Cass County woman earns state 2025 Community Conservationist award

A Cass County woman was selected as the state’s 2025 Community Conservationist by the Minnesota Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts.

Kathy Wagner of Wabedo Township has done decades of conservation work, both on her own property and throughout Cass County, a news release stated.

Wagner was first chosen by the Area 8 panel — representing the Beltrami, Cass, Clearwater, Crow Wing, Hubbard, Itasca, Koochiching, Lake of the Woods and Wadena SWCDs — before being selected from eight finalists statewide for the top honor.

She began by restoring the shoreline on her own land where her parents once ran Wolf Lodge Resort. Like many lakeshore properties of the past, its manicured turf made the shoreline prone to erosion.

Wagner partnered with the Cass SWCD to install a sustainable shoreline restoration project that included coir logs, silt fencing, native vegetation, live stakes and seed mixes. Within a year, the restored shoreline was thriving and improving water quality, strengthening habitat, and serving as a model for others.

Her stewardship extends to her organic blueberry patch, where she maintains sustainable practices, and to the many opportunities she creates for neighbors and residents to learn about conservation.

Wagner has also served in a variety of community positions. She served for five years on the Wabedo Township Planning Commission to support sustainable shoreline policies.

She also holds, or has held, multiple leadership roles, including:

• President of the Wabedo, Little Boy, Cooper, and Rice Lake Association, serving 15 years on the board and six as president. 
• Board member of the Association of Cass County Lakes since 2016 and president since 2019. 
• Member of the Cass County Health, Human, and Veteran Services Advisory Committee since 2018. 

Under her leadership at the Association of Cass County Lakes, 42 aquatic invasive species tool stations for boaters have been installed across the county.

She’s also spent 15 years volunteering with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to monitor water quality in the Boy River system, and worked with the DNR and Cass County Soil and Water to secure landowner permissions for culvert upgrades at Stony Creek. These culverts helped to reduce sediment and phosphorous loads to area waters.