Tony Dean Memorial: 2000 Acres of Open Land

A fund drive is underway to establish Tony Dean's Acres, a 2000-acre memorial to the renowned South Dakota outdoorsman and conservation advocate who died last October. The memorial fund has raised over $26K so far; they'll need about eight times that to move the project forward.

In the fundraising e-mail Mr. Powers posted Monday, Dean's wife Dar says, "Tony always wanted the average person to be able to enjoy the great outdoors. We hope the people who enjoyed Tony’s shows and writing will step up and enable us to do this for him.”

What more fitting memorial could we create for Tony Dean? A statue serves to glorify one person. Tony Dean's Acres will raise up all people and offer them more access to the glory of nature.

Find out more and make a donation at the South Dakota Parks and Wildlife Foundation website.

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Political note: The memorial organizers say they haven't picked out a site yet, though they envision getting some mixed wetlands/grasslands in central South Dakota. I can't help wondering: if Lake County had a suitable stretch of wildlife habitat for the memorial and the planners came a-calling, would Linda Hilde oppose the plan, saying a growing tax base is more important than providing spaces where the average person can enjoy the great outdoors?