Taking over the reins

After Lance Chisholm retired a few days ago, Destiny McDonald has taken over the reins as the new easement coordinator at Morrison Soil & Water Conservation District (SWCD).

While she is thrilled about the opportunity, two things are for sure. Chisholm is already deeply missed and McDonald knows she has some pretty large shoes to fill, she said.

Even so, both Chisholm and District Manager Shannon Wettstein are confident McDonald will do just great.

“I am excited about Destiny being selected as my replacement as easement coordinator at Morrison SWCD. She brings a wealth of knowledge and eagerness to the SWCD team. She always chooses the hard right way of work as opposed to the easy wrong way of work. She is an amazing environmental professional who does what is best for landowners and the environment,” Chisholm said.

Although McDonald is new to the position, she’s no stranger to those working at SWCD. Prior to stepping into her new role as easement coordinator, she worked as a Pheasants Forever private lands biologist since January 2022 out of the USDA Service Center, which is at the same location as SWCD. As such, she assisted the chapters in Crow Wing and Morrison counties, Wettstein said.

“Destiny works hard for landowners, answering questions, providing solutions and finding answers to help them reach their goals. She will be a great addition to our office because of her technical knowledge, passion for her work and the case she gives the customers she is working with,” Wettstein said.

Looking back to when she first started working out of the USDA office, McDonald said she came in not knowing what to expect, as well as not knowing a lot about easements in general. However, working closely with Chisholm for the last two years changed that. There is also a lot more to the easement process than people may expect.

“Most of our easements take longer than a year to complete, so that’s a lot of steps in the interim to really get a handle on,” she said.

Since McDonald started working at the USDA Service Center, she estimates she has done about 60 easements.

The love for nature and environmental conservation has been a passion of McDonald for a long time. In fact, she knew she wanted to go into the field of natural resources early on in her life. It was either that or become a photographer for National Geographic or a wolf biologist, she said.

However, as she was completing post secondary classes in general subjects through her high school, McDonald said she began to question whether working in natural resources was really practical.

Once she graduated from Brainerd High School in 2013, she started working in a call center and figured she didn’t need to further her education at that point. It also gave her time to think about what she really wanted to do.

“Then, I went back to school for natural resources,” she said.

McDonald completed her associate of applied sciences degree at Central Lakes College in Brainerd in 2019. She also received certificates in wildlife tourism, geographic information system (GIS) and forestry.

As the pandemic limited her options of schools to attend, McDonald attended an online accelerated program through Unity College in Maine. She graduated in 2021 with a bachelor’s degree in wildlife conservation.

While McDonald enjoys all aspects of working with landowners, her favorite part is hearing their stories.

“I really like hearing the history of the land and their motivations behind wanting to protect it, getting to know them, hearing about their families and their family’s interest in the land, as well,” she said.

When it comes to creating easements and conservation, McDonald said she enjoys the purpose of it and the long-term effect it has on land.

“I like the idea that the landscape is going to stay pretty much the way that it is forever. Because of all the easements that Lance completed and all of the easements I’ll be working on in the future, I think it will keep the rural character of the landscape,” McDonald said. “I like that agriculture can continue, because I think that’s a big part of our culture as well as livelihood in the U.S., as well as here in Morrison County.”

When McDonald isn’t working, she enjoys spending time with her husband, Jacob and their daughter, Violet. The family’s Chesapeake Bay mix, Gracie and three cats, Teddy, Felix and Oliver also enrich family life with their presence.

McDonald also likes to go camping, kayaking, hiking, cosplay dressup and more.

Landowners who are interested in learning more about the easement process and in getting started may contact McDonald by emailing destiny.mcdon ald@morrisonswcd.org or calling (320) 631-3558.