All Florida Executive Director Travis Thompson Teaching Fourth-Graders About Conservation
by REBEKAH PIERCE
When Aldo Leopold wrote about land management and conservation in his book, “A Sand County Almanac,” published more than 75 years ago, he likely didn’t particularly have Central Florida fourth-graders in mind as his target audience.
And while his book, which has sold more than 2 million copies, was admittedly written with adults in mind, the tenets of his writing are being brought to life in full color for students in Polk County this month.
“The five tools of wildlife management [from Leopold],” Travis Thompson says, “are the plow, cow, axe, match, and gun. The plow being row crops, the cow being cattle, the axe being timber, the match being prescribed fire, and the gun being hunting or consumptive use.”
All of these elements except fire will be covered in the brand-new conservation booth at this year’s Agri-Fest, which runs March 3-7 and March 10-14.
Thompson is the executive director of All Florida, a nonprofit organization dedicated to “protecting the wild places” of the Sunshine State. This year, he’s spearheading an effort to introduce conservation to grade school students at the 36th annual Agri-Fest, which welcomes more than 4,800 students from 200 classrooms.
The event involves rotating students through three of six separate stations that focus on Beef, Small Farms, Phosphate, Horticulture, Citrus, and Conservation. The last is a new addition for 2025.
“Over the years, we have integrated state classroom grade level standards and vocabulary terms into station lessons, thereby reinforcing terms and lessons that they are learning in their fourth-grade year,” says Carole McKenzie, executive director for the Polk County Farm Bureau.
While agriculture and environmental conservation aren’t necessarily two concepts that many people would assume blend well together, Thompson insists it’s a very natural relationship.
“Ag is one of the premier tools in conservation,” he explains. “The other booths are all components of conservation. They may not talk directly in the ranching booth about conservation, but cows keep Florida green. There are other areas utilized for growing food but also traveled by wildlife and used as corridors. [Everything] ties together and is touched on by all the booths.”
Thompson hopes to bring to life the elements of conservation made famous by Leopold through a variety of hands-on activities. A local artist has created a special mural that students will be able to help color in, which will highlight some of the more collaborative efforts required for the conservation movement. This, according to Thompson, is a main goal of the conservation booth at Agri-Fest. The organizers want to present the “tapestry of conservation that occurs, all the things that cause it to happen, from fishing to hunting to ranching or farming, everything working together is what keeps Florida wild.”
According to Thompson, there will also be a 20-foot-by-20-foot map of Florida’s wild areas cut into a life-size puzzle for students to piece together. Again, the goal of this demonstration is to showcase the need for all people, and all industries, to come together to support conservation.
“It will exhibit the importance of everything talked about in all the booths, not just ours, and how conservation is an underlying concept of all of it,” Thompson says. There will also be substations where students can physically touch things like taxidermy, alligator skin, and skulls, and learn more about hunting and fishing on agricultural lands.
This, McKenzie says, is truly the hallmark of the Agri-Fest event in all of its manifestations throughout the years.
“Students at this age group need more than just verbal lessons, they need to be engaged with their mind and their hands.”
Agri-Fest owes its success to the efforts of dozens of volunteers, along with local and regional sponsors including the Florida’s Natural Growers Foundation and The Mosaic Company, among others. Much like Leopold’s timeless message, this event is a reminder that conservation isn’t an isolated act, but instead, a cooperative endeavor.
Although this year is the first that will bring conservation to the forefront of Agri-Fest, both McKenzie and Thompson are optimistic about the role it will play in the future. “Population growth and changing landscapes have influenced what students see (or do not see as much anymore, e.g., orange groves) on their way to school each day,” says McKenzie. “We know that farmers and ranchers are the ultimate stewards of the land. It’s important now more than ever to introduce conservation efforts to the young minds of our future citizen generations.”
Adds Thompson, “We hope this is the first of many years.”