Three Cheers for Three Creeks Conservancy!

Northeast Wisconsin Land Trust has added its largest conservancy ever, Three Creeks Conservancy, to it’s fold of protected land. Three Creeks Conservancy consists of 600 acres, nearly one square mile of land which will remain intact and wild for future generations to enjoy. Not only is this its largest conservancy, it is one of the most beautiful, comprised of 560 acres of private forested land and undeveloped shoreline in Marinette County.

This is one of the last few private wilderness areas in northeast Wisconsin. Besides being habitat for bear, bobcat, and deer, the creeks have their own wolf pack. Numerous migratory and nesting song and game birds have made this place their home as well.

A trout stream in Three Creeks Conservancy

The only development that exists is a few rustic cabins overlooking a series of cascading falls unique for a property this size. “Standing at the creek’s edge, I saw fish flickering in the water and could feel the warmth of the sun emanating from the huge rocks beneath me. The roaring of the rushing water drowned out the sound of the wind blowing through the pines above. It feels good to know that this place will always remain this way,” notes Julie Hawkins Tyriver, Land Stewardship Coordinator for the Land Trust.

She adds, “The Northeast Wisconsin Land Trust is excited by the opportunity to protect such an expansive, beautiful area and cannot stress enough the importance of protecting large tracts of land like this.” The extensive habitat and the ecosystem services which we rely on are just a few of the benefits of this gift.

New LEAP Peer Learning Opportunities – Join Us!

We at GWC are very excited to announce a new offering through the Land Trust Excellence & Advancement Program and our partnerships with the Land Trust Alliance Midwest Program and the Heart of the Lakes in Michigan. 

Building on the success of the Peer-to-Peer Mentoring program piloted in Michigan in 2010,  we are teaming up to offer a peer-to-peer mentoring program in Wisconsin and Michigan in 2012.  Due to the generosity of our LEAP funders, participation in the program is free and available to all land trust members of Gathering Waters!

What is the Peer-to-Peer Mentoring Program?

This is an organized effort to match peers of similar experiences throughout Michigan and Wisconsin to learn from one another as a component of both ACE (Accelerating Conservancy Excellence) and LEAP (Land Trust Excellence & Advancement Program).  This mentoring program will foster relationships and advance learning and sharing opportunities within the land trust community.  In addition to individual visits there will be group learning opportunities throughout the year and we will reimburse peers for making one trip to visit another peer.

 Is it right for me?

We hope so!  The program is designed for staff and board members of land trusts in WI and MI that are willing to share their expertise as well as learn from others doing similar work.  The requirements of the program are that participants make one trip between March 1 and October 31, 2012, and be willing to host peers at their land trust.

 How do I apply?

Applications are due by January 20, 2012 and should be submitted electronically to MaryKay O’Donnell, Kate Zurlo-Cuva, AND Julie Stoneman.

Questions?

Call or e-mail Kate Zurlo-Cuva  (608-251-9131, ext. 12).

The Largest Easement Donation to a Wisconsin Land Trust

On December 1, 2011, the Winter Park Pines Nature Preserve was established with the granting of a perpetual conservation easement by Ken and Carolyn Aldridge to the Northwoods Land Trust.  This 3,195 acre property -nearly  five square miles – includes about 43 kilometers of cross-country ski and snow shoe trails at the core of the Minocqua Winter Park Nordic Center’s trail system.  This project is the largest conservation easement ever donated to a land trust in Wisconsin.

Minocqua Winter Park is regarded as one of the premier cross-country ski trail systems in the Midwest.  The ski chalet is located on 40 acres of land owned by the Town of Minocqua and managed for public use under an agreement with the Lakeland Ski Touring Foundation, Inc.  The Winter Park Pines Nature Preserve surrounds the chalet property.

Through the land protection agreement, the Aldridges have granted skiers perpetual access to the existing trails, allowed for sustainable forestry, and limited land fragmentation and development which will keep the land in its natural state.  Through the Aldridge’s generosity, the land will remain forever open to the public for winter sports including cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and skijoring (skiing with dogs).

