Headwaters Land Conservancy Spring 2019 Newsletter

ISSUE 1, 2019

Beginning

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BY LAURA JUSTIN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

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reathing in the “green air” of spring after the long and relentless winter we had in northeast Michigan is a sheer joy. That essence of dirt and bark and green stems reaching for the sky, all of it coming together with the humidity, missing for so many months, to create a symphony of smell. Just one reason to love this glorious season and give thanks for the cycle of rebirth.

Spring is about renewed hope and possibility. Remember that when you’re reading the article about animal and plant diseases becoming more prolific in Michigan. Remember, as our partner

in conservation, you can help us protect more of the important places and large tracts of land where thoughtful stewardship can lead to better outcomes.

And remember that a dedicated group of caring people will always make a positive impact over time, as you have proven time and time again.

Enjoy the story we share about land bringing us together as families.

Regardless if those moments are spent in shared labor or during the thrill of a hunt, the places we love represent so much more than acres on a map. Land ties us to our past and ensures our future is preserved, down each meandering path, in every great memory. Walking the same piece of cherished earth each

spring allows us to see it anew, over and over again.

The J.A. Woollam Foundation is once again offering us the gift of replenishment and renewal with the $50,000 Match Grant Challenge. This cycle of generosity has occurred every year that I have been with HeadWaters. I think we all look forward to this amazing opportunity each year just as we look forward to spring, with all its possibility and hope. With your help, we can seize this moment and once again grow HeadWaters into an even stronger force for conservation of our land and water resources in northeast Michigan. Thank you for being the greatest partners we could ever hope for in this journey.

FOUNDATION

J.A. Woollam

HEADWATERS LAND CONSERVANCY

$50,000 Match Grant Challenge Your MATCHED donation will go TWICE as far to help us: •C omplete an accessible boardwalk at Sturgeon River Preserve • I dentify and work to protect the most significant lands in our region • S teward our 86 Conservation Easements and 6 Nature Preserves •C reate opportunities to connect people with nature

All donations that meet one of the following requirements will be DOUBLED by the J.A. Woollam Foundation, up to $50,000!

•A ny gift of $500 or more •A ny increased donation (even if by one dollar!)

•A ny gift from a lapsed donor (donation not made in 2018) •A ny gift from a new donor (ask a friend to join HWLC!)

All donations must be made by June 30, 2019 Questions?

Feel free to call the office at 989-731-0573 or email land@headwatersconservancy.org

UPDATE:

Endowment for HeadWaters Because of your support in the final months of 2018, the endowment for HeadWaters now stands at $200,000!

Land conservation is a long game. While we celebrate the completion of new land protection projects, and rightly so, truly protecting land comes down to consistent, responsible stewardship now and for decades to come. We need your help to fulfill the remaining $150,000 Endowment Match from the J.A. Woollam Foundation!

Just as the endowment for Headwaters is an investment in long-term conservation, so is our work in the winter, providing opportunities for students and families to strap on snowshoes and appreciate “Up North” no matter the season.

If we don’t invest in getting young people outside, encourage them to unplug and connect with the outdoors, allow them to explore and discover the complex and beautiful relationships found in nature, how can we possibly expect them to invest in preserving our natural resources in the future?

ISSUE 1, 2019

MORE WAYS

to Give!

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here are so many ways to support our work! Please consider HeadWaters Land Conservancy as you prepare your estate plans. We would be grateful for the opportunity to help you meet your financial goals while supporting our work protecting the lands and waters of northeast Michigan!

PLANNED GIVING – This is any type of gift in the future that requires some planning. Including HeadWaters in your will or living trust is a great way to leave a legacy of conservation. Life estates, charitable gift annuities, and life insurance policies are options as well.

CHARITABLE REMAINDER TRUSTS – Allows you to care for your family’s future needs while including HeadWaters as a charitable recipient. It’s a “family first” plan for an unpredictable future.

DONATE FROM YOUR IRA – If you are 70 ½ or older, you can choose to donate money to HWLC directly from your IRA without it being considered a taxable distribution.

GIFT OF REAL ESTATE – Consider donating land or real estate to HWLC. If the property isn’t appropriate for conservation, a landowner may still choose to donate to HWLC with the understanding that the conservancy will sell the property and use the proceeds to fund other land protection projects.

GIFT OF SECURITIES - Gifts of publicly traded securities that have appreciated in value allow you to claim a charitable deduction for the full market value of the securities on the date the gift is made. You pay no capital gains tax on the appreciation.

