FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
“In March 1976, four people met to organize a land trust in West Michigan.” So begins Molly Bradshaw’s history of the early years of our organization, incorporated in October 1976 as the Natural Areas Conservancy of West Michigan - NACOWMI. It all started with four committed people dreaming big. At the end of the first year, there were 100 members. NACOWMI’s very first project was ambitious – the 300-acre Saugatuck Dunes Natural Area and State Park, still among the most stunningly beautiful and publicly accessible natural areas along the Lake Michigan shore. Amazingly, the Saugatuck State Park was established while NACOWMI was still a volunteer organization, proving Margaret Mead’s axiom that “…a small group of thoughtful citizens can change the world.” Those volunteers protected more land, including our flagship natural area, Saul Lake Bog Nature Preserve. When the need for staff became apparent, April Scholtz became our first Executive Director in 1992, and she still serves as our Land Protection Director. In 1997 NACOWMI became the Land Conservancy of West Michigan. Today... Now 39 years old, we have worked with 97 private land owners to establish conservation easements, created 16 publicly accessible nature preserves, and worked with 11 communities and the State of Michigan to establish or expand publicly accessible parks and natural areas, including two state parks.
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Every community claims Lake Michigan and its shoreline as their
own. We have protected miles of it. The largest rivers in the Lake Michigan basin – the Kalamazoo, Grand, Muskegon, White, and Pere Marquette – run through West Michigan, and we have protected thousands of acres in these watersheds and more than 60 miles of riverbanks and creek corridors. Recreation is richer and our water quality is purer because the Land Conservancy has been protecting and caring for land for 39 years. So we are getting ready for our 40th birthday – and the changes on our horizon. As West Michigan grows... We increasingly navigate the space between social and ecological communities as we take on projects like the Barrier Dunes Sanctuary in Muskegon County, flood plain relief along the Grand and for Grand Rapids, or endangered species habitat along the White Pine Trail. Protecting our nature preserves while making them publicly accessible is increasingly a delicate balance. Because people want to know where their food comes from and how it is grown, last week I found myself thinking about conservation while hiking farmland along a lovely wooded creek. With climate change looming and the advent of virtual experiences, the need to rekindle a conservation vision with the next generation grows urgent. As conserved land is sold to new owners or transferred to a new generation, we increasingly explain how land protection protects water quality and why that is important to our quality of life.
Land Conservancy of West Michigan November 2015 Newsletter
Vaughn Maatman, Executive Director
After almost 40 years the story is the same. We are still saving land from uses that would mar its beauty, ecological value or, recreation. And the story is new, as we seek ways to rekindle a vision in the next generation of conservationists. John Muir was adept at succinctly explaining the conservation story in a timeless way. “Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where Nature may heal, cheer, and give strength to body and soul.” Yes, that’s what we have been about for almost 40 years. Read on, and you will see how we are entering the next 40. •
A member of the next generation inspects wildflowers at Maas Family Nature Preserve.