After six years with Black Swamp Conservancy, Rob Krain took on the role of executive director at the relatively tender age of 33, making him the youngest executive director in 16 years. We spoke with Krain about the conservancy’s mission to protect agricultural land and natural areas.
What made you choose environmentalism as a career?
It’s a culmination of a lot of things that started [when I was a] kid who ran around in the woods and the marshes. While I was in college, I did a lot of traveling and camping and got to experience a lot of our national parks and national forests. It was those formative experiences that really impressed upon me the importance of protecting land and drove me into this direction.
Did your parents own a lot of land growing up?
No. Actually, I grew up on the Chesapeake Bay, in the suburbs [laughs]. But I always had a lot of access to open areas. I spent a lot of my youth crabbing and catching frogs and turtles, that sort of thing.
What would you say to the next generation, who may not think about the importance of preserving land?
I’d like to think that’s not the case. We’re certainly moving in a direction of a more digital society and I do fear that kids today don’t necessarily get the same breadth of outdoor experiences that I may have had. But I’m really encouraged by a lot of the kids I do encounter. We did a couple of workshops at the Boys and Girls Club in Toledo last summer and for the Boy Scouts and to see those kids very engaged was a great experience. We had a young boy ask us "If you learn GPS, what sort of job can you get working with the environment?"
Do you think technology in your line of work negatively affects the environment — as far as cell phone towers going up everywhere, etc.?
It’s a two-sided coin. There are things that we do in our line of work that are enhanced by technology. The GPS units and the GIS mapping systems are phenomenal and the access we have to real estate records are great. That’s an organization and a movement that we don’t oppose — the advancement of technology. We recognize that cell phone towers and power lines need to go up. We’re hoping to set aside the best of our remaining natural resources…and hope there is comprehensive planning to condition those things in the areas where they’re most appropriate.
How does Black Swamp actually protect land; what’s the process?
There's a couple different ways we go about doing this, but our real focus is on private land conservation. We accomplish that through conservation agreements — that is a legally-binding agreement between our organization and the land owners to protect what we call conservation values on a property. Essentially, we're restricting future land uses. A landowner still owns their property; they still have the right sell it. They still have a right to give it to their kids. They retain all of the rights that they don't specifically give up in our agreement. But the agreements are written to make sure that woods stay woods and wet lands stay wet lands, farms stay farms.
Where do you see Black Swamp five years from now? What are your goals for the organization?
Our primary mission is preserving natural areas and agricultural lands, and there is much yet to be done in this regard. Five years from now, I expect that we will have protected more than 20,000 acres of land — likely far more than that. A better question may be "Where do you see the Conservancy in 100 years?" We are in a unique business, in that our work is based on the concept of perpetuity. Everything that we do is for the benefit of future generations.