The dedication of the new Winter Park Pines Nature Preserve was held on  Thursday, December  29^th at 11 a.m. at the Minocqua Winter Park chalet.  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, and is an early Christmas present for the many friends of Minocqua Winter Park.  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 and have placed limits on forestry practices, land fragmentation, and development which will keep the land in its natural state.  The land will remain open to the public forever for winter silent sports including cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and skijoring (skiing with dogs). 

Ski trails now protected include the Base Loop, Tornado Alley, Survivor Windy Ridge, Nutcracker, Nose Dive, Beaver Pond, Creek Trail, Red Pine, Silver Strider, Sleigh Ride, VO2 Max, Nepco's Cruise, most of   X-C  Express and River Run, as well as the northern half of Yukon.   Much of the newly expanded snowshoe trail system is protected as well.

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.

A conservation easement is a voluntary legal agreement between a landowner and a land trust to permanently protect a property's natural characteristics by limiting how it can be used.  The Northwoods Land Trust is committed to monitoring the land each year and ensuring that the easement's terms are carried out in perpetuity .

Taking part in the signing were (from left) Atty. Tom Lawrence, Lakeland Ski Touring Foundation President Pam Fashingbauer, landowners Ken and Carolyn Aldridge, NWLT President Mary Schwaiger, Lakeland Ski Touring Foundation Director and Past-President Dr. David Kozeluh, and NWLT Executive Director Bryan Pierce.

Based on the very popular Saving your Family Cabin/Preserving Family Land seminars held in August, Atty. Melissa Kampmann, an estate planning specialist with the Ruder-Ware Law Firm in Wausau, shared family succession planning information as part of NWLT's 10th Anniversary Celebration.  This seminar was of great interest to current and prospective conservation easement donors, as well as other private landowners interested in finding out how best to pass cherished family lands down to succeeding generations.

The event was held on  Saturday, July 30th, 2011 at Eagle Waters Resort east of Eagle River.  The Celebration Banquet included lots of good food, some unique silent auction items, and a wonderful opportunity to share NWLT's past successes and look ahead to the future.  Contact the NWLT office if you would like a copy of our special commemorative publication on "Celebrating 10 years of Northwoods Conservation" at (715) 479-2490.

(Above) Executive Director Bryan Pierce presented 10-year NWLT-logo canoe paddle awards to founding Board members (from left) John Huppert, Jim Holperin, Willa Schmidt and Mary Schwaiger.

Special Thanks to our Major Sponsors:  Mike & Peg Uihlein, the Dale Druckrey Conservation Fund of the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin, and Bryan Pierce & Gail Gilson-Pierce.  Our Table Sponsors included Dan Wisniewski & Fran DeGraff, Mitch & Sara Olson, Pete & Brenda Davison, John & Jan Huppert, and Jim & Kathy Holperin. 

Thanks too to our Silent Auction Contributors:  "A Step Up" Gift Shop in Minocqua, John Bates/Trails North, Scott Craven, Pete Davison, Bill Dickens, Gail Gilson-Pierce, Jan Huppert, John Huppert, Bob Martini, Trisha Moore, Bryan PIerce, Meta Reigel, Springstead Lake Lodge, St. Croix Rod Company, Beth Tornes, Trees For Tomorrow, Dan Wisniewski, Lisa Wood and the Woodland Indian Art Center in Lac du Flambeau.  Other10th Anniversary Contributors included:  Diana Anderson, Willa Schmidt, DiAnne & Terry Hatch, Meta Reigel, Dale Lang, Walt & Nina Wellenstein, Walt & Donna Gager, River Valley Bank, Beth Tornes & Bill Dickens Jr., Bill and Jackie Dickens, David & Minka Dawson, Dan & Carol Paretsky, Ginny Parker, Kate Stafford, Betty Beverly, Lorraine (Carol) Haas, Paulette Cary, Leslie Gulliford & Peter Victora, and Chris & Mary McCann.  Our sincerest appreciation to all!

