Roylene Rides at the Door, a conservationist with the Department of Agriculture, beams during a farewell party associates gave her recently at the Cuban Revolution restaurant on Valley Street in Providence.

The Providence Journal / Glenn Osmundson

Raised on a 5,000-acre ranch in the Blackfeet Nation in Montana and spending much of her career in the West, conservationist Roylene Rides at the Door was concerned when the Department of Agriculture assigned her to lead its 30-person office in Rhode Island three years ago. She expected to find a state covered in blacktop and she feared losing her connection to the land.

Now, as she prepares to move on to another post, as conservationist in Washington state, Rides at the Door, 39, says she has been pleasantly surprised by Rhode Island and its people. She says Rhode Island is a national leader in land conservation and in supporting local farming.

She was amazed to see 450 people at a Save the Bay meeting. Back in Montana, she said, an environmental group would be lucky to attract 30 people.

Last summer at the dedication of a new fish ladder at the Rising Sun Mill in Providence, which her federal agency helped pay for, more than 100 people, including much of the state’s congressional delegation, were in attendance. She says she has not seen such political and popular support for conservation in many other states.

A few weeks ago, in the face of staggering state deficits and a recession, Rhode Islanders voted overwhelmingly for a $2.5-million bond issue to preserve open space and farms.

“It’s a bad economic year, with high unemployment, yet everyone is willing to tax themselves for conservation. I think Rhode Island could teach a lot of other places how to do it,” said Rides at the Door.

She said Rhode Island is a national leader in supporting locally grown food and farmers markets. It ranks high in income per acre of its farms.

All are examples she plans to carry to her new job as conservationist in Washington, where she will be in charge of 175 people in 34 offices. She is making the move to be closer to her family in Montana.

Twelve years ago, Rides at the Door decided it was time to start her own journey, to leave her home state. She worked for the Natural Resources Conservation Service, an arm of the Department of Agriculture that was formed during the Dust Bowl era to help farmers conserve their soil, water and other natural resources.

Rides at the Door didn’t like the way the service was excluding many local people, particularly Native Americans. Instead of just complaining, she decided to work her way up so she could change policies.

She went on to work in Phoenix and then for five years as assistant state conservationist in Oklahoma. In both positions, she focused on working with local Native Americans. She also taught seminars about Native American awareness to other federal workers.

Three years ago, Rides at the Door said, she told her bosses she was ready to move on, and that she could do more than just be an expert on Native American issues. They assigned her to Rhode Island.

When she arrived, she didn’t impose the usual chain of command on her staff. Instead, she followed Native American practices of building community. She talked to every employee and accepted input from everyone.

When they had plans to remodel their offices, she allowed the staff to vote. They split on two designs, so Rides at the Door created a third design using the most popular features of the other two.

“Before, we were all in the boat traveling in different directions,” said Rides at the Door. “Now, we’re all rowing in the same way because we want to. We’re a community. We may be small, but we’re doing conservation big.”

“We commit to what we do because we believe in taking care of Mother Earth because it is the right thing to do,” she said.

Rides at the Door gets high marks from local officials who have worked with her.

“She’s done an admirable job,” says Kenneth Ayars, chief of the agriculture division at the state Department of Environmental Management. She runs a strong office, he says, and she has continued the collaborations between her agency and various Rhode Island groups and agencies. “I find the further west you go, the more antagonism you see between landowners and government.”

Rupert Friday, head of the Rhode Island Land Trust Council, said that at public events and in meetings behind the scenes, Rides at the Door offers comments that are “always very thoughtful and effective.”

Last year, Rides at the Door said, her office spent about $9 million on projects in Rhode Island. With recent changes in the federal Farm Bill, she said the spending could rise to $15 million next year if enough applications are submitted.

Her staff of engineers, a biologist, a soils scientist and a forester provide services to the state’s 600 farms, and much more.

For instance, the office is spending $3.5 million this year to help farmers improve irrigation systems and install animal crossings, manure storage and fences to protect wetlands. It has $3.6 million in matching funds targeted for preserving farmland. It provides funds to support the MapCoast project that is mapping the soils under Narragansett Bay and the state’s coastal ponds.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service is helping 18 of the state’s 27 aquaculture producers follow practices that will reduce water pollution. It is supporting construction of fish ladders on the Woonasquatucket River to help bring back herring and shad. It supports programs to improve the state’s forests, its “pollinator habitats” and organic farms. It works with the state’s three conservation districts to get local input on where to invest funding and expertise.

“I’ve been on farms here where they don’t just farm, they have corn mazes and fish ponds. In Rhode Island, farmers use every acre,” said Rides at the Door.

She said she also learned here that city people support rural conservation. Out West, she said, it seemed rural issues were confined to rural people.

People here also have more access to healthful, local foods. On her Montana reservation, she said, there are just two markets, which sell nothing but packaged foods with high sugar contents — not good for a tribe with high rates of diabetes.

Last April, Rides at the Door married a man from upstate New York with three small children. She looks forward to moving her family out West, to be near her extended family. Their surname comes from her great-great-grandfather, a warrior in the 1870s.

Rather than killing his enemies, he was known for riding into their camps and stealing their horses. He’d also ride up to enemy’s houses and take their medicine bundles, packages of great spiritual value to the owners — hence, “Rides at the Door.”

“Death is easy,” explains Rides at the Door. “We believe it is much more torturous to have to live through shame.”

And yes, she said she kept her connections to the land in Rhode Island. She rode horses at Goddard Memorial State Park, in Warwick, and took long walks on the bike trail near her house in Kent County, or on the beach at Watch Hill.

plord@projo.com