Honoring Landowner Kenny Baum
Fourteen years ago, when I began working with the Kansas Land Trust, I met Kenny Baum. He was the landowner of two KLT-protected lands, the Blair Woodlands and Mission Valley. When I first monitored the Blair Woodlands in Johnson County, Kenny made sure to walk the woodlands with me emphasizing the importance of this special habitat along the Blue River. Kenny pointed out the sentinel oak trees serving as mother trees to the scenic landscape. Kenny was a generous friend of the KLT. With sadness, we learn of his recent passing. Kenny left conservation legacies throughout Kansas for future generations.
Jerry Jost, Former Executive Director
November 2021
Mission Valley
Fin and Feather
According to landowner Kenny Baum, the permanently protected Mission Valley Fin and Feather property is one of the most interesting and beautiful places in Miami County.
"The land has one of the highest points in Miami county, where you can look to south with a view as far as the eye can see," says Baum. "Then it goes down to the Wea Creek, which is a gorgeous area covered with wood and filled with wildlife."
Named after a hunting and fishing club that used to operate on the land, the 800-acre Mission Valley Fin and Feather property (pictured above) has been protected by the Kansas Land Trust since 2001. Situated in the path of development extending southward from Kansas City, this protected land includes 200 acres of forest that provide a riparian buffer for South Wea Creek, approximately 20 acres of native prairie that contain the federally threatened Mead's Milkweed, and 580 acres of farmland.
Kenny, a horse enthusiast with a life-long passion for nature, first invested in this piece of land in 1984, when he and group of fellow members from Mission Valley Hunt Club purchased the land as a place to do English-style fox and coyote hunts on horseback. The decision to permanently protect the land in 2001 was simple.
"We wanted to preserve it because is was so unbelievably beautiful," Kenny said. "We loved riding on it and we wanted to keep riding on it."
At the age of 90, Kenny no longer participates in hunts in the protected woodlands at the Mission Valley Fin and Feather property, but the Mission Valley Hunt club is still active there and Kenny visits the land regularly.
Kenny, who also owns KLT's 58-acre Blair easement located along the Blue River in Johnson County, said that his appreciation for the outdoors started in the 5th grade, when he was a student at the Bryant School in Kansas City, Missouri.
"My teacher, Ms. Brown, who I loved, would take the whole class out on trail walks," said Kenny. "We went as far as what is now the Kansas City Country Club, walking from the Bryant School at 57th and Wornall Road. And with that, came a very great interest in nature."
A big thanks to Ms. Brown for introducing Kenny Baum to the wonders of natural spaces, and to Kenny for preserving beautiful and important natural places in Miami and Johnson counties!