The conservation agreement also protects over 13 miles of natural shorelines on the Squirrel River, Yukon Creek, Howard’s Creek, and other small, un-named streams and ponds.  In addition, the land provides natural habitat buffers around and adjacent to the Squirrel River Pines State Natural Area.

The public is invited to the dedication of the new  Winter Park Pines Nature Preserve on  Thursday, December  29^th at 11 a.m.  at the chalet.  

To get to Minocqua Winter Park, take Hwy. 70 about 6.5 miles west of Minocqua, turn south on Squirrel Lake Road for about 4 miles, and follow the signs east ¼ mile on Scotchman Lake Road to the entrance drive.   For more information on the preserve or dedication, contact land trust Executive Director Bryan Pierce at (715) 479-2490.   

Squirrel River, Northwoods Land Trust Photo

Wintertime Family Fun

There may not be snow on the ground around most of the state but winter is upon us. Wisconsin’s treasured landscapes can be absolutely stunning in winter and are an excellent opportunity to enjoy the outdoors this holiday season. Thanks to our conservation organizations here in Wisconsin there are plenty of ways to get out and enjoy the winter weather. Whether you like to ski, snowshoe, hike, or help out on restoration projects, there is way for every nature lover to spend time outside. Here are three of the many opportunities you can find on our Land Trust Events page:

• Baird Creek Winter Wonderland Hike – Discover the beauty of a snowy Baird Creek on December 17th at 1 pm at Christa McAuliffe Park. Join Dr. Mike Draney, professor from UW-Green Bay, as he leads you through the park and answers your questions about spiders, the effects of harsh weather conditions and anything else that comes to mind.

• Ice Age Trail Alliance Restoration and Brush Burning – Winter is a great time to do savanna and prairie restoration. Enjoy the beautiful snowy landscape, and take breaks by the fire of a brush pile with the Dane County Chapter of IATA. You’ll have such a good time you’ll forget to be cold! The work will take place at Table Bluff at 9am.

• National Audubon Society’s Holiday Bird Count – From December 14 through January 5 tens of thousands of families and students, birders and scientists, armed with binoculars, bird guides and checklists go out on an annual mission to count birds. Many chapters across Wisconsin are taking part in the event.

We hope to see out this winter enjoying the places that make Wisconsin special!

We are Thankful

As the year comes to a close, we would like to extend our sincere thanks to everyone who supported our work in the past year. Indeed, our efforts to help people protect the places that make Wisconsin special are not possible without the time, energy, and charitable investment of our members. With the help we received in 2011, we made significant advances in our work to strengthen Wisconsin’s land trusts.

Here are just a few of the successes that support from our members made possible in 2011:

• GWC partnered with the Land Trust Alliance to launch Wisconsin’s Land Trust Excellence and Advancement Program (LEAP) – an intensive program that delivers to land trusts the knowledge and resources that perpetual conservation demands.

• From the 2010 fall election season through the State budget negotiations culminating in June, we met with agency leaders, legislators, engaged and informed the land trust community, and worked with coalitions to advocate for the Stewardship Program and the statewide Purchase of Agricultural Conservation Easements Program. We’re pleased to report that in a difficult economic climate and a challenging state budget process, our work produced positive results for both of these programs.

• GWC convened the largest ever training for Wisconsin land trusts at our Land Trust Retreat for three days of training on topics ranging from recordkeeping to conservation endowments.

Again, thank you for the support Gathering Waters Conservancy received throughout 2011. Many people make charitable contributions to organizations and never hear about their donation’s use or impact. We want our supporters to know that by contributing to Gathering Waters Conservancy you are making a direct, positive impact on the places that make Wisconsin special.

During this holiday season, if you would like to join the community of people helping to protect the places that make Wisconsin special, please visit our donation page.

LEAP: The Right Services at the Right Time

This past January Gathering Waters Conservancy launched Wisconsin’s Land Trust Excellence and Advancement Program (LEAP), a three-year program to deliver focused and enhanced services to Wisconsin’s land trusts.  LEAP offers customized services to land trusts through an application process, as well as universal services to all land trusts.

