University of Minnesota professor Don Wyse, a leader in the field of regenerative agriculture who co-founded the Forever Green Initiative, Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture, and Green Lands Blue Waters, died earlier this month at the age of 77, surrounded by his family.

Don Wyse, professor of agronomy and plant genetics at the University of Minnesota’s St. Paul campus, with a field of kernza, a perennial grass that his program has helped develop, which could one day outperform wheat both environmentally and economically, photographed on Thursday, October 1, 2015. (Pioneer Press: Scott Takushi)

Wyse had recently celebrated 50 years of teaching and research at the University of Minnesota, according to the obituary shared by his family, and during his tenure he instructed thousands of undergraduate students, advised over 100 graduate students, published over 200 scientific journal articles, authored two book chapters, held 14 research patents and six plant variety patents.

Ohio to Minnesota

Wyse was raised on his family’s farm in Wauseon, Ohio, and earned his bachelor of science from Ohio State and his doctorate in plant physiology and biochemistry from the University of Michigan. He married Beverly Ann Clark in 1969.

Wyse told Agweek in 2022 that he was brought to Minnesota in 1974 by grass seed producers in northern Minnesota who wanted to put a perennial crop into their annual cropping system.

“They wanted to expand the grass seed industry, which is basically based on a series of perennial grasses that you don’t have to plant every year, and you would harvest in the middle of the summer,” Wyse said at an event at Albert Lea Seed  in 2022 to highlight the work of the Forever Green Initiative.

Minnesota farmers like Richard Magnusson saw perennial wheats as a “holy grail,” lowering erosion and tillage expenses, while working with the Minnesota climate.

“In general, perennials have an advantage in the landscape,” Magnusson said in an interview with the Pioneer Press in 2016 about Kernza, an intermediate wheatgrass Wyse’s team developed. “On the prairie, most of the plants are perennials.”

Forever Green Initiative

The latest phase of Wyse’s career included a broader vision for agriculture in the Upper Midwest.

“He was instrumental in bringing together individuals across the entire agriculture infrastructure to work on the most challenging issues affecting agriculture, the environment, and society,” read his obituary. “He successfully formed several formal partnerships and collaborations among farmers, universities, governments, foundations, major food companies, conservation groups, and rural and urban community leaders.”

Wyse co-founded the Forever Green Initiative in 2012, which researches and promotes alternative crops that protect water and soil. Today, the Forever Green Initiative portfolio includes over 15 crops that are each supported by a multidisciplinary team that may include expertise in the areas of genomics, breeding, agronomics, natural resource sciences, food science, sociology, economics and commercialization.

Wyse got to see the initiative grow to the point where it had partners in public and private companies and over 50 researchers who developed crops capable of thriving in the Upper Midwest. Last year, Cargill donated $2.5 million to support five years of research by the Forever Green Initiative. In 2022, the New York Times called Wyse a visionary in an article titled “Donald Wyse is Growing a New Future for Farming.”

“We’ve come a long way,” Wyse said in 2022. “If we’re looking at the grass seed industry in northern Minnesota, and Roseau and Lake of the Woods counties, those perennial grasses are the most profitable crops in those two counties.”

‘A dynamic force’

A tribute from the Friends of the Mississippi River recalled his “seemingly boundless energy, intelligence and wit,” a “person with big, pragmatic ideas and the force of will to accomplish them.”

Steve Morse, a Minnesota state senator and Minnesota DNR deputy commissioner, credited Wyse with getting community voices involved in decisions about agriculture in the state. He “thrived on a steady stream of engagement,” Morse wrote in a tribute on the Minnesota Environmental Partnership site.

Connie Fernholz Carlson, assistant statewide director of the University of Minnesota Extension Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships, wrote in a recent tribute to Wyse that he was a “dynamic force for clean water, healthy soil, sustainable agriculture and a fierce champion for rural communities.”

“Although his loss is tremendous, Don was also adamant that the work required ‘all hands on deck.’ I believe his most important skill was his ability to connect with people from all walks of life, tell them the story of his work and make them champions for sustainability in their corners of the world. I am one of them.”

A celebration of the life of Don Wyse will take place on Friday at the McNamara Alumni Center at the University of Minnesota. The service will begin at 2 p.m. with a reception to follow.

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