the planet’s weather systems? Is this somehow just an extended weather pattern that will subside? There are differences of opinion.

Teresa Opheim believes humans contribute to the changing climate. But she also knows not everyone believes that. Opheim, Executive Director of Climate Land Leaders, isn’t looking for arguments.

How to Discuss Climate Change and Land Preservation

Effective engagement, Opheim thinks, doesn’t always mean leading with the climate label. “Sometimes it doesn’t really matter which side of the climate change debate people are on,” she said. “Keeping your soil covered is good for everyone.”

That is a key strategy of Climate Land Leaders: focus on shared values like soil health, water quality, and viable farms for the next generation. The organization brings together landowners who are committed to conservation, regardless of political beliefs.

Teresa Opheim bio:

• Climate Land Leaders – Executive Director

• Iroquois Valley Farms – Former Board Manager

• Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture – Former Senior Fellow

• Renewing the Countryside – Former Senior Fellow

• Practical Farmers of Iowa – Former Executive Director

“The group of landowners we work with are firmly committed to the fact that our climate is changing fairly rapidly,” Opheim explained. “And it’s going to require absolutely everything we have to ensure that we have enough food and water quality, water that’s drinkable and swimmable, into the future.”

But many of these landowners also live and work in communities where climate change skepticism is common. That is where a shared commitment to conservation becomes a bridge. “You just talk about conservation, what we can do together,” Opheim said, “That is sometimes all the conversation that they need to have.”

RELATED: This is what enabled an Illinois farm to sell for $35,000 an acre earlier this summer.

Extreme Weather’s Impact on Farms

Opheim points to increasing weather volatility as a unifying reality. “We are seeing an increasing number of billion-dollar weather disasters,” she noted. “We have a climate land leader in northeast Iowa who's had a tornado, a derecho, drought, and flooding…all within a couple years.”

Extreme flooding is also a phenomenon that has the attention of more farmland owners. “…in eastern Wisconsin, they had 14 inches of rain in 16 hours. It’s just not possible to handle that kind of weather volatility without some major commitment… to keep our soil covered, keep the land, keep the rain where it falls as much as possible,” Opheim said.

So how do you get people to act?

Opheim believes in setting clear, individualized goals. “At the beginning of the year, [our members] set their conservation goals,” she explained. “We had one restoring 100 acres of prairie, another clearing buckthorn. They share those goals with each other because if you share something publicly, you’re more likely to follow through.”

Then, the organization provides support through private peer-to-peer conversations. “Our meetings are not public. And for that reason, they are really free to share with each other: ‘This didn’t work,’ or ‘I had trouble with this federal agency because of this program,’” she said. “They’re sharing practical implementation strategies.”

Land Legacy Planning

Climate Land Leaders also prioritizes the importance of establishing a land legacy plan.

The organization’s new publication, “Land Legacies: Stories from Landowners for Landowners,” 

provides guidance. It describes the farmland owners who are committed to preserving and protecting their land for the future.

“None of the participants view their property as a commodity to exploit but instead see land as ‘the unique entity that is the combined living spirit of plants, animals, water, humans, histories and events,’ as Canadian researcher Dr. Max Liboiron writes. As of early 2025, 190 who steward about 50,000 acres were participating in Climate Land Leaders. They meet up online and in-person to share how they are restoring prairie and wetlands, managing woodlands, and more.”