A Quarter Century Of Conservation

June 3, 2016

Land conservancies leave their mark on northern Michigan by keeping places untouched

It’s impossible to imagine what the Leelanau and Old Mission peninsulas might look like today if two local land conservancies hadn’t toiled for a quarter century to preserve their forests, shorelines and farmland.

To mark two milestones — the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy turns 25 this summer; the Leelanau Conservancy turns 27 — the Northern Express sat down with the nonprofits’ executive directors to talk about the deals they’ve made, the ones they didn’t, and what they see on the horizon.

Express: How did land conservancy begin here? Was there a model for how it worked when you began?

Glen Chown [GTRLC]: I worked for the Little Traverse Conservancy. They’re of the oldest certainly in Michigan — and among the oldest in the country. I was their associate director for land protection in the late ’80s. Rotary Charities [of Traverse City] was really worried about a lot of the rampant growth and the sprawl that was going on in the late ’80s, early ’90s, and they asked Little Traverse to expand their service area. And Little Traverse politely said no.

So Rotary started getting all kinds of technical assistance from Little Traverse, because there was all this demand for land protection down here but no one to serve it. I started working with Rotary, and next thing I know, they’re forming a land trust, and they are actively recruiting me to head it up.

Thomas Nelson [Leelanau Conservancy]: Our founders, Ed and Barbara Collins, really got the ball rolling. They had been coming here, living here, working here, for many years. What motivated them to found the Leelanau Conservancy is that they saw some stark similarities and differences between the two peninsulas on each side of Lake Michigan — Leelanau on one side and Door County [Wisconsin] on the other. Ed’s family was from Wisconsin and would often spend time in Door County, and they really saw some changes that were affecting the agricultural community, the character of the community, the natural landscape, and it gave them pause that perhaps those changes were coming to Leelanau County.

Chown: The Leelanau Conservancy had just started two years earlier and Rotary said, ‘Do you want to merge, and we’ll form one regional conservancy?’ And Leelanau politely said, ‘No, we’re going to focus on Leelanau County.’ But they were supportive of the formation of a Grand Traverse Conservancy. They actually acquired a piece of land in Benzie County and held it until we were up and running.

Express: A precept of the Leelanau Conservancy is to stay out of politics, and I imagine the same goes for GTRLC. Is there a reason for that, other than to avoid alienating donors? Does it ever frustrate you?

Nelson: I don’t think it’s posed any insurmountable difficulties. It’s a really important fundamental precept of the organization. We want to be honest brokers who are brought in to be solution-oriented. We want to work with anybody who has an interest in conservation. Therefore, it’s really important to be apolitical. We think we share people’s values, and we’re just really careful to not take that to an extreme. Will there ever be a time when we need to take a firmer stand? There may be. The world is changing, and I think we have to be prepared. But having an organization like ours that people can turn to and look at as a friend and ally that will try to help them — that’s just part of who we are.

Chown: The purpose it serves is we work within a very big tent, which I think is important. We bring people together around our mission. But it’s not that we’re not political. I mean, we confine our politics. Our work in the policy arena is very targeted on land conservation tools. We’ve been involved in helping a number of millages for protecting land and open space. The Pelizzari Natural Area, for example, at the base of Old Mission, would not exist were it not for a vote of the people of that township. We weren’t saying vote yes, but we were optioning the property, appraising the property, educating the public about why it was so important to protect that land. So to say that we’re not involved in politics is actually not true.

Express: What accomplishment makes you most satisfied or proud?

Chown: I would say the fact that we are increasingly being viewed as an essential element of this region in terms of protecting the things that people cherish the most — farmland, coastal areas, increasingly water quality, entire landscapes, whether it’s Old Mission or the coast or the Chain of Lakes. We are impacting people’s lives daily, in a positive way. There’s more areas to hike and recreate on. Our park portfolio is huge; our natural areas, areas open to the public that we provide future generations.

