Fargo man stays grounded in North Dakota as lead conservationist at National Audubon Society

FARGO — Rising up within the warmth and congestion of the Dallas and Los Angeles areas, Marshall Johnson had a pair stipulations about the place he’d stay as an grownup.

It needed to be a spot that experiences all 4 seasons, ideally with lengthy, chilly winters, and it needed to be someplace extra rural.

“Something above 75 levels, I begin getting just a little agitated. So, I do not like heat climate. I do not like huge cities,” Johnson stated with a large smile.

Not solely did Fargo and North Dakota match that standards, they ended up making the proper profession backdrop for him.

The previous head of Audubon Dakota is now Chief Conservation Officer, or second in cost, on the Nationwide Audubon Society, an American nonprofit devoted to conservation of birds and their habitats.

Whereas it was assumed Johnson would transfer out east for the function, maybe to Washington, D.C., or New York, he selected to remain put.

“I’ll keep working from Fargo so long as they will let me,” he stated.

North Dakota is house to “probably the most unimaginable chicken nurseries on the earth,” Johnson stated. It’s within the Prairie Pothole Area, an expansive space of the northern Nice Plains, the place 50% of the continent’s geese are born and raised.

“This was a pure match,” Johnson stated.

A spotlight of his function is to provide you with methods for addressing the unprecedented local weather change and biodiversity crises birds are going through.

The newly launched 2022 State of the Birds report reveals birds in america are declining total in just about each habitat — forests, grasslands, deserts and oceans.

“What impacts birds impacts us, and birds are telling us they’re in hassle,” Johnson stated in a Nationwide Audubon Society story on the Birds report.

Bucking that pattern, nevertheless, are the wetlands like these within the Prairie Pothole Area, the place long-term tendencies present sturdy will increase in waterfowl the place investments have been made in wetland conservation.

Actually, waterbirds and geese within the U.S. have elevated by 18% and 34%, respectively, since 1970, the report stated.

Johnson is tasked with overseeing the Nationwide Audubon Society’s 1,500 workers and 1.9 million members all through the Western Hemisphere, from Canada all the way down to Colombia.

Additionally in thoughts are the 47 million birders in america, he stated, noting birding one of many quickest rising leisure hobbies, second solely to gardening.

“I like to think about birds as my playlists in nature,” Johnson stated, “a reminder of tranquility and peace in a manner that I believe we have actually come again to for the reason that pandemic.”

Johnson got here to the Pink River Valley space by means of an opportunity to play soccer in school on the College of Minnesota-Crookston.

He studied enterprise and had goals of going to regulation college.

However in some unspecified time in the future, Johnson was launched to a gaggle of pure assets college students and their professor, Dan Svedarsky, who research and does conservation work on prairie chickens.

One early morning, Johnson ended up with them in a prairie hen blind, which sparked his curiosity a couple of profession in conservation.

He discovered his option to Fargo in 2009 for a part-time job with Audubon Dakota that he thought would final six months. As an alternative, the stint lasted 13 years, more often than not with him on the helm.

One of many first initiatives he acquired concerned with was remodeling flood buyout land alongside the Pink River into locations of outside enjoyment.

One such spot is Forest River Nature Park in far south Fargo, a challenge of the City Woods & Prairie Initiative with Audubon Dakota.

Johnson stated he and former Fargo Park District Govt Director Roger Gress and Gress’ successor, Dave Leker, met on the positioning to develop a imaginative and prescient for it.

“Quick ahead, we have created 22 nature parks in Fargo-Moorhead,” Johnson stated.

The character parks make what he calls a “nice little string of pearls” alongside the river for birds as they transfer in migration.

At first, the Forest River land was about 90% coated with weeds and now’s about 80% native prairie, Johnson stated.

He has photos in his head of the prairie in varied levels: ablaze in a managed burn, with tractors shifting about and dotted with households placing down prairie and wildflower seeds.

“Once I look out at a chunk of land that we have been concerned in, it is all of these recollections and moments,” he stated.

Over Johnson’s time with Audubon Dakota, the workplace grew from one worker to greater than a dozen. It went from a state workplace to a regional workplace, with the fourth largest finances within the nation, Johnson stated.

“It was an uphill climb, but it surely was actually thrilling as a result of I used to be in a position to meet philanthropists and companions that cared about birds, and communities that needed to do extra to be extra bird-friendly,” Johnson stated.

By means of his management, the state program raised and leveraged greater than $50 million and spearheaded the launch of the Northern Nice Plains Grasslands Undertaking, conserving greater than 600,000 acres and partnering with greater than 300 farmers, ranchers and communities throughout the Dakotas.

Leker stated something Johnson proposed to do in partnership with the Fargo Park District over time was adopted by to completion.

Johnson is a powerful fundraiser, Leker stated, as a result of he has the character, charisma and intelligence to speak the trigger.

“Some individuals are naturally gifted with it. I believe Marshall is certainly one of them,” Leker stated.

In June 2021, Johnson was inspired to take the function of interim chief conservation officer with Nationwide Audubon Society. In January of this yr, the group introduced he’d taken the job on a everlasting foundation.

Whereas he seems like he’s already been on the profession “without end,” at age 36, he’s virtually all the time the youngest particular person within the room in a management function.

Johnson is a fan and protector of all birds, so when requested which chicken is his favourite, he paused for a second, then launched into an evidence of why meadowlarks are on the high of his record.

“Grasslands are my ardour, and meadowlarks are actually the ambassador of the grasslands. They let you recognize the seasons as they modify and when the birds come again, so I must say meadowlarks are my ardour chicken,” Johnson stated.

A part of Johnson’s persona is his ever-present cowboy hat, which stems from his upbringing in Texas.

“Of us in cowboy hats, … they have been black, they have been brown, they have been white. … You simply wore a cowboy hat, and it was a part of being a Texan,” he stated.

Johnson stated he’s proud to be the primary particular person of coloration on this function on the Nationwide Audubon Society and hopes it’s going to encourage others like him to become involved in nature, preservation or the setting.

However extra importantly, he stated he likes to guide by specializing in what folks have in frequent fairly than what separates them.

“I believe that is acquired to be on the root of how we go about this work, or any work,” Johnson stated.

Within the midst of strategic planning, Johnson is spending many of the subsequent two months on the highway, assembly with companions and supporters to determine how Audubon will make investments its time and power over the following 30 years.

“Typically there are conflicts. Typically I make errors, and dealing to regain belief and preserve belief together with your companions, together with your workers, it is unending,” he stated.