Reynolds garners award honoring mentor

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — The legacy of Mike Plumer’s soil conservation work continues to live on through those he taught.

One of his “students,” Kris Reynolds, was the recipient of the Illinois Corn Growers Association Mike Plumer Environmental Award at the group’s annual meeting Nov. 26.

Reynolds, American Farmland Trust Midwest director, is a fifth-generation corn and soybean farmer in Nokomis, who began a soil health journey on his own family farm in 2013 by incorporating cover crops, no-till and nutrient management practices.

Since 2017, Reynolds has managed Midwest programs that promote sound farming practices, help keep farmers on the land and protect farmland at AFT.

Among the sound farming practices are activities that improve water quality, soil health, enhance nutrient efficiency, utilize conservation cropping systems and combat climate change.

“As an example of his work, Illinois can thank Reynolds for bringing the Fall Covers for Spring Savings to the state and advocating for the program’s annual funding. He coordinates with stakeholders to keep the program in the budget and increases funding and acre availability yearly,” according to ICGA.

This popular cover crop program runs out of available acres each year within hours of opening availability to participate. What began in 2020 as a 50,000-acre target is now expanded to 190,000 acres in 2025, thanks in part to Reynolds’ support.

Reynolds has a career full of this transformative work, first as a cover crop specialist with the Illinois Council on Best Management Practices and later as a resource conservationist with the Montgomery County Soil and Water Conservation District.

He is a certified crop adviser with the American Society of Agronomy and holds a specialty certification as a 4R nutrient management specialist and sustainability specialist. Reynolds holds a bachelor’s degree in agronomy and ag business from Illinois State University.

Honored, Humbled

“When I got the phone call that I’d received the award, it’s such an honor to receive this and I was just kind of humbled by it. Mike was one of the first guys that I learned about cover crops from,” Reynolds said.

“Back in 2014, 2015, I was working with the Soil and Water Conservation District and at that time we had a budget impasse and the districts were affected by that. I was doing some work with the Illinois Council on Best Management Practices and Mike was a part of that program.

“Mike wasn’t new to it, he hadn’t just started it, he’d been doing it for a long time and learning from him was exciting. I started participating in the Advanced Soil Health Training Program. Mike put on some programs in southern Illinois as part of that training.

“It was just really an honor to get an award with his name on it. It means a lot to me personally and also professionally.”

Reynolds hopes to carry on Plumer’s legacy through his work at AFT.

“We’ve been very fortunate to bring awesome technical assistance providers onto our team. We have a conservation agronomist. We have a soil health specialist and continue to expand that network,” Reynolds said.

“There are more incentive programs out there today than I think there have ever been in my time in conservation, but none of that means anything unless you have somebody that you can go to for advice and you have a trusted adviser.

“None of these incentives mean anything unless we can make sure that farmers are successful in adopting these practices, and we want to make sure that they want to keep doing them year after year.”

AFT Work

AFT has evolved over the years, but has never changed its mission.

“American Farmland Trust takes a holistic look at agriculture. We focus on the land itself, the practices on the land, and also the people on the land,” Reynolds said.

“When I started eight years ago, we were primarily focused on our Midwest region. Our programming was pretty much taking place in Illinois and we were focused on sound farming practices as part of AFT’s mission. We were working in some priority watersheds, working with the Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy.

“That work continues to grow. We just kicked off a producer-led watershed program this year where we got some additional funding through a NRCS Regional Conservation Partnership Program for several pilot watersheds in Illinois.”

AFT’s efforts have also grown significantly in the farmland protection space.

“Really a big foundation of the organization is keeping ag lands in ag lands. When ‘Farms Under Threat’ came out, our big research project looking at farmland loss, we weren’t doing much. We weren’t doing anything in the Midwest to speak of as a regional program,” Reynolds said.

“So, our current president, John Piotti, came to us and said, ‘We’re losing a lot of farmland in the Midwest. Why aren’t we doing any programming here?’

“That has led to a lot of new programming in the Midwest. It’s focused on working with the National Resources Conservation Service promoting their ag land easement program which protects ag lands. The other part of that is really focused on the policy side, trying to get some state farmland protection programs established.”

About 30 states currently have farmland protection programs, but few are in Midwest states.

“We’re also advocating for those programs. Currently in Wisconsin we’re trying to get the funding restored for that program that is on the books,” Reynolds said.

“In Indiana and Illinois, we’re trying to get State Purchase of Agricultural Conservation Easement programs established. In Missouri we’ve just started working to promote the Agricultural Land Easements with NRCS.

“We’re doing a lot of work in that space. I think what we have done as a region is also tied in the practices side of things to protecting farmland.

“It’s great if we can keep ag lands in ag lands and keep farming them. That allows us to keep farmers on the land, but also provides access to a next generation of farmers.

“We also can talk about the practices side of things and focus on soil health practices. If we’re going to keep it in ag land, let’s do the best we can and have the greatest environmental benefits we possibly can.”