By Tom Convoy, DNR Outdoors

So, here we are again, beginning a new year, some of us with new resolutions. I don&8217;t make many resolutions anymore, heeding instead the notion that the best way to avoid breaking promises is simply not to not make them.

In looking back over the past year, however, there are several things I intend to at least try to do differently during 2007. To wit:

– Get out of the office more. The only difference between a rut and the grave is the size of the hole, another sage once said. Ruts are easy to get into. And knowing that a day or two away from the office to attend meetings or visit with area staff or citizens means there will be a backlog of e-mails, phone messages and paperwork in the office makes it tempting to just stay put. Yet if one wants to know what the people are really thinking and doing, you have to get off the bus now and then and mingle.

– Somewhere out there is a young kid who would love to go hunting or fishing but has no one to take him or her. Don&8217;t know who or where that youngster is but I hope to find one. (And I can say with almost absolute certainty that there is one person who I have not gone fishing with in much too long a time &8212; my wife. We&8217;ll go fishing, maybe even hunting.)

– Put more effort into pounding away at trying to create more public awareness and appreciation of prairie and grasslands. Prairie, shallow lakes and wetlands once dominated the landscape of southwestern Minnesota. Today, mere specks of prairie remain and the waters they once protected are either gone or despoiled. Even though we are children of the prairie, we have decimated it.

Small intentions, certainly, and few in number. And if I do meet them, none are likely to have a far-reaching impact. Still, you never can tell when tiny efforts might take root and grow into something big. In fact, as noted anthropologist Margaret Mead once observed, &8220;Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.&8221;

Government, all too often, is looked upon as either the whipping-boy or the savior where conservation is concerned. But in the end, government exists to deliver the services that its citizens deem important. The true forces of long-lasting change are groups of citizens in their local communities, working on a grassroots level.

On a recent icy morning, a group of us stood next to the outlet of a lake in southwestern Minnesota that has been reclaimed from the carp that had infested and sullied it. This project was conceived a number of years ago and has just recently been completed. In a year or two this lake will once again have clean water, plenty of vegetation and abundant numbers of waterfowl and other wildlife.

Instrumental in the resurrection of this lake has been a local landowner. By working cooperatively with the DNR, state and federal farm conservation programs, various sportsmen’s organizations and others, this landowner not only granted an easement on his property for work to be completed at the outlet, he also helped convince others of the importance of the project. And, he is now about to enroll a substantial portion of land in the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program.

As the landowner explained to those present at the recent gathering, he’s doing it for the kids and grandkids that will be around long after he’s gone. While his support and work on this project will not change the world, it has helped turn back the clock on a once-fabled waterfowl lake. In fact, this might be just the place to take that young kid hunting. Or, my wife.

And so, here’s to hoping that when this new year comes to a close we’ll be able to look back and take pride in knowing that our water is a little cleaner, more prairie grasses are blowing in the wind, and more citizens have become members of the conservation booster club of Minnesota.

Tom Conroy is an information officer for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. He is based in New Ulm.