ISSUE 2, 2019
How much land protection
IS ENOUGH? BY LAURA JUSTIN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
F
olks who aren’t big fans of land conservation have shared with me that “we already have enough state land.” Well, thankfully, we do have a lot of citizen owned/ shared land under the guidance and management of the State of Michigan for all of us to enjoy. But that shared/public land has nothing to do with a privately owned conservation easement. There are still a whole lot of misconceptions out there about the work of HeadWaters and land conservancies in general. Part of our mission is to dispel misinformation and educate our communities about the benefits we all share when land and water resources are conserved, both for public AND private use. HWLC holds 86 conservation easements and 6 nature preserves. Some of these properties are very small but rich in
natural resource values. Other parcels are much larger and hold value as part of a wildlife corridor, connecting unbroken landscapes. But even with our efforts and state owned public lands, there are still so many beautiful and wild places and vulnerable plant and animal populations that need to be conserved before they are lost to development. So, how much land protection is enough? I believed that Michigan was doing pretty well in our private and public efforts until I watched a show called “Wild Ways” in the NOVA series on PBS. The documentary explored how places like Yellowstone aren’t large enough to ensure diversity within large mammal populations. This was mind-blowing to me but I’m not sure why I was surprised as these groups of animals had no obstruction to their travels before roads, fences, dams and buildings existed. Knowing all private lands can’t be acquired, conserved or radically altered, a new plan was devised as a work-around to the challenge.
This new and highly effective strategy is called “connectivity conservation”. It’s a way to create corridors on private or developed land that mammals use to get from one wild place to another. A difficult but manageable solution that will greatly increase the success of numerous species, enhance the enjoyment people have in experiencing wildlife and even help the landscapes that these mammals keep in balance. In our own tiny way, we have focused on “connectivity conservation” long before I had heard the term. We have several conservation easements that are clustered near each other or even adjoining. We have long used “proximity to another conservation easement or protected lands” as a criteria for determining if a property is suitable for protection in perpetuity. Hopefully these corridors that HeadWaters and CE donors have worked hard to create will help sustain wildlife populations, even if in a small way.