 I grew up in a place called Manchester in North England, Northwest England. I didn't have a farming background but I had, like, some of my relatives had farm. It just happens like, it happens I think to a lot of people. I was taking a course called geomorphology, formation of soils and the lecturer was just so interesting and enthusiastic. We went on a field trip and it just turned me to that and I changed over to soil science. From there I got this opportunity in New Zealand. There was a lot of other graduates there working as a team. Just a great group and I guess I learned from them, you know, how to do, watching them, how to be thorough, diligent, you know, make sure the science is right. But also just a team. It was like helping each other, doing a lot of field work and it was water quality, looking at dairy, runoff, tile drainage, grazing, management, manure application. And if that sounds familiar, you know, you just, that was back in 73. I ended up originally in California doing a post-doc and then in a place called Durant which is probably about, oh, a couple of hundred miles south here on the border, Oklahoma, Texas border. And then a position came open here at the University of Arkansas and the rest is history, you know. When I moved here there was a lot more freedom and that was one of the things that I found rewarding and challenging at the time. So a couple of projects that blossomed from that. I did some work on water sheds up here and around Subway and a few other places but I got an invitation from Wisconsin the Discovery Program up there, Fred Madison at the time and we came back and said this is something I think that we could work here. You know, having a little bit more experience after being here and realize Arkansas was probably a lot further ahead than a lot of other states in the U.S. and being more proactive in dealing with environmental issues. One of the things that helped me at the time was there was this transitioning and there was this Farm Bureau who had been very proactive in working with farmers and farmers were, you know, talking to them and saying we need to be on the train and not less standing at the station when the train's gone and once we got the equipment then we had the ability to pedal this infrastructure to start doing some sites. The first one was at Jeff Marley's site which again, he was very active with Farm Bureau and we also did one down with Terry Dabs. Mike and I have developed a great friendship and a great working relationship. He was an extension, I was research. I was interested in being more applied. He wanted to do extension based on science and research based extension so it was mutually beneficial and we ended up with a program and four original farms. Mike and I would never go into a farm and say we think you need to do this, you need to put this conservation practice in because it's not our job to be farming and it was there, we wanted it to come from them we wanted their investment in to do it. So what we've been able to do is allow us to get that information and develop the data and have it there available, publish it report it to other groups allow those farmers to get out there and use that data for themselves to show what they're doing but it provided some sound science to make things work. There was, you know, the C&H hog farm was permitted to operate and then there was a lot of angst after the permit process that was nothing to do with us but that started, somebody wanted to know is it really or isn't it? The university, we're doing this type of work I'd come here about four or five years ago you know, I'd got this discovery program we're doing the same type of thing and so we were a logical fit to do that in an unbiased way to do the scientific, scientifically rigor to determine whether that farm was having an impact or not on Big Creek and the defining moment in all of this was when Jason Ensign got up and said look, if I'm causing a problem don't you want to know it don't we want to know if I'm part of a problem and nobody could say anything everybody was right I mean he'd hit the nail on the head he'd been there several generations he did not want to be part of the problem you know, he had neighbors there he lived there he wanted to be open about this and so from that point on there was some reluctance on the integrated part but having the farmer up there say that really changed the scenery so to speak in the end we all know the end of the story here obviously there was a lot of pressure put on that farmer at no time he never once said no, I don't want you doing this or I don't want you doing this extra bit of work we explain what we're doing he never said no and to me that was just you know, you've got to admire Jason and the whole family for doing that that they really wanted to know what was going on and I think they were following all the rules and regulations but still that wasn't good enough but to give them a credit they never tried to hide anything or never tried to stop us from finding more data to prove one way or the other I think that was a great learning experience for us was the power of the farmer to want to know the truth rather than saying no and I think that's from my experience is somewhat unique to Arkansas where they have had and maybe it's from Farm Bureau there are these environmental programs and committees and work that's going on that they feel okay Farm Bureau are behind this they want this information they're not hiding their head in the sand I think important things to me was the fact that you feel like you could have help and change or you had some impact so I'm really content that I've been able to do what I felt was important there was integrity there was scientific rigor helped move things along obviously there's some recognition along the way but that's not that's kind of gravy but the more meaningful thing is the friendships, partnerships the teams again that make us better I think the hallmark of what I would say is teamwork's not for everybody but it downwells your work for me and I really appreciate that time and opportunity