In the summer of 1988 I sat down with Ed and Bobbie Collins in their backyard in Leland to talk about plans for a fledgling organization called the Leelanau Conservancy. While the “Conservancy” was already incorporated, it existed as an idea, a dream really, in the minds of its founders. I cared deeply about Leelanau County and didn’t want to miss an opportunity to talk with a couple who aimed to make a difference in the way the county was growing.

It turned out that Ed and Bobbie were way ahead of me, of course, in thinking about how a “Land Conservancy” could help protect the essential character of one of the loveliest landscapes in Michigan. They had approached several respected community members to form a board, and had put down thoughts on how the Conservancy would go about preserving the character of the peninsula. They had even purchased a little gray home in Leland that would house the organization.

We talked about the Nature Conservancy and its approach to conservation, about the pressures of development, about specific properties that seemed to embody what we all think of as “Leelanau.” Ed and Bobbie were good enough to indulge my discussion of a study of local glacial features.

Soon after, Ed called to arrange a follow-up meeting. Getting right to the point, he offered me a job. It was early summer. We agreed that I would undertake two projects in my first months on the job. Thinking back on it now, these two projects still have something meaningful to say about the organization and its founders. And all I needed to get started was lumber and tools, a typewriter and a filing cabinet. I’ll explain.

My first two endeavors have come to symbolize our approach to land conservation. The lumber was used to build a deck on our building at 105 First Street in Leland. The Collinses felt that our success would rest on bringing the right people together, perhaps over a glass of wine or iced tea, in a congenial setting, to discuss and work out solutions to problems vexing the county. They had experienced some of the early battles over development that took place in the mid-80s and concluded that there were people of good will on all sides. What was needed was a way to bring these people together in a constructive, rather than adversarial, setting.

The deck served its purpose, hosting the founding and dedication of our office in October, 1988. The Watershed Council was founded from an initial meeting on the deck, and numerous early land projects were launched by talks with neighbors who we met with on the deck. While the deck was made of hard materials, it represented the “soft” side of our approach. We wanted to bring people together to seek solutions.

To accomplish my other project a different set of tools was required. Upstairs in the empty office space I stretched a closet door across our two filing cabinets, brought in my old Smith-Corona, and a plat book. Soon I had located a set of property tax books for the county. What a find! Once I learned how to locate parcels of interest, I could discern the exact dimensions of any lot in the county. And with the aid of aerial slides, I could make a passable hand-drawn map with natural features shown to scale.

My job was to build an initial set of project files about land that, for lack of any further definition at the time, a conservancy should be interested in preserving. The parcels I looked at contained the highest quality habitats for plants and animals in the county. Other places were simply beautiful, and in our judgment they defined what Leelanau was all about. Some places were obvious, others obscure. Some of the property owners were eager to work with us, others were unapproachable. It was my job to build a body of information from which to launch an array of signature projects. We were aware at the time that the community would judge us by what we did, not what we said. Our first few projects would be critical.

Our first two projects, the Cedar River and Kehl Lake Natural Areas, came from those files. And other now-familiar names were included as potential projects: Whaleback, Houdek Dunes, Crystal River, the DeYoung Farm, and Belanger Creek to name a few. Sadly, some of our earliest dream projects have been forever lost; we could not save them.

To me it was clearly the best job in Leelanau County. In the morning I might think about the most remote swamps or the highest hills, or that hidden jewel of a flowing spring that pops out of a hillside somewhere in the county, and by afternoon I’d be checking it out, making notes about the wildflowers and forest cover, about geological features, along with access and ownership issues, and what I perceived to be the “community values” that could be protected by a land conservancy.

Nineteen years later I sit in the same room in the same house at 105 N First Street. My four children, who were just babies when we launched the Conservancy, are now off in college or graduate school. I have a real desk now and our projects are tracked with extensive digital and paper files. The work I once did exclusively is now handled largely by Matt Heiman and Tom Nelson, our Land Protection Specialists, who are currently juggling more than a dozen land transactions. If they all close, we will protect up to 1,000 more acres by year end. And we await word on a major grant request for the DeYoung Natural Area, a project that was 18 years in the making.

Although the deck fell victim to a 2005 office expansion, we still are an organizaiton where people who care deeply about Leelanau County can find common ground. And while my original files only surface from time to time, we are still working to fulfill the vision that the founders set forth.

In 20 years the Conservancy has grown from a dream to a respected community institution. We are still working to fulfill the vision that our founders set forth, but now with over 5,400 acres protected to show for the effort. As we enter the next 20 years, we’ll continue to gather people together, building bridges and project files. We invite you to join us as we develop a common vision for preserving what we all love about Leelanau County. Here’s to the next 20 years!