Nelson: That’s hard to answer. I think I’m mostly proud that we have been as successful as we have been conserving Leelanau County while we remain a humble, local nonprofit organization. There are many charitable organizations in our community, and we are only one of them. And while we seem to be very good at what we do, we’re cognizant of the fact that this community has lots of other needs that we don’t necessarily serve but we believe are just as important. I’m extremely proud that we’ve been able to work with people from all walks of life in Leelanau to protect 26 natural areas and preserves.

Express: What was the most challenging deal you’ve been a part of?

Chown: The most challenging campaign was the Arcadia coastal campaign, where we had to raise over $30 million in a very short amount of time to save over 6,000 acres. That was a grueling experience, but also in some ways the most satisfying. Probably a better question would have been, what are your top three or five greatest hits, because I hate to pick one child. I have three sons, so I can never favor one over the other. You know, the coastal campaign is big; the breadth of the Old Mission project is very big; things like the Acme shoreline, where we’ve transformed an entire area; the Chain of Lakes from a water quality impact, is really big, because that’s over 60 percent of the surface water coming into all of Grand Traverse Bay.

Nelson: Crystal River was particularly satisfying because there was a situation where a developer in the community wanted to do the right thing in terms of providing another amenity and jobs and all the things that come along with it. He was looking to do some development and a golf course along the Crystal River.

There was a community-based organization that really didn’t want to see that happen. But it was an incredibly valuable asset to the developer who owned the property. We were asked to try to find a solution, and what we essentially did was broker a purchase between the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and the developer to take that land and add it to the National Park System as an undeveloped wilderness area. It was a huge risk for us because there was a $5 million price tag, and we had no assurances that Congress would make an appropriation to purchase the property. Luckily we didn’t have to carry it very long because Congress came through fairly quickly.

Express: What was the one project that got away?

Nelson: It was before my time, but it was the “magic carpet” property on Cathead Bay near Leelanau State Park. A beautiful old stretch of sugar sand beach with a carpet of dune grass behind it and then these incredibly beautiful woods just beyond that — mature trees, massive specimens. And there had been an opportunity to work with Fish and Wildlife Service and other government entities to try to come together to try to purchase that property from the landowner. And we had reached an agreement in principal and, as I understand it, just before the documents were signed, the landowner passed away suddenly and unexpectedly, and unfortunately his heirs did not necessarily view the future of that property in the same way that he had. And so the purchase never happened, and the land was split for home sites.

Chown: The good news is we haven’t lost very often. In fact, I can barely think of an example. But I would say, we had an opportunity to purchase development rights on what is now the LochenHeath property from the farmer that owned that. But there was an appraisal issue; it just didn’t come together. And that would have been a real signature project, had we protected that whole farm and that whole ‘viewshed.’ That would have been a really neat gateway project coming into the community.

Express: What’s your eye on right now?

Chown: I think one of our biggest projects right now is this addition to the Petobego State Game Area. We’re acquiring a 46-, 48-acre inholding between Maple Bay and Petobego that has nearly 2,000 feet on Grand Traverse Bay and over 2,000 feet on Petobego Pond. And what’s exciting about it is, we’re partnering with the DNR in a revolutionary new way, where we’re going to manage the public access components of what we’re doing, and they’re going to manage the state game area components, but we’re going to do it in a very complimentary way. We’re also working on a couple of big projects around Torch Lake that are hugely significant. In Benzie County, we’re looking at a project that I can’t tell you about, but if that comes together, it will be very significant. And another huge one in Kalkaska.

Nelson: One is a lot of planning on our Palmer Woods property. It’s this incredibly healthy forest tract that has been a commercial forest for much of the last four decades. It has incredible opportunities for recreation but also to be a forest laboratory; forest landowners all over are looking to be more sustainable and are grappling with forest diseases and invasive species and all the things that affect forest health. The other thing we have our eye on is we’ve recently partnered with the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy, and the Conservation Research Alliance, as well as 19 other governmental and non-governmental organizations to address water quality and farmland preservation in the Michigan fruit belt. We received, collectively, about $8 million in federal funds that’s been promised to permanently restrict lands to protect water quality and the agricultural resource.

