 When we first arrived, there was basically no developed tourism in the Black Hills. They were in the process of carving Mount Rushmore, and there were a couple of rock shops and rodeos, and that was the extent of it. And of course, we know that this has developed into one of the prime tourism areas in the country, and people even from abroad have come specifically to see the Black Hills. I grew up in Spearfish. My family here had the Black Hills Passion Play, with which I was very closely associated from the time I was an infant. And later on, I went to school here. Spearfish has always been my home. We acquired a ranch north of town, and later on, after I was an adult and married, my husband and I were able to acquire the Oak Hills Ranch property here. It had been dear to me all throughout my childhood. I used to ride up here. The owner was very generous in allowing me to do that. And so this ranch property and this hillside and these views have been something that I've cherished all of my life. I'm Johanna Meyer Delavecchia, and we are on Oak Hills Ranch, which is a beautiful property west of Spearfish. I've been on this ranch since I was born here in Spearfish, and my grandfather helped put the terracing in so that the erosion would stop after the dirty thirties. My father, all his brothers, have worked on the ranch. My brother, now my children, and my grandson will be here. My husband started pulling bales at eight years old when he was growing up just over the hill. We were seven years old when we met. The ranch is a very unique piece of property. It's very close to Spearfish, but at the same time, wilderness. We have big open fields with grassland. We have timber for timber harvesting. And the cattle and horses that we have roam the whole entire ranch. Our idea is that we never wanted to see it change. This was a happy place. This is the place to be. And we see houses popping up everywhere, and it's heartbreaking. There's a lot of people that have come here throughout their lives and stuff, and they can just remember looking up and seeing the openness and the view of the land. And right now, Spearfish is such a beautiful place to move and live to. What we're seeing, though, is the building of the houses and the urbanization of the area. And part of those views that drive these people here to these beautiful areas are starting to disappear, and so it's kind of a double-edged sword. People want to move here, but at the same time, we're losing, in essence, the beauty of the place. And so really with this land trust and everything, we're going to preserve that, preserve these views. So that way we can still work the land, still have this lifestyle. And with the cattle here, we're going to continue to allow them to work, to be here on the land, to graze, to use the land as intended. And in essence, you know, it's going to help bring that life back to this piece of property versus it just being stale and not utilized. When we first had the idea of trying to make a conservancy of this property, we did a lot of investigating of organizations throughout the country, some federal, some privately handled. And then when this opportunity arose, it seemed to fulfill all of our wishes and the fact that things would remain protected and undeveloped but still accessible and be able to be used as ag land, which we do, we lease out for cattle and we have horses up here. And it's also a natural wildlife corridor and habitat for a variety of wildlife. And so we were very pleased to have come upon this organization and I especially felt that it was worthwhile because it was a South Dakota organization and would be monitored by the trust. And my ties are here and so I was very, very glad to have come upon that. You know, Johanna and I and Terry, we had sat down and tossed it back and forth and she really wanted to preserve the property. She wanted to keep it as it is today or it has been for the last several years. We did look at several different conservation groups. We like the South Dakota Agland Trust because we have the same goals and they were willing to work with us over and over back and forth and it just was a perfect fit. The South Dakota Agland Trust was founded a number of years ago by four different organizations, the South Dakota Association of Conservation Districts, the South Dakota Cattlemen's Association, the South Dakota Farm Bureau and the South Dakota Grassland Coalition. And the organization was founded because there was a lot of interest in South Dakota for conservation easements but no organization was solely controlled by farmers and ranchers. And so our goal was to form an organization, a non-profit, that would hold conservation easements for the purpose of preserving working lands for the future generations to enjoy. It always seems to me a little bit difficult when areas around the country are managed by organizations in eastern cities and they don't really know the landscape, they don't know the people, they don't know the climate and the atmosphere and this way I think we have absolutely the best protection that we could have because these are all local people who value what they have here. These guys are all from South Dakota, they have their own ranches, they have their own properties, so they know what it is. We have the board from the state organization who will manage and monitor the property so we feel very well covered and very well protected. It does give us tremendous opportunities for conservation on many levels aside from the beauty factor. It does preserve grasslands, natural grasslands and quality of water which is flowing downstream from springs on this property. There's continued development and urbanization of our area and that was a large concern and the watershed above us, we can't afford to have septic systems and wells in a high number that would ultimately affect the groundwater supply. After I'm gone I'm very grateful that there are younger people who feel the same way and I hope that this will always be a focal point for those people who love natural beauty and all of the benefits that we gain from being nature's friend.