The Ellis County Conservation District has selected Daniel and Gwen Hodges for the 2024 Conservation Windbreak award.
Daniel grew up in Horton, Kansas, and went to college in Manhattan. Daniel met Gwen Lang during college and the two moved to Great Bend, Kansas. After finishing college, the two married in 2007.
Daniel has been a lineman at Midwest Energy for nineteen years and Gwen has been a clinical therapist with the VA for five years. They have four children: Victoria, 13 years old, Joanna, 10 years old, Veda, 6 years old, and Doreen is four.
The couple bought 11.5 acres from Gwen’s parents, Lloyd and Iris Lang, to make a home of their own. They planted their windbreak in 2011 and built their family home in May 2013.
The Hodges ordered their trees from the Kansas Forest Service’s Conservation Tree Planting Program and Daniel planted the trees himself. He planted approximately five hundred trees consisting of Red Cedars, Austrian Pines, and Burr Oaks. He lost approximately two hundred trees with the help of jack rabbits and had to replant the trees. He now has steel cages surrounding the trees to keep them safe from wildlife.
In his spare time Daniel runs his business Rustic Oak Tree Farm. He sells large oak trees from his pastures and plants them for customers.