Express: How would this region look today without conservancies?

Nelson: That’s a really hard question. I do think it would look quite different. There was a period in time where there was sort of an assumption, I think, that the landscape was going to change. How it was going to change was a matter of interest and concern to lots and lots of people. Really, a good example is the farming community. I think if you polled the farm families 15 years ago, they would have probably told you, ‘Well, my farm is a farm now, but that’s probably an interim use, that someday it won’t be a farm — that’s the way things are going.’ And I think in large part because the conservancy has forged really strong relationships in the farming community — and of course, the growth of the local foods movement as well; it’s not just us, but we’re a part of this momentum — I think if you polled those farm families today, many if not most of them would say ‘This is supposed to be a farm now and in the future.’

Chown: Agriculture on the Old Mission Peninsula, I think, would have collapsed. There would be subdivisions up and down the peninsula. The farmers would have given up, because the critical mass wouldn’t have been there, and they would have left. They would have sold out. It would be wall-to-wall subdivisions. Arcadia Dunes would have been several thousand homes by now, and there would be stoplights in Benzie County. Railroad Point on Crystal Lake would be a giant subdivision. Maple Bay at the Antrim-Grand Traverse county border — Maple Bay was slated for 400–500 homes, golf courses, airstrip. You would have lost the separation between Elk Rapids and Acme.

Express: How much do you think today’s development boom threatens the character of the region?

Chown: Here’s the big news: The pressure is back, certainly on our high-value coastal water areas, like that 81 [on East Bay] proposal up on Old Mission. And the pressure is back on farmland because farmers are aging. The average age of a farmer in Michigan right now is low 60s, and most farmers in Michigan don’t have succession plans. So what’s happening is these farms are getting ready to change hands, and either they’re going to call us to try to protect it, or they’re going to call the realtor and sell it for development. And we know of a number of some of the most significant farms in the area that are at risk right now. We haven’t seen this in 10 years— over 10 years. Our phones are ringing off the hook.

Nelson: I think it’s going to put pressure on the Grand Traverse region. The value of real estate is only going up. The desirability of this place as a place to vacation or retire continues to be a magnet for people. And yet, I’d like to believe that the ethic with respect to conservation and land use has shifted somewhat. I think we have allies in places that maybe we didn’t have 10 to 20 years ago. I think township governments, who make all of the land-use decisions, have a different view. They see us as somebody who could be helpful.

Express: When land goes into conservation, how much of a guarantee is it that it will never be developed? Can conservation areas be threatened in the future?

Chown: I don’t think so. When we get Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund dollars, there’s no way that is ever going to be developed. And one of the things about the conservancy — and I think this is something people appreciate — in our next 25 years, one of our big goals is to really accelerate the growth of our stewardship endowment so that the promise of forever is real, so that we have the financial wherewithal to enforce our conservation easements, if necessary. If a township is trying to sell off Maple Bay or some signature property that we’ve protected, we’re going to defend those rights. That’s really one of the advantages of having a private organization working with the public entities. Let’s give a real life example: There was a county commissioner, Grand Traverse County, that said, ‘Maybe we should sell these parks to pay for our pension gap,’ and I quietly called the county prosecutor and basically said, ‘No, you can’t do that. You can’t sell Maple Bay. It’s constitutionally defended because it’s got a reverter clause with the state of Michigan that was built into the grant.’ I didn’t need to go into the public and scream. And have you seen any more stories about commissioners wanting to sell Maple Bay?

Nelson: As long as there’s a United States, and a state of Michigan, and forward-thinking organizations who are willing to partner with the community to do these things, it will continue to be conserved. And farmland will continue to be available to farm families. Natural land, forest land, will continue to be what they are. You could probably dream up any number of catastrophic events or crisis that could possibly change that, but the promise of perpetuity is about as ironclad as you can get.

These interviews have been edited and condensed for clarity.

The Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy will host a birthday celebration on Aug. 13, which will be open to the public and hosted at the Historic Barns Park at the Village at Grand Traverse Commons.