In memoriam: Friend of the river Don Wyse
FMR staff worked closely with Forever Green leader Don Wyse (pictured on the right).
Dr. Don Wyse, a pillar of the sustainable agriculture movement and a true friend of the Mississippi River, passed away unexpectedly on July 2. His death leaves a significant hole in our community, but he also leaves behind a vision for a better world that will inspire us for years to come.
Over a career that spanned more than five decades — first as a pioneering plant scientist and University of Minnesota faculty member, later as a larger-than-life evangelist for the movement — Don marshaled his seemingly boundless energy, intelligence and wit to map a path toward a more just and prosperous farm economy.
Along the way he founded or co-founded a vital network of institutions including the Forever Green Initiative, the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture, and the Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships. He also supported a veritable army of mentees, students and devoted colleagues.
Don’s ideas are at the core of FMR’s approach to agricultural ecosystems, where we strive to advance continuous living cover cropping systems that allow conservation and rural resilience to thrive side-by-side. In service of these goals, FMR worked alongside Don and his university colleagues to launch the Forever Green Partnership in 2020, but our relationship began well before then. That’s the way things went with Don: His imagination and clarity of purpose roped you in, and before you knew it you had made his vision your own; signing on the dotted line was just a formality.
Our longtime friend and Forever Green Co-Director Nick Jordan said it well in an interview with MPR News after Don's death: “There is a whole river of effort, so to speak, that is flowing strongly … And ultimately, our expression of gratitude and respect and love for Don is to continue to support and nourish that network of people."
All who met Don — whether at a field tour or a legislative hearing, over a draft Kernza beer or five coffees-deep at a strategy meeting — felt that here was a person with big, pragmatic ideas and the force of will to accomplish them.
He gave us a job to do. We plan to see it done.