Green Acres

In the central Iowa town of Ackley, near the banks of the Iowa River, you’ll find Bob deNeui, a submarine engineer-turned-conservationist. You’ll find him fishing for bass or catfish, or he may be out collecting firewood. Sometimes you’ll find him camping in the dense woodlands near his farm, which are full of deer, coyotes, wild turkeys, hawks and the occasional eagle.

When deNeui left the Navy 25 years ago and bought a 700-acre farm, he made a decision not to disrupt this 200-acre tract of woodlands. That’s odd for an Iowa farmer, most of whom sell the trees to loggers and raise resource-hungry animals or monocultured crops. Or they parcel out their property for new housing and development. Farming isn’t a lucrative profession, after all, and most farmers have to be very efficient to get by.

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