Royce Hanson’ s speech at the dedication of the Royce hanson Conservation park, November 1, 2025
When I was a boy, after school each day when chores were done, I took my dogs for a walk in the woods. In old age, often have I returned to the woods and to the canopied streams of parks where, as in the words of the psalm, they“ restoreth my soul.” It is here that some of the greatest joys of my life are recalled— among them the walks with Mary, my children and grandchildren, introducing them to the natural world’ s beauty and wonder.
Recently I was asked when I became interested in conservation and in agriculture, with which it is entwined. I found I could not answer because it was like asking when I learned to breathe. I am a conservationist because I am human, one of earth’ s dominant species, and of moral necessity we are its stewards. In Roman law, the doctrine of public trust held that each generation holds common lands and resources in trust, under duty to pass them on to the next generation as good or better than we received them.
That is why it has been so important to this county to join planning for a growing population with responsibility to conserve the best of our natural and cultural resources in a system of public parks and the working landscape of the Agricultural Reserve, which conserved private lands for a public purpose.
This park, like others, was conceived to conserve a valuable resource for this and future generations. It is part of the public trust in which this park and the lands of the Agricultural Reserve that overlap and surround it are held for future generations to enjoy, to husband, to savor, and be inspired. As visitors walk and ride its trails they will hear its birdsong and wind in the trees, whispering tales of the natives who inhabited this land, the slaves who tilled it, the Union soldiers who bivouacked here to fight for their emancipation, and the historic farms and families of the Reserve. It will also be a place for discovery of ecology and history, and to observe the evolution of farming in the Reserve.
Forty-five years ago when the Council approved the plan for the Agricultural Reserve, we were not certain the plan would work. That it has is not a miracle. It is the result of land owners and builders who created a market for transferable development rights; to staff at Park and Planning, the County Council, and in the Executive branch, who advised planning commissions, councils, and executives, administered the rules, and solved problems; the councils and executives that have, with a few wobbles, supported it; and most of all, to the dedication and advocacy of citizens who live here— organized and militant— and have protected it, particularly against good things proposed for the wrong place.
Some people are remembered for what they built. I am grateful to be, among many others, remembered for what we left alone.