David E. Snowden, Sr. and David E. Snowden, Jr.

Few families have left a more meaningful mark on Arkansas conservation than David Snowden, Sr. and David Snowden, Jr. A father and son whose love of the natural world has produced a legacy that will benefit the state and its waterfowl for generations.

At the heart of that legacy is Kingdom Come, a legendary 3,500-acre duck club near Stuttgart that the Snowdens and their family have stewarded since 1947 with the care of conservationists as much as sportsmen. To secure its future, they partnered with the Arkansas Nature Conservancy to place the property under a permanent conservation easement, a pioneering move that helped inspire similar protections across the state. David Sr. was among the charter board members of the Arkansas Nature Conservancy when it was established in 1982, helping lay the groundwork for landscape-scale conservation across the Natural State. He has been an enduring supporter of AR-TNC, as well as Delta Waterfowl Foundation and Ducks Unlimited.

David Jr. has carried the mission forward with equal passion, chairing Ducks Unlimited events, serving on the national board of Delta Waterfowl and for two and a half decades as a trustee of AR-TNC, as well as playing a central role in one of Arkansas conservation's most significant recent achievements, raising $7 million to establish the Snowden Waterfowl Center of Excellence at the University of Arkansas at Monticello, making it the largest endowed waterfowl academic program in the nation. In addition, he formed The 1% Club, a group of waterfowl conservationists that contribute to Delta Waterfowl's annual duck production initiative, which played a role in Delta Waterfowl's decision to launch its Million Duck Campaign, leading to a $300 million endowment.

Together, the Snowdens have shown that conservation is not a single act, but a way of life.