Earlier this month we began accepting applications for the second round of LEAP customized services.  There’s still time between now and December 2nd for Wisconsin land trusts to submit an application to receive these tailored, one-on-one services.

As the applications come in, we’re also focusing on new universally available services to land trusts in the coming year.  In the next week there are two especially terrific trainings that still have openings:

Friday, December 2nd at 11 a.m.
Ask An Expert Call: Is it Fund-raising or Not? Making Sense of Fund-raising Expenses
To register, please e-mail your organization’s name, participant names, and e-mail addresses today.

Wednesday, December 7th at 10 a.m.
LEAP Webinar: Succession Planning for your Land Trust
Come spend your lunchtime with national non-profit expert Andy Robinson. This 90 minute webinar is appropriate for all levels of knowledge and would be useful for board members, executive directors or operational directors. Because of the generous support from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation through LEAP, this webinar is being offered at the discounted rate of $25 per connection to our members. Register by December 6th.

As we move to 2012, we want to be sure LEAP offers the right services at the right time to Wisconsin’s land trusts and are interested in talking with you about how to do this successfully.  Please contact Kate Zurlo-Cuva to talk more about how GWC can develop our programming to best meet your organization’s needs.

Celebrating Frog Bay

On Friday, November 18th, Bayfield Regional Conservancy closed on a superb property with the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.  The following post is excerpted from an article by Dennis McCann in BRC’s newsletter

David Johnson remembers that when he bought a prime piece of Lake Superior frontage at public auction in 1980 he learned from a county clerk that the Red Cliff tribe had wanted the land but could not afford to put in a bid. It made him feel a bit funny to obtain onetime tribal land in such a way, he said recently, but not enough that he considered turning the property, which he knew would someday have much greater value, back to the tribe.

But fast-forward more than 30 years and that is exactly what is happening. In a move applauded by tribal officials, Johnson and his wife, Marjorie, are selling the property to the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, in partnership with the Bayfield Regional Conservancy. The acquisition will protect the now 88.6 acre property, including Johnson’s original 40 acres and an adjacent piece he added later, along with keeping in its pristine state the nearly quarter mile of sandy and pebble beaches offering views of five of the Apostle Islands.

Rose Gurnoe Soulier, tribal chairperson, said Red Cliff residents are elated at being able to again have access to a site that holds cultural and spiritual significance and which historically was within the reservation boundary and in tribal ownership.

Even better, that new access to what Soulier calls “this gem” will soon be enjoyed by more than just tribal members. In an unprecedented move for a Wisconsin Indian tribe, Red Cliff officials are planning to repurpose the property as Frog Bay Tribal National Park, open to both tribal and non-tribal members for hiking, birding, beach use and other recreational opportunities. The tribe will also use the property for gathering medicinal plants, nature-based educational activities and traditional and spiritual ceremonies, uses that will both protect the property and help preserve tribal traditions and way of life.

To further ensure long-term protection of the property, the Bayfield Regional Conservancy will hold a conservation easement on the land that will permanently restrict uses that are not compatible with protection of its conservation values, including subdivisions, development, excessive logging and more.

How the transfer came about involved more than a bit of serendipity. The Johnsons were longtime close neighbors and even closer friends with former Sen. Gaylord Nelson and his family. It was Nelson, of course, who is deemed the father of the Apostle Islands, and the view from the Johnsons’ Frog Bay property was of islands managed as part of the Gaylord Nelson Wilderness. It was Nelson’s daughter, Tia, who said Marjorie Johnson was “like a second mother to me,” who put the Johnsons’ in contact with Ellen Kwiatkowski at BRC and initiated discussions that led to tribal acquisition.

“One of things that I really like about this project is it brings so many groups together,” said Kwiatkowski. The purchase is being funded by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency’s Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program which provides funding for local units of government to acquire important coastal lands. This will be the first time that a Native American tribe receives funding from that program to reclaim coastal lands. The Wisconsin Coastal Management Program also provided a lot of technical support to help bring the project to fruition. Kwiatkowski noted, “This is our first partnership project with the Red Cliff Tribe and we see many opportunities for future collaboration. Our mission of land conservation is very much in alignment with the Native vision of land stewardship that looks seven generations into the future to evaluate sustainable land use.”

