Not just Nostalgia

Marily Caddy, born Marily Anderson, is a bright voice on the other end of the phone line. She’s quick with her laughter, her wisdom and her book recommendations. She also has endless stories to share about her family farm in Iowa. 

“My younger son said they were supposed to write an essay [for school] on the most beautiful place in the world, and he said Iowa.” Caddy breaks into warm laughter. The family was living in Minnesota at the time, but Iowa was still front of mind. The Loess Hills and land surrounding the family farm still captivates Caddy. “You’re coming up through the hills,” Caddy says, envisioning the drive to the Caddy farm, “and you drive down into this valley. There’s a little stream. There are hills on one side [of the road] and there’s trees and fields on the other. And, of course, our house.” 

But the farm is more than just aesthetic beauty. “It’s the heart of our family,” Caddy says. 

It began in 1972 when her parents, Rev. Aldine “Al” and Florence Anderson purchased the family farm as a second home. Caddy’s parents both worked in Omaha: her father as a Lutheran minister, her mother as a high school librarian. However, Al and Florence both carried childhood ties to agriculture. It was as if something pulled them to the farm tucked in Iowa’s Loess Hills.  

“There was always part of my dad that was just a farmer,” says Caddy. “He would go out there and work and work and work and work.”

As the Andersons worked, the land became something special to the family. When Marily married Bob in 1975, they spent their wedding night on the farm. Her children — Jason born in ’79, Adrienne in ’83 and Alister in ’86 — were baptized on the farm by their grandpa. Caddys and Andersons held weddings on the farm. The land joined them all together.

This sentiment encouraged Marily and Bob to purchase the family farm in 2005 from Marily’s mom who didn’t feel she could keep up with the farm after Marily’s father passed in 2001. 

But Caddy began to notice changes that concerned her. 

“One spring I turned the corner to find one of my favorite hillsides of big bluestem was plowed up into corn,” says Caddy, explaining that her love of the Loess Hills and her family land moved her to prioritize land stewardship.

Caddy connected with conservationists at the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and the Iowa Native Plant Society. She removed the property’s cedar trees when she learned they displace plants that better stabilize the soil. She discovered that part of her family land was remnant prairie. She hired a contractor to hand-harvest remnant prairie seed. This ensured that when she restored two crop fields to their historic tallgrass splendor, they grew local ecotypes — plants adapted to a specific geographic environment. 

Caddy describes the joy of learning to identify prairie plants and harvest seeds, restoring oak savanna and watching the animals that enjoy these landscapes return.

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“Watching birds and lizards and insects and wood ducks brings me joy,” says Caddy. “It’s just amazing to hear a cacophony of beautiful, subtle nature sounds.” 

As time passed, Caddy looked for ways to protect her family land and the work she had done to restore it. Her commitment was bolstered by the memory of her favorite hill of big bluestem plowed under.

Caddy says seeing that hillside was the moment she realized that “things were going the wrong way.” 

Marily and Bob approached INHF, wanting to secure their land’s future with a conservation easement. Marily was delighted to sign the INHF-held conservation easement on her birthday. With this decision, she and Bob assured themselves that their 53 acres would be around in its natural state for their four grandchildren. From their remnant and restored prairie to the oak savanna landscape, the Caddy-Anderson legacy was guaranteed to survive for future generations, which is exactly what Marily felt she needed to ensure. 

“The conservation easement really is the future,” Caddy says of the couple’s decision. “[The land] will be there in perpetuity for the next generations.”

Conservation, the buzz of insects and hills covered in big bluestem is Caddy’s dream, but not every conservation easement is the same. Easement holders like INHF are careful to tailor every conservation easement to the landowner’s priorities, the land’s needs, and vision for the future during negotiations. Conservation easements provide necessary security for landowners by protecting the conservation value and natural resources present on the land. Depending on the landowner, the priority could be agricultural use, native habitat or a mixture of both.

“The Caddys have cared for this land by removing invasive species, coordinating prescribed fire and carefully planting local ecotype prairie in previously row cropped fields,” Erin Van Waus, INHF Conservation Easement Director, said of the property. “The conservation easement gives them peace of mind that their decades of hard work will be protected forever.”

But protection isn’t just physical; it’s also emotional. For people like Caddy, the easement provides reassurance that the legacy of family farms will be protected, just like the landscape.

In the future, Bob and Marily’s youngest son, Alister, intends to take over management of the farm. He’ll work alongside INHF, who will make annual visits working in cooperation with the Caddy family to ensure the easement is honored. Until then, Marily continues to work on the conservation of their family land and remains hopeful for the future of Iowa and the Loess Hills.

“You can say it’s nostalgia, Americana, a fantasy,” says Caddy, “but the fact is [family land] is a treasure and if you lose it, you lose it forever. If you have the opportunity, make it a priority to keep the farm in the family.”