Nancy DeLamar

DeLamar Works to Keep Arkansas a Natural at Nature Conservancy

As vice president and state director of the Nature Conservancy’s Arkansas Field Office, NAs vice president and state director of the Nature Conservancy’s Arkansas Field Office, Nancy DeLamar oversees 18 staffers, or conservation professionals.

With that staff and with 4,200 Arkansas members, DeLamar has helped save more than 226,000 acres in Arkansas and Oklahoma by championing both the Arkansas-Idaho Land Exchange Act of 1992 and the Arkansas-Oklahoma Land Exchange of 1996.

DeLamar says the Nature Conservancy is still working to protect natural lands in Arkansas.

“In the last year, we’ve acquired and are fund raising for four wonderful natural areas,” DeLamar says. “And watching people, the volunteers and contributors, respond to these natural areas has been gratifying. We’ve protected wetlands and prairies and caves. We’ve taken people out to look at natural lands with us, and it’s always so gratifying to watch kids and adults and people from all walks of life respond. All people respond to the natural world.

“Arkansas is blessed to have the natural resources that remain with us, and for us in the conservancy to be in a position to take people to these areas, show them what we have to offer and ask for their help, that’s really a great place to be. I feel lucky to work for the Nature Conservancy.”

Saying the Nature Conservancy has “created a legacy that future generations will have and enjoy,” DeLamar says the organization is trying to expand past its Little Rock headquarters.

“In the coming year, we’re going to establish community-based projects in the Delta and the Ozarks,” DeLamar says. “We’ll hire an individual who will live and work in those areas. It means moving out of Little Rock, to some extent, and getting out to communities near some of these lands. We can’t do everything that needs to be done in Arkansas in Little Rock – we need a presence, and that’s what we’re hoping to do.”

DeLamar says there’s also a plan to build a satellite office along the Strawberry River.