Julian “Len” Baron

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Julian Baron

lthough he left us in 2013, Len is still remembered fondly by everyone who knew and loved him. Len had a great sense of humor and had a special respect for nature and the environment. He and his wife JoAnne placed a conservation easement on their property in the Pigeon River Country in 2009. Len held membership in many conservation organizations and was an active member of the North Country Trail Association for 23 years. JoAnne chose to honor her husband with a special gift to HeadWaters. We are deeply grateful and will work hard to continue the work that Len cared so much about.

HEADWATERS LAND CONSERVANCY

“Buck hill” is the highest point on the property.

MOSKWA CONSERVATION Easement

235 acres of wildlife habitat protected forever

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he 235 acre Moskwa Conservation Easement property is a deer hunter’s dream, with planted fields providing abundant food and mixed pine-aspen forest providing cover. Larry and his wife Barbara have owned the property since 2008, when Larry’s mother passed away. Larry’s dad was born and raised next door to the property, and was able to purchase it in 1981.

Larry and Barbara decided to exclude 15 of their property’s 250 acres from the Conservation Easement.

They plan to build a home and live on the property full time once Larry retires from Ford Motor Company, and wanted enough space for their daughters to build in the future.

According to Larry, “The decision was truly quite easy, we want the property to remain in its original state for the generations to come rather than being subdivided and losing all the natural beauty that it possesses.”

Larry graciously shared one of his fondest memories on the property: My favorite story is back in October of 1998 when my father called me in the city and asked if I was going to

come up and bow hunt with him that weekend. I told him that I was not planning on it, he responded by saying I probably should because he did not know how much longer he was going to be able to hunt. You see, my father had been fighting bone cancer for 6 years and progressively getting worse.

I could tell he was not feeling well, I decided to go up that weekend and bow hunt with him. Keep in mind he had bone cancer, was 75 years old, an ex-Marine Sharp Shooter, and was climbing 25 feet into a tree with no tree stand, like we all use nowadays.

On the second day of the hunt, I came with my truck to pick up my dad after the hunt at his tree. He told me that he shot a nice buck and it was laying right over there, so we went and got the 7-point buck. While we were loading the buck into the truck, I noticed that the arrow had gone through the deer and stuck into a 3” diameter log. We took the deer and left the woods to go get it processed. The next morning, we went for a morning ride through the woods and when I got to the spot where he had shot the buck the night before I stopped and got out of the truck. I casually walked over to where

Landowner Larry Moskwa in the woods with his grandson. the arrow was stuck in the log, picked it up and placed it in the back of the truck. My dad asked me what I was doing, I just said nothing just looking.

My father passed in the next spring of 1999. For 20 plus years my dad and I had hunted, cut fire wood, planted and harvested crops, baled hay, and made two track trails all through the property with end loaders and tractors, all while laughing and fighting. Now, I have had a 3” log shellacked with an arrow stuck in it, mounted above the door in my hunting lodge on this property for the last 21 years in remembrance of the last buck my father killed, and it was on this property, with me!

ISSUE 1, 2019

Five Miles LLC Conservation Easement

PRESERVING LAKE HURON Shoreline

cabins 45 years earlier when it was a beachfront resort.

When the vacant shoreline property adjacent to theirs went up for sale in 2018, David and Mara decided to purchase the land and donate a Conservation Easement to permanently protect 30 acres of coastal wetland and 890 feet of Lake Huron shoreline. Part of the property consists of a series of parallel wetland swales and upland beach ridges know as wooded dune and swale complex.

Wooded dune and swale complex is somewhat common along the northern shores of Lakes Huron and Michigan and was formed by retreating water levels and post-glacial uplift beginning about 12,000 years ago. Vegetation on the property follows the typical pattern of succession in this community: beach grasses and flowers near shore, transitioning to shrubland, then to forests of cedar, hemlock, and white pine. David and Mara have seen trout in the little streams that flow from the wetland into Lake Huron, a host of rare shoreline plants, and a nesting pair of bald eagles on the property.

Thanks to their Conservation Easement donation, the property’s wetlands will continue to provide water quality benefits and wildlife habitat well into the future.

You can learn more about this natural community and others from Michigan Natural Features Inventory at https://mnfi.anr.msu. edu/communities.

