If the names “Don and Lorie Meier” do not ring a bell immediately, their legacy of work almost certainly will. They produced the hit television series, Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, which aired from 1963 until 1987.
While Don served as the creative visionary for the series, his wife Lorie ran the business end, handling lawyers, bankers, insurance companies, ad agencies, and all bookkeeping related to the production. Wild Kingdom took its viewers to 47 different countries to experience wildlife and wild places. In its peak years, 34 million Americans watched the show each Sunday on 224 US TV stations. Don, a Nebraska native, stated “conservation was the main issue throughout all the episodes.” In 1971, the Meiers formed a private foundation with the goal of supporting education, animal and wildlife preservation, and conservation.
Lorie and Don passed away in 2018 and 2019 respectively. They are survived by nieces and nephews, many of whom call Nebraska home. Today, those family members are focused on keeping their aunt and uncle’s legacy alive through grants from the foundation that fund work that would have undoubtedly excited Don and Lorie. In the summer of 2023, Audubon Great Plains announced that the Iain Nicolson Audubon Center at Rowe Sanctuary had received a grant from The Donald and Lorena Meier Foundation to establish the Donald and Lorena Meier Native Plants Restoration Program.
The Native Plants Restoration Program is supplying native plants for urban landscapes and conservation restoration – ensuring beautiful habitat for birds and wildlife to enjoy for generations to come.
Rowe Sanctuary has designed and installed native playscapes and gardens at Bright Futures of Kearney, The Kenesaw United Childcare, and Stick Creek Kids Day Care in Woodriver. The Donald and Lorena Meier Native Plants Restoration Program has expanded this work to provide native local ecotype plants for prairie and wetland restorations. Amanda Hegg, Sr. Conservation Associate at Rowe, has also begun efforts to lower financial barriers surrounding the use of native plants in home landscaping for residents in central Nebraska by partnering with Habitat for Humanity and the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum. Knowing that cost represents just one barrier, Hegg also developed a resource titled “Guide to Native Plant Landscaping in Central Nebraska” that can be found online at rowe.audubon.org/birds/plants-birds. “Resources like this are so important if we expect to inspire conservation action in our communities” said Hegg.
A growing number of the seeds utilized for these installations are being harvested by Rowe staff and volunteers from Audubon’s own 2,950 acres under conservation. Part of the funding received from the foundation will be used to construct a greenhouse on Rowe Sanctuary which will also be named for Don and Lorie.
Foundation representative and Kearney resident Steve Homan is happy to see Don and Lorie’s name and legacy carried on through the program and the greenhouse. “Kearney is already known as the Sandhill Crane capital of the world,” Homan said, “but I hope people come to know Kearney as a bird-friendly community overall – not just along the Platte River, but in our yards, parks, and other greenspaces too.”
This program will expand on Audubon’s Urban Woods and Prairies Program in North Dakota, which has restored and replanted nearly 30 sites across the cities of Fargo, Moorhead, Bismarck, Grand Forks, and Minot, totaling over 1,000 acres.
