| The Leelanau Conservancy's recent purchase of the 145-acre Louis DeYoung farm preserves a vanishing part of northwest Lower Michigan and American life. It deserves strong public financial support as fund-raising continues.
The project is important in and of itself, but what makes it even more exciting is that this former Elmwood Township farm will be turned into a natural area open to the public for hiking, fishing, cross-country skiing and wildlife observation.
The farm is close to the popular Leelanau Trail, which connects to the Traverse Area Recreational Trail system in neighboring Grand Traverse County.
This kind of purchase and dovetailing is the not the result of a snap, one-time decision by an isolated board. It is the child of a focused conservation ethic that has been growing in this region since the early 1990s.
A natural area like the DeYoung farm close to an urban area and public trails system takes vision, planning, leadership and cooperation between a network of citizens, local and state governments. It takes deep awareness and a sense of stewardship for the natural world that is so important to ecosystems, wildlife and humans.
The DeYoung farm, buildings and fields are part of northern Michigan's uniqueness, its heritage and legacy. The new natural area will preserve wildlife habitat at a time when birds and wildlife are rapidly losing ground to condos, houses, subdivisions and expanded road systems.
It also will be a great place for residents to connect with and see the connection between, healthy natural environments, communities and individuals in a world increasingly fraught with bustle, hustle, discord and disconnection.
Our area's growing conservation ethic can be seen all around us. On public trails. In the Leelanau Conservancy's 10 public nature areas and nine preserves open for guided hikes only and its two off-limits areas to protect fragile lands and shorelines.
The Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy has a similar record. It has protected more than 24,000 acres in Antrim, Benzie, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska and Manistee counties since 1991, when it was founded with the help of a Rotary Charities start-up grant.
It has established 28 nature preserves and holds 115 conservation easements that forever protect from development almost 50 miles of lake, stream and river shoreline are forever protected as a result of our efforts.
The work of nonprofit conservancies is important, though some criticize them for creating natural buffers for wealthy land-owners. In some cases that could be a side effect, but the bottom line is that they help preserve environmentally sensitive lands, ecosystems, views and habitat that remind us that human beings are part of a natural web.
If that recognition dies, something in us and our communities does, too.
Printed June 22, 2006 To make a donation to the DeYoung Natural Area Fund, click here. | | | |
