Hutchinson conservationist Virgil Voigt honored for lifetime of work improving natural resources

Virgil Voigt grew up on a central Minnesota farm surrounded by nature.

"My dad was a self-made naturalist; we'd sit at the supper table and he always had something to say about nature," said Voigt, 74, a retired Hutchinson veterinarian. "So I became very interested in the natural world."

That interest became a passion.

Voigt is a lifelong conservationist, hunter and a legendary leader in the Hutchinson area who has worked tirelessly to improve Minnesota's natural resources. He was a founding member of the McLeod County chapter of Pheasants Forever (PF), formed in 1983, only a year after the now-national group was launched in St. Paul.

Since then, his chapter has raised $5 million to acquire, restore and improve 3,000 acres of wildlife habitat in McLeod County now open to the public — making it one of the most successful chapters in the nation. He's been president of the chapter, and of the local Ducks Unlimited chapter, and of the Gopher Campfire Conservation Club, one of the oldest conservation groups in the nation. That club has helped more than 5,000 youths build bluebird houses over the years.

He's also been a key player on many other groups, including the local Wildlife Habitat Conservation Society.

Voigt converted his 160-acre farm, where he grew up and developed his devotion to nature, into a wildlife mecca with prairie grasses and restored wetlands dominating the landscape. The land is special.

Voigt lives with his wife, Kay, in Hutchinson, but keeps a small "man cave" house at the farmstead, where he hunts, watches wildlife or just relaxes.

"I saw 13 trumpeter swans, 25 Canada geese and that many mallards the other day," he said. "We have had sandhill cranes nesting there, and bald eagles. The wildlife doesn't show up overnight; it took a long time to learn this is a good place to hang out."

Voigt was honored last month when the state Department of Natural Resources and PF dedicated a 112-acre addition to a local wildlife management area in his name. The Virgil C. Voigt Tract, part of the 192-acre Rich Valley Wildlife Management Area, includes woods and restored grasslands and wetlands.

"It's one of the greatest things to ever happen to me in my life," he said of the dedication. "And it will be a lasting legacy.

"It's a lot better than a gravestone," he quipped.

"He did it because he cared," said Mark Smith of Glencoe, a longtime friend and fellow PF chapter member. "He knows it's the right thing to do."

Added Smith: "I think he's a disappearing breed. I don't see young people coming up to take his place."

Said Chad Bloom, PF's southern Minnesota regional representative: "McLeod County sets the bar on what our chapters should aim to achieve, and Virgil is a large part of that success. He's terrific at bringing people together for a common cause."

Voigt was a charter member of Pheasants Forever.

"I saw in PF a chance to possibly preserve some of the natural environment and get people more involved in conservation and environmental policies," he said.

"We're trying to preserve the environment not only for pheasants, but for all wildlife, and for humans to enjoy," he said.

Voigt is distraught over the move to more intensive farming.

"The area here has totally changed," he said. "There used to be dairy farmers here. Now there's no pastures, no fence lines, nothing but corn and soybeans. It doesn't make me feel very good. But at least we are preserving a small amount of our heritage.

"We need farm policies that are good for conservation and food production; we need both," he said.

He's concerned that too many young people aren't active in conservation and that too few are becoming hunters — who have long led the conservation charge.

He was a founder of the Gopher Campfire group's Youth Conservation Day, held each spring to educate youngsters about the outdoors.

In the 1970s, with help from the Minnesota Waterfowl Association, Voigt stopped plans to drain a nearby shallow lake — now a public wetland where duck hunters found good action on the opener.

"That would have long been gone," he said, without the fight. "I don't think a single person hunting there on opening day had any idea why they even had a place to hunt."

Voigt said conservation efforts should be driven by a relatively simple concept: "To just leave this world a little better than we found it."

Doug Smith • doug.smith@startribune.com