Big Gains in Voluntary Land Conservation Despite Recession

The Land Trust Alliance released the first national census of land trusts in 5 years and found that 10 million new acres have been conserved nationwide since 2005. The story was picked up by USA Today.

The Alliance’s report includes state-by-state analysis and shows that total protected acreage in Wisconsin exceeds 280,000.  Gathering Waters Conservancy helped spread the news about the National Census and Wisconsin’s success in this release.

Other highlights of the National Land Trust Census include:

• Voluntarily protected land increased 27% between 2005 and 2010.
• A total of 47 million acres — an area twice the size of all national parks in the contiguous U.S.  — are now protected by land trusts.
• Operating budgets for land trusts are up 36% since 2005.  State and local land trusts nearly tripled operating endowments in 5 years to ensure that land trust-protected land stays protected.
• The preservation of family farms and ranchlands is now a priority for 61% of land trusts, up from 21% in 2005.
• Urban parks, gardens or open spaces is now a priority for 27% of land trusts, a threefold increase over respondents in 2005.

Gathering Waters Conservancy completes an annual survey of Wisconsin’s land trusts and released a Wisconsin census report  in 2010.  Similarly impressive results included a 261% increase in acres protected by land trusts in Wisconsin from 2005 – 2009.

Land Protected by Land Trusts in Wisconsin

Celebrating Our Partnerships this Fall with the Ozaukee Washington Land Trust

In October, Ozaukee Washington Land Trust sponsored  a unique opportunity to showcase its partnerships to the Land Trust Alliance’s Rally conference participants.  OWLT has been innovative with neighboring industries including the Fondy Food Market, Mequon Nature Preserve, and Sprecher Brewery.  Follow along as the participants make a few stops along their beautiful fall hike.  Or, better yet, head to Milwaukee’s north side and re-create the journey yourself!

Hikers start off at the Mequon Nature Preserve

OWLT executive director Shawn Graff addresses LTA Rally field trip participants at the Mequon Nature Preserve

Steve Petro of the Fondy Market takes pride in the field trip lunch presentation. Fresh vegetables prepared for the lunch were grown just ½ mile from the Forest Beach Migratory Preserve in a partnership with Afterglow Farms.

Field trip participants end the day with smiles at the Sprecher Brewery. Here the group gets a tour before sampling the wares.

This is the third of a three-part series featuring the terrific field trips offered at Rally in Wisconsin last month.  We hope they inspire you to get outside and love the places that make Wisconsin special.

Making the Case for Conservation

We all recognize that resources are increasingly scarce and that the economic climate will continue to put pressure on all of us to more rigorously justify why our work should receive both public and private support in the face of many competing interests.

We’ve recently come across a few studies demonstrating the economic and other values of land conservation.  The Gathering Waters Conservancy board has been discussing the value of and need for a more rigorous demonstration of the numerous benefits of land trust work here in Wisconsin as we make the case with decision-makers in the policy and funding realms.  Some studies that caught our eye recently include:

• “Return on Environment”  The GreenSpace Alliance and the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission recently released a report that is the first to quantify the economic value of protected open space in a five-county area of southeast Pennsylvania.

• “A Return on Investment: The Economic Value of Colorado’s Conservation Easements”  A study by The Trust for Public Land analyzing the return on the State of Colorado’s investments in conservation easements through the Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) and conservation easement tax credit programs.

• “Land & Water: A Quantitative Analysis of Land Conservation’s Impact on Water in Colorado”  After several discussions with various conservation advocates, the Colorado Coalition of Land Trusts (CCLT) realized that, although land trusts and open space programs are associated with land preservation and recreation, we, as a community, are not as strongly linked with water and watershed protection as we can be. The fact is when conservation organizations conserve land, they also protect water.

Gathering Waters Conservancy will continue to pursue these and similar questions here in Wisconsin.  For now, we hope you find some value in these reports and that they may help us demonstrate the multiple and significant values provided by the work of land trusts.  And, please let us know your thoughts.