HeadWaters Land Conservancy

Protected Lands

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avid Fivenson and Mara Miles purchased their Lake Huron property about 20 years ago, when their children were small. They had rented a cabin down the beach one summer, saw the “For Sale” signs, and have been coming back ever since!

as of March 2019

David grew up in Alpena and had fond memories of summers on Lake Huron, so buying the property was a way for him reconnect to his childhood. After purchasing the property, David and Mara discovered that Mara’s parents had stayed in one of the property’s

6 Nature Preserves 86 Conservation Easements 10,877 acres of protected land 32+ miles of protected shoreline

HEADWATERS LAND CONSERVANCY

CWD Update from Michigan DNR Nature Center Summit Much like bovine TB, it is unlikely that we will ever completely eradicate CWD from Michigan’s deer. Thankfully, there is still time to prevent CWD from devastating deer in Michigan if we take a proactive approach. A few great ways to help include: • If you hunt, continue to hunt.

• F ollow the new law banning baiting in the lower peninsula • Properly dispose of carcasses • K eep bird/wildlife feeders out of reach of deer and elk • I f you see a deer that looks sick record the location and call the DNR hotline (800) 292-7800

Deer can appear healthy for years while still being carriers of the disease

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ortheast Michigan’s long winters give HWLC staff a chance to prepare for the busy field season and take advantage of opportunities for continuing education in the form of workshops, webinars, and conference calls. In February, Libby Gunderson and Lucas Thoms attended the Nature Center Summit hosted by the Michigan DNR. The summit was designed to give outdoor educators the most upto-date information on Michigan’s most pressing natural resource issues directly from the scientists that study these issues. HWLC staff learned about forest health issues like oak wilt and hemlock wooly adelgid, invasive carp, white-nose syndrome in bats, and more.

Chronic wasting disease, or CWD, was the primary focus, as it is a growing concern in Michigan and around the

Midwest, and has significantly impacted the deer population in Wisconsin. “CWD is a contagious neurological disease that affects deer, elk and moose. It causes a degeneration of the brain resulting in emaciation, abnormal behavior, loss of bodily functions and death. CWD is fatal; once an animal is infected there is no recovery or cure. To date, there is no evidence that CWD can be naturally transmitted to humans or to other animals. It is caused by a normal protein, called a prion, that folds incorrectly and can infect other deer.

It is transmitted through direct animal to animal contact or by contact with saliva, urine, feces, blood, carcass parts of an infected animal or infected soil.

Prions are extremely persistent in the environment and can stay infectious for years.” (www.michigan.gov/cwd)

White nose bats

Bats—not your typical poster child but more important than you realize! Bats play a major role in controlling insect populations, on average they can eat between 6001000 mosquito-sized insects per hour. That’s a lot of bugs! There are 9 species of bats in Michigan and all are at risk of White-nose syndrome, a deadly fungus that is decimating bat populations. Visit www.whitenosesyndrome.org/ to find out more.

ISSUE 1, 2019

Snowshoe Adventures & WILDLIFE EXHIBITS

The group at Wakeley Lake

The year got off to a great start with a wildlife exhibit at Aspen Ridge Retirement Village and good snow for all of our snowshoe hikes. We still had 10 people join us at Sturgeon River Preserve for a hike in January when it was -10°F! We had a wonderful season thanks to the Vanderbilt Area Schools, Crossroads Industries, HuronManistee National Forest Mio District, Kids Outdoors Otsego and everyone who attended one of our snowshoe hikes!

Snowshoe hike with the Vanderbilt 4th, 5th, and 9th graders Libby talking to the group before setting out at the Groen Preserve

Young snowshoer at the Sturgeon River Preserve

Snowshoeing with Crossroads Industries at Aspen Park

Feeling the texture of an elk pelt

HEADWATERS LAND CONSERVANCY

HeadWaters Land Conservancy

Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage Paid Petoskey, MI Permit No. 110

110 South Elm Avenue Gaylord, MI 49735 989-731-0573 www.headwatersconservancy.org land@headwatersconservancy.org

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Printed on Recycled Paper with Vegetable-Based Inks

View from the future riverside platform

S TA F F Laura Justin Executive Director Libby Gunderson Land Protection Specialist Lucas Thoms Stewardship & Program Coordinator

B OA R D

of Trustees Virginia Pierce, Chairwoman Jim Supina, Vice Chairman Robb Smith, Treasurer Martha Eberly, Secretary John Dallas Mike Mang Keith Martell Jeff Twyman Dr. Don Inman, Director Emeritus Stephen Qua, Director Emeritus

Calling ALL Volunteers!

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ith your help we will be able to finish our boardwalk at the Sturgeon River Preserve with ease! Our Annual Appreciation Picnic will take place on July 19th, and our goal is to have it completed by then so we can share it with you!

If you or your group are interested in helping us bring people of all abilities closer to nature please call at (989)731-0573 or email Lucas at Lthoms@headwatersconservancy.org.