HARRISBURG, Pa. — Myers Family Farm, of Spring Mills, Pennsylvania, is the 2023 Pennsylvania Leopold Conservation Award recipient.
The award honors farmers and forestland owners who go above and beyond in their management of soil health, water quality and wildlife habitat on working land.
Brothers Joel and Don Myers, who own and operate Myers Family Farm, in Centre County, received the award at the Pennsylvania Farm Show on Jan. 8. They received $10,000 and a crystal award for being selected.
“Joel Myers embodies the lifelong dedication to stewardship that Aldo Leopold lived by,” said Pennsylvania Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding. “Joel’s selfless care of soil and water resources, his generosity sharing his conservation expertise with other farmers, researchers, and farm visitors, and his contagious enthusiasm for forward-thinking farm management is part of why Pennsylvania’s future is greener every year. Joel’s legacy will be clean water and healthy soil, not just on the Myers Family Farm, but on an ever-growing number of Pennsylvania farms.”
Sand County Foundation and national sponsor American Farmland Trust present the Leopold Conservation Award to private landowners in 27 states. In Pennsylvania, the award is presented with The Heinz Endowments, Horizon Farm Credit and Pennsylvania Farm Bureau.
Given in honor of renowned conservationist Aldo Leopold, the award recognizes farmers and forestland owners who inspire others with their dedication to environmental improvement. In his influential 1949 book, A Sand County Almanac, Leopold called for what he called “a land ethic,” an ethical relationship between people and the land they own and manage.
The 2022 Pennsylvania Leopold Conservation Award was presented to Flinchbaugh’s Orchard & Farm of York County.
Myers Family Farm. Joel Myers was a driving force behind the creation of the Pennsylvania No-Till Alliance. He hosted its first meeting in a church next to Myers Family Farm.
Joel credits his success as a conservation practitioner and proponent to what he learned decades ago. As a boy, he witnessed washouts and gullies plaguing the fields on the farm his father bought in 1946. With his brother Don, he still owns and operates Myers Family Farm where he planted 75 acres of oats and soybeans last spring.
After earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in agronomy, he began his career as a soil conservationist in 1967 by writing conservation plans and providing other technical assistance to farmers. He rose through the ranks to district conservationist before being named Pennsylvania’s state agronomist in the 1980s.
He gained credibility among farmers by putting emerging conservation practices to work on his own farmland. In the 1960s and 70s, he experimented with contour farming, field borders, reduced tillage and crop rotations aimed at preventing soil erosion and improving water quality.
In the 1980s Joel was intrigued that some dairy farmers were on the cutting edge of no-till practices. He bought a no-till planter at an auction and made modifications to it. Eventually, he had five different no-till planters and drills which allowed him to learn, and later demonstrate, their differences to other farmers both one-on-one and at field events.
Retirement from his day job didn’t slow down Joel’s educational and outreach efforts. Myers Family Farm still hosts many research trials, workshops, and field days for farmers, conservation professionals, research scientists, local FFA members, Penn State University students and international groups.
What farm visitors see is how a no-till system coupled with extensive use of cover crops and sound crop rotations can greatly reduce soil losses, even on slopes up to 10%. Myers Family Farm’s rolling topography features deep soils in some areas, and ridge tops with exposed rock outcrops in others. This showcase of conservation practices extends beyond the cropland to include forest and stream habitat restorations that improve wildlife and fish habitat. Joel predicts 2024 will be the last year he plants crops at Myers Family Farm before renting the land to a similarly conservation-minded farmer.
