A local farmer recently partnered with HeartLands Conservancy to ensure his historic family farm is preserved well into the future, helping maintain not only his legacy but the natural beauty of Monroe County.

Delbert Wittenauer currently owns three properties around this county, the first between Waterloo and Hecker, the second south of Valmeyer and third to the west of Maeystown.

Wittenauer has lived on this property all his life.

“I live less than a mile from where I was born, and I have never lived more than two miles from that as long as I’ve been alive,” Wittenauer said. “I’ve been sitting on these farms my entire life… I actually got my first tractor when I was nine years old and started plowing, and I’ve been plowing ever since.”

As Wittenauer said, he’s a lifelong farmer. He recalled how his family began as poor sharecroppers, his father working hard to support his wife and kids.

The farms have been part of the family for some time. Wittenauer spoke about how his dad rented the properties and how he and his brother came to be working the land, particularly as his father began running into heart problems.

“My dad helped guide me, and I guessed God helped guide me too – somebody was sure on my team – because I went from just a hired hand to managing and running a farm,” Wittenauer said.

Outside the farm, Wittenauer also spoke about his time as a county commissioner – he felt something of a responsibility to give back to the community as he received a deferment from service in the Vietnam War – and working with his brother to operate a construction company.

Wittenauer also spoke about how he took on the responsibility from his uncle of managing one farm down in the bottoms.

While he was hesitant to take on the challenge given his lack of familiarity with working the land in the far west of the county, Wittenauer was guided by his uncle that first year and managed to keep things running strong from the get-go.

“We never had a year where we didn’t make a couple dollars,” Wittenauer said. “We never went in the hole.”

With a strong connection to the land and general passion for farming, Wittenauer recently came to an agreement with HeartLands Conservancy to preserve his land into the future.

“It’s going to be what it is today, forever,” Wittenauer said.

HeartLands Conservancy is a nonprofit conservation land trust based in Belleville and has done other work in Monroe County and the wider region to conserve open spaces, farms and natural lands.

HeartLands Conservancy CEO Mary Vandevord offered further explanation on the agreement with Wittenauer and what it means for his properties.

“Delbert’s is primarily an agricultural easement which means that his property can continue to be farmed forever,” Vandevord said. “There can be new farm structures built like a barn if  needed, that kind of stuff, and it can never become a development other than that. He could restore it to a prairie or forest, but that’s not required. What is required is that it stays as an open space, either as agriculture or natural area.”

Vandevord noted that Wittenauer reached out to her organization looking to make sure his farm was preserved, his neighbor having come to an agreement with the conservancy as well.

She explained that this sort of preservation agreement is meant to address a number of elements.

“It’s really about preserving several things,” Vandevord said. “Agriculture is the backbone of our country and of the state, and in Monroe County, it’s an incredibly long-standing legacy. It preserves that, but it’s also preserving the incredible views in Monroe County, the feeling people get when they’re out in the country. Once that becomes a subdivision, then you lose that whole feeling of what it’s like to be in Monroe County.”

Wildlife conservation is another major element of these agreements.

“Preserving big blocks like Delbert has is gonna allow wildlife to be able to travel better and still have this open space to travel through,” Vandevord said. “That’s an incredible gift for wildlife as well as people.”

Vandevord further spoke to the importance of such agreements, expressing a need for community growth and development to be done with plenty of forethought.

“Growth isn’t bad, but preserving places where it should be preserved is important,” Vandevord said. “As communities grow, that kind of conversation is really important. Let’s grow in a smart way and a sustainable way that still keeps our community the way that we all want it to be.”

These factors contributed greatly toward Wittenauer’s desire to preserve his family’s farmland, but he also found himself with a strong will to preserve for the future as he found recently that his life expectancy is far less than what he would have hoped.

As Wittenauer said, he retired some time ago only to have an accident on a skid steer that led to him going to the hospital.

Though his injuries were ultimately minor, scans revealed a number of tumors  in his pancreas and elsewhere, and Wittenauer suddenly found himself facing stage four cancer.

“I know that my time here is measurably smaller,” Wittenauer said. “I’m trying to stay alive as long as I can, and what I had to do is go back to work because I wanted to do that conservation thing ever since I knew there was such a thing.”

Wittenauer reiterated his passion for farming, also stressing how he didn’t want his family’s land to wind up in the same unfortunate situation he’s seen other farmland fall into.

“My entire life I’ve farmed, and I love farming,” Wittenauer said. “I hated to see what happened to so many farms because people inherit them, and they are so valuable that they get cashed out right away, sold, and the people are rich for a couple years, and then they pretty much blow it in 10 years. What someone worked for their entire life is completely gone, and I’m trying to not let that happen to my grounds.”

While he doesn’t know exactly how long he has to live – he has been able to surpass what he was estimated to have left – Wittenauer is eager to further work to preserve his family’s land through the conservancy and otherwise.

“I don’t have all my goals done,” Wittenauer said. “I would really like to figure out a way for my family to keep farming it as long as they want.”