What is ACI?

ACI Directory

aci-net egroup

ACI Awards

Newsletters

Conferences

Join ACI

Job Board

Committees

Websites & Agency listing

ACI Home Page

The Balance Wheel: Spring 2003

ACI’s Itty Bitty Buddy Retires After 26 Years of Conservation Education

By: Kathy Love, Marketing Administrator for the Missouri Department of Conservation

Former ACI president Rod Green officially retired from the Missouri Department of Conservation last fall. True to his nature, though, Green continues to work part time addressing the critical education and information needs of Northwest Missouri.

Green has produced a weekly column distributed to 20 newspapers for almost 27 years. According to Albany Ledger publisher Terry Holub, Green has developed a “cult following.”

“He’s been writing the column seemingly forever,” said Holub. “It is superb writing. Rod captures outdoor life in an entertaining manner. It’s very witty.”

ACIers who know Rod will agree he’s a wit. “Nobody will ever, ever forget hearing Rod tell his snake story,” said long-time friend and ACI lifetime member Kay Ellerhoff. The story is really a live re-enactment of how a prairie king snake bit Rod first in the hand, then in the crotch, at a presentation in front of 100 Girl Scouts.

Rod Green was ACI president from 1988 to 1990. He says the best thing about the organization is the chance to connect with people who are doing similar work around the country. “I developed friendships at ACI that have lasted through the years,” Green said. He noted that he, Dave Rice, Gary Thomas, and Mike Smith are planning to get together in some exotic locale soon for a little outdoor R & R.

“The time I spent in ACI was extremely meaningful for me,” he recalled. “Until I got involved in ACI, I hadn’t had much exposure to what was going on in conservation education nationally.” The first meeting he attended was in Hannibal, Missouri, during a winter storm. One of the non-agenda events was scientific research into how many people could fit into the hotel hot tub.

The highlight of Rod’s ACI experience was the 1989 annual meeting in Washington, D.C., cohosted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Wildlife Federation. “I presided over a meeting in the Dirkson Office Building in the same room where lawmakers debate issues of national significance. It was humbling and inspiring.”

Green spent most of his career with the Missouri Department of Conservation teaching teachers how to effectively communicate conservation in the classroom. “Over time, you develop a network of teachers who are dedicated to teaching conservation. It’s rewarding to go into a school and get a hug from a teacher who’s attended your workshops,” said Green.

Green has also had an invaluable influence on young educators and naturalists. Luann Cadden, naturalist at Missouri Department of Conservation’s regional office in St. Joseph, said Rod’s enthusiasm for conservation “just caught fire with me. You can’t be around him without getting excited. He loves teaching and helping teachers. He’s touched lots of people during his career.”

Rod will continue satisfying his cult followers with a weekly newspaper column, but he’s scaled back his other commitments in order to “retire” to his woodworking shop where, among other projects, he carves Santa’s from around the world. The circumferentially challenged Green also keeps an active schedule meeting family needs (his two daughters live nearby) and looking for opportunities to continue being the “itty bitty buddy” of his many ACI friends.