Conservation outreach professionals are tasked with the challenge of not only clearly explaining conservation programs but also personally connecting with farmers. This combination of technical skills and personal communication skills is rare, since the skills are seldom taught in school and professional development opportunities are uncommon or unsupported.
The National Wildlife Federation designed a training specifically for conservation outreach professionals to help support their outreach and messaging efforts—Grow More.
A previous blog post goes into what Grow More is and why it is especially relevant for the current time.
It is easy to explain how useful the Grow More program is, but we sat down with a conservation outreach professional who actually participated in the program to get their insights on impact. Jake Swafford is a programs manager with Pheasants Forever, and has been with the organization for 14 years.
Jake has a background working with landowners to encourage conservation practices and now oversees several field biologists that consistently work with landowners to get conservation programs on the ground.
Jake attended a Grow More Program training in 2024 and has since worked to bring the training to other staff throughout Pheasants Forever. Below is a summary of the interview.
What do you like about Grow More?
Jake: I liked getting to see the different students or participants in the training coming in from different backgrounds and experience levels and parts of the conservation field. It was great to get to see that we all had similar challenges in reaching landowners with our messaging and getting folks to the table.
I think the content within Grow More did a great job at either applying to or being adaptable to all of those different situations and backgrounds, so I really do think Grow More is something that can be beneficial for everybody that’s in the private lands work; anybody who is trying to encourage landowners to implement conservation practices.
Grow More gave you the tools to better reach those landowners and better communicate what you’re trying to get across—I think that was the biggest thing for me. I just really enjoyed the setup, the structure, and the model of Grow More.
How has the Grow More Program influenced your work?
Jake: I don’t do as much of the outreach directly with landowners anymore, but Grow More has really influenced the way we build resources and trainings. For me, Grow More highlighted the need to help grow and teach outreach skills to those folks entering the workplace and those that are trying to gain experience.
The skills and topics covered in Grow More are not necessarily things that folks just naturally know or have. This training helps folks better communicate with audiences. This training provides folks with the tools they need to better communicate how they talk about a practice and also helps them think about the way they title and advertise workshops.
All of those things really impact who comes to trainings, how many people come to trainings, the different groups that are reached by different messages—Grow More educates folks on those things.
In my current position, attending Grow More has impacted how I think about advertising training opportunities to our staff, too. So, a lot of the lessons in Grow More are not just about talking to landowners, but for how we market things to the audience that we’re trying to reach, whether that’s landowners or other professionals.
I’m just trying to think about ways that I can be intentional with the language that we’re using and the way we’re communicating the content. I think that the versatility of the Grow More materials has allowed for it to be more accessible to a lot of folks.
As we build out our own training program for new staff, I am thinking about the lessons learned through Grow More and that has really influenced what we include in our own training. I see a big need for the kinds of skills taught in Grow More to be highlighted through some of the training courses we are creating.
Attending Grow More helps you realize it’s not just you struggling with outreach. It’s not just a problem that you have, or that your peers at your organization have. It’s a need that we have all across the conservation field, and if folks are in need of that training, then we want to make sure that they’re getting that so we can continue to reach as many landowners as possible.
What would you say to someone thinking about attending a Grow More training?
Jake: Oh, I’d absolutely encourage folks to attend to Grow More training. I think whether you’re an early career biologist, somebody new to the field, or somebody who’s been doing it for 10 plus years, you’re going to learn something new. This program will either teach you vital skills to be successful in your position, or it will be a nice refresher for things that you may have forgotten or overlooked or taken for granted.
Grow More will make you a better private lands biologist or, in my case, a trainer of private lands biologists. I encourage everybody to take Grow More. It’s a great environment. The instructors are great. The instructors did a great job making it a nice, casual environment. Grow More didn’t feel like a lot of the other trainings that I go to, in a good way.
I really enjoyed getting to meet the folks from different sectors, different parts of the conservation world, and getting to talk to them about what their roles are, what we have in common, and how we can continue working together. All in all, Grow More is a great training. There are lots of opportunities to take Grow More all across the country, and at different times of year, so just find a training time and locations that works for you and…Go!
