Dan Sanderson is the recipient of the 2025 Illinois Leopold Conservation Award.
The award honors farmers and forestland owners who go above and beyond in the management of soil health, water quality, and wildlife habitat on working land.
Dan Sanderson, a farmer from Clare in DeKalb County, was presented with the award at the Illinois Farm Progress Days on Aug. 28. He receives $10,000 for being selected.
Sand County Foundation and national sponsor American Farmland Trust will present Leopold Conservation Awards to landowners in 28 states this year. In Illinois the award is presented annually with IL Corn and Illinois Soybean Association.
As a young farmer in the 1980s he noticed land enrolled in a federal conservation program produced environmental benefits of rejuvenated soils and reestablished pollinator habitat.
Since then, he’s voluntarily integrated regenerative practices of rotational grazing, reduced pesticide use, minimal tillage, and diverse cover cropping across his family’s 3,200 acres in DeKalb County, and especially at his 160-acre homestead named Pasture Grazed Regenerative Farm.
According to a news release, Dan credits a Soil Health Academy workshop in 2017 with transforming the way he farms. He now closely observes how each cover crop responds to different soil types, moisture conditions, and grazing pressure, and adjusts as needed to optimize soil health and productivity.