• WWTLC is grateful to Lisa Vogel for her dedication and hard work with the Land Conservancy of West Michigan to establish a conservation easement which both protects The Land from development and supports any minimal development that may be required in the future in support of WWTLC’s mission.
  • What is a conservation easement? A conservation easement is a legal, binding agreement between a landowner and a regional Land Conservancy organization that provides protection for all or parts of a property forever, regardless of transfer or subsequent ownership. Conserving The Land in its beautiful, raw state, with minimal development, for future generations of women and girls to enjoy is aligned with the mission of WWTLC.
  • There were no conservation easements on The Land when we began this process.
  • This conservation easement was transferred to WWTLC at the time the purchase was complete. The impact on assessed value of The Land was taken into consideration when agreeing on purchase price.
  • The easement requires the vast majority of the acreage to remain undeveloped, with a small number of exceptions for adding key infrastructure (e.g., utility buildings, bathrooms, picnic shelters, etc.) The conservation easement will protect The Land from development. Because The Land is almost entirely surrounded by the Huron-Manistee National Forest, it will also protect the habitats and resources on the surrounding public lands.
  • We don’t know yet what, or if any, permanent structures will be built.
  • The conservation easement provides environmental protection of The Land’s natural beauty and fragile topography. Going forward, WWTLC will work directly with the Land Conservancy of West Michigan to ensure that any development, changes, or maintenance are done with minimal impact to The Land and its ecosystem. Many of us say that The Land is magical, but it truly is ecologically astounding.
    • The Land contains the headwaters of Ruby Creek, a trout stream that is the highest quality tributary to the Big South Branch of the Pere Marquette River. The creek arises from extensive emergent marshes and cedar swamps on the property, and there are numerous high quality wetlands with diverse vegetation that support important amphibian populations. The Conservation Easement will preserve a naturally vegetated buffer around the headwaters of Ruby Creek.
    • The majority of the property consists of level to rolling hills of mixed hardwood-pine forest dominated by white and red oak, red and sugar maple, beech, and scattered white pine. There is also big-tooth aspen, hemlock, witch-hazel, shagbark hickory, black cherry, and around the wetland areas are stands of cedars, hemlock and black spruce. There are both sedge-dominated, emergent (cattails), and shrub dominated wetlands with willow, alder, and dogwood. The oak-pine forest provides excellent potential habitat for interior nesting birds, migratory warblers, hawks, owls, reptiles such as box turtles and snakes, and mammals that likely include bobcat.