At the signing of the first conservation easement on our property, then Leelanau Conservancy President Ed Collins thanked my husband, Jimmy, and me for our gift. Several years later, when an acquaintance placed an easement on his property, he spoke of it as a gift to the Conservancy. And in 2002, when my husband and I placed another easement on that portion of our land we were preparing to donate to Saving Birds Thru Habitat, then-Conservancy President Dick Ristine again thanked us for our generosity.

These comments have always puzzled me. For me, the gift is not from us to the Conservancy, but rather from the Conservancy to us. I can’t for the life of me figure out what the Conservancy receives from these transactions - except the satisfaction we all get from the knowledge that another special place has been saved from development. But I understand precisely how my husband and I benefit from our easements.

Shortly after Jimmy and I purchased the 47 acres that became Charter Sanctuary, we stood at the top of the hill surveying the mix of habitats spread before us. I said, “Just think, after we’re gone, this will all belong to our birds.”

However, without someone to ensure that this place actually is preserved in the way we want it to be, it might not have always been there for the birds. And that someone is the Leelanau Conservancy, which, with every easement it signs, agrees to see that the terms of the agreement - which the owner stipulates – are carried out in perpetuity.

During spring migration, after the first easement was in place, it occurred to me that we didn’t have to enter the next life in order to benefit the birds of this one. With the signing of that wonderful document, it already belonged to them.

Several years ago I wrote to Bobbie Collins, who with her husband, Ed, founded the Leelanau Conservancy, thanking her for her vision in helping to create this great organization. In that letter, I said that without the Leelanau Conservancy, there probably would be no Charter Sanctuary. Jimmy and I would never have invested all we did in this land without the assurance that it could be protected into the future.

So thanks again to you, Bobbie – and also to Ed, Brian, Susan, the rest of the staff, and all you members who have helped the Conservancy become what it is. Through the gift of an easement, you have provided a way for us to keep our dream alive.