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Northwoods Land Trust wins Wisconsin's 2007 Land Trust of the Year Award!

We are excited to report that Gathering Waters Conservancy, the statewide land trust umbrella organization, has selected the Northwoods Land Trust to be the 2007 Land Trust of the Year Award recipient.  This honor was recognized the evening of September 20th at the Gathering Waters Conservancy Annual Awards Banquet, Monona Terrace, Madison.  We greatly appreciate this outstanding recognition!

2007 Ends with a Bang!

The end of 2007 brought another record-breaking year of land conservation transactions for the Northwoods Land Trust.   We were able to record nine additional conservation easement donations from private landowners in Vilas and Oneida counties in December.  These easements protected just over 1,100 acres of woodlands, wetlands and natural shorelands. 

Three projects protected lands along the upper Wisconsin River - two in Oneida County and one in Vilas.  Another protected over a mile of entirely natural shoreline on the Pelican River, Oneida County.  Seven projects featured natural shoreline frontage on lakes - including Big Portage Lake (Land O' Lakes), Marion Lake (Minocqua), Rangeline Lake (Cloverland), and the entire shorelines of two "wild lakes" (Newbold).

NWLT also provided extensive technical assistance and agreed to serve as a backup holder for another 99-acre conservation easement on State Line Lake granted to the Last Wilderness Conservation Association in Presque Isle.  Congratulations to LWCA for that outstanding project!

Our heartiest THANKYOU to the following private landowners who made the incredible commitment to perpetual conservation protections for their properties in 2007:  Al & Kathy Nagy, Sybil & Howard Holtzer, Tom & Ellen Katisch, Harry & Candy Whidden, Virginia & John Elsen, Roland & Ruth Rueckert, Bill & Joy Vancos, Walter & Janet Wellenstein, June Wedell, and Peter Richard Schumann.  THANK YOU too to The Nature Conservancy for their transfer to NWLT of the Holmboe Conifer Forest State Natural Area in 2007.

Altogether in 2007, NWLT worked to protect 1,237 acres of land, bringing our total to over 3,300 acres permanently conserved on 33 different properties!  And we already have a backlog of additional land protection projects for 2008.  With your help, we are truly making a difference in the northwoods. 

Recent Events:  

November 6th - NWLT Gathering at the Arbor House Environmental Inn, Madison - We shared a fun, informal evening with hors d'oeuvres and beverages to meet with Vilas County property owners and NWLT members and supporters.  Special Thanks to our event sponsors:  Becky Abel, Bill & Ann Bablitch, Denny Caneff, Tony Earl, Vicki Elkin, Charles Luthin, Peter McKeever, George Meyer, Tia Nelson, Michael & Molly Strigel, Jon Ela & Trish Stocking, Topf Wells, Gary Williams and NWLT Board members Jim Holperin, Mitch Olson, Willa Schmidt and Dan Wisniewski.  Thanks too to our hosts at the Arbor House:  John & Cathy Imes.

August 19th - Holmboe Conifer Forest Re-Dedication & Old Growth Forest Walk - We celebrated the transfer of this unique, old-growth forest state natural area from The Nature Conservancy to the Northwoods Land Trust.  Naturalists John Bates and Wisconsin Conservation Hall-of-Famer Ced Vig were featured.

August 10th - Deerskin River Paddle & Preserve - A beautiful paddle down the Deerskin River trout stream included a visit at Bob & Kathy Martini's conservation easement property.

July 31st - Wisconsin River Paddle & Preserve - A fun float down the Wisconsin River below the Rainbow Flowage dam culminated with a visit Rich Eggleston's property protected by a conservation easement.   

NWLT celebrated our 6th Annual Meeting with a visit to the Thunder Lake Wildlife Conservation Area

The Northwoods Land Trust celebrated our 6th Annual Meeting at the Town of Three Lakes Town Hall and Community Center on Friday, June 22nd.  Featured were "virtual tours" of NWLT's first outright land donation of 144.5 acres, as well as five other recently-completed conservation easement projects.   Immediately following the meeting, DNR Wildlife Biologist Ron Eckstein led a hike and bog slog through the state's extensive Thunder Marsh Wildlife Area out to NWLT's donated Thunder Lake Wildlife Conservation Area.

Besides nearly stepping on a ruffed grouse brood, and seeing the harriers and flock of cedar waxwings, the iris were in full bloom!

Looking ahead with the Northwoods Land Trust

The pride he had in his land was clearly evident as he pointed out old fire burns, two small “wild lakes,” food plots for wildlife he had planted, and a diversity of forest types that ranged from open jack pine barrens and tall red and white pine stands, to richer hillsides of sugar maple and basswood. 

He was concerned about how quickly the surrounding lands have been subdivided and developed, and was sad as he told me how he didn’t act quickly enough to save another 750 acres before it was split up. 

His face lit up when we rounded a bend and spotted two adult bald eagles perched on a dead snag.  He listened intently to my explanation of how land protection agreements, or conservation easements, can keep properties like his wild and intact on into the future. 

He wanted to know more about the newly-enhanced income tax benefits of donating a conservation easement, but that wasn’t why he had called me.  Through his hand shake as I was leaving, I could feel his commitment to conserve some of the northwoods for all of the generations to come.   

Next I drove down to Oneida County to visit yet another conservation project.  This 144.5-acre property abuts state land and includes over a half-mile of swamp frontage on a lake. 

“You can’t get there from here,” except by foot or by boat, is one of the challenges and benefits of this property.  Parking on state land, I walked along an old ditch line trail following deer and coyote tracks for over a half mile.  I crossed some marsh pockets and took photos of the tamarack-spruce swamp on the open horizon that marked the boundary of this property.

This is clearly a spot left untouched through time.  Underneath the canopy of tamaracks and black spruce is an ancient matt of sphagnum moss and bog sedges.  Just one small island of higher ground is surrounded by thick swamp.  I found some grouse tracks and realized these could be from a spruce grouse.  Less than a mile from here in the same type of habitat is one of the rare sites in Wisconsin where I’ve seen spruce grouse, gray jays, black-backed woodpeckers and boreal chickadees.

This property is now our first nature preserve.  The landowner gifted the land as an outright donation to the Northwoods Land Trust.  Her gift keeps some of this beautiful lake shoreline and undisturbed boreal forest wildlife habitat forever wild – a gift that will last long beyond her lifetime.

But there are costs to the Northwoods Land Trust to preserve such lands.  With nine new land protection projects in Vilas and Oneida counties recently completed, we must raise nearly $50,000 of contributions just to cover the significant costs of ensuring we can protect these lands forever.  Contributions from our supporters are critical to help encourage these and other landowners to make that incredible step of ensuring outstanding properties are conserved now.  Time is running out.

We have now achieved our next great milestones in protecting the northwoods –

-          Our first two nature preserves on private lands donated to NWLT to be kept entirely in their natural state, where wild things will take precedence now and for generations to come.

-          Miles of lake and river shorelines that will remain forever pristine.

-          Over 3,300 total acres of woodlands, wetlands, lake and river shorelands and wildlife habitat protected forever.

It is the goal of the Northwoods Land Trust to keep part of the northwoods forever wild – we invite and encourage you to participate in that effort.  There is no better feeling than knowing that you have helped to protect this place we all love – for all time. 

Bryan Pierce, Executive Director