David Haenke

David Haenke is the Executive Director and the primary forest manager of Alford Forest, a 3200-acre forest owned by Ozark Regional Land Trust. David moved to the  Missouri Ozarks in 1971 to work in ecological forest management and conservation.  He grew up in Michigan, and graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in English Education, and subsequently he taught high school English. David Haenke conceptualized OACC in 1977 at New Life Farm, a rural alternative technology demonstration project run by Ted Landers in Drury, Missouri. Haenke went on to establish the Bioregional Project in 1982, under the nonprofit Ozark Resource Center based in nearby Brixey, and coordinated the first North American Bioregional Congress (NABC) in 1984 near Excelsior Springs, Missouri. David is the author of Ecological Politics and Bioregionalism, 1984.