NWLT's Annual meeting was held on Friday, June 24th at the Newbold Town Hall.  Open to the public, the event included a free light lunch and social time with the Board.  The meeting highlighted a "virtual tour" of conservation projects completed in the last year. 

Immediately following the meeting, a walking tour was conducted of the Wellenstein family's conservation easement properties in the towns of Newbold and Pine Lake.  All together, the family has protected over 1,450 acres!  The land includes three DNR-identified "wild lakes" and almost the entire shoreline of Fredrich's Flowage.  

The end of 2010 and beginning of 2011 saw the completion of even more permanently conserved woodlands and lake and river shorelines from the Northwoods Land Trust's conservation efforts.  We were able to record several additional conservation easements granted and agree to accept a conservation land donation as a bequest from private landowners in Vilas, Oneida and Forest counties during the year.  The conservation easements add just over 200 acres of additional woodlands, wetlands and natural shorelands, including another half mile of lake, river and stream shorelines.  We also added another parcel to our non-binding Conservation Area Registry Program, which now includes almost 600 acres. 

Among the recently-completed projects located in Oneida County is our seventh conservation easement located along the Upper Wisconsin River (left).   David and Minka Dawson (pictured above right) protected their 26-acre farmstead and woodland property with about 900 feet of frontage on the Hat Rapids Flowage of the Wisconsin River.  This property is upstream from two other NWLT-conserved properties on the Wisconsin River south of Rhinelander.  The Dawson property also includes several spring ponds that are currently being restored as natural brook trout habitat.

Mary Lewandowski (pictured above left with sign) also ensured lasting protection for her 23 acres of long-time family lands in the town of Newbold.  Located on the shoreline of Soo Lake west of Rhinelander, the property features about 800 feet of frontage.  This site also is adjacent to Oneida County Forest lands and, like the Dawson property, is enrolled in the state's Managed Forest Law program for productive timber management.

The Wellenstein family added another 60 acres to their 813-acre conservation easement in the towns of Newbold and Pine Lake through the Highlands Limited Partnership of Wisconsin and signed by siblings Rick Wellenstein, Charlie Wellenstein, Michael Wellenstein, Anna Wellenstein and Bart Wellenstein.  This additional 60 acres protects more of the natural shoreline on Fredrich's flowage, a series of small impoundments managed for waterfowl production.  This large land protection project is also adjacent to a 595-acre property conserved by parents Walter and Janet (Nina) Wellenstein in 2007, ensuring lasting protection to a block of over 1,400 acres of family lands. 

Unique in NWLT's experience, we have now seen the actual reversal of a subdivision development on a project in Vilas County.  Lee and Margo Popovich purchased 21 subdivided lots complete with surveyed lot markers and internal roadways, and have now bound those lots back together again through the granting of a conservation easement.  Located in the town of Land O' Lakes, this property lies up against the border with the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and the Ottawa National Forest, and lies just south of the Sylvania Wilderness Area.  Encouraged by their log home builders, Joe and Mary Hovel (also representing Partners In Forestry Landowner Cooperative), to do something "significant" with this property, the Popovich family has now conserved 58 acres of woodlands and wildlife habitat as an important buffer to the other adjacent public lands.  This project was made possible with the support of contributions from the Northwood Alliance and the Friends of Sylvania Wilderness.

At their December meeting, the NWLT Board of Directors also approved acceptance of an important property as a future bequest.  The landowners contacted NWLT based on a referral from biologist Gary Zimmer of the Ruffed Grouse Society with a view to ensuring lasting protection of their younger-aged forest land.  The property is surrounded by national forest land and within the boundaries of a designated wilderness area.  While we hope we do not receive this bequest for many years to come, the landowners can now feel secure that their property will remain conserved long after they are no longer able to manage the land.

Our sincerest THANK YOU to all of these private landowners and other contributors who have made these incredible commitments to perpetual land conservation.  We already have several additional land protection projects in line to close in 2011.  With your help, we are truly making a difference in the northwoods. 

2010 Dedication of the Dugan Squash Lake Nature Preserve               

Looking ahead with the Northwoods Land Trust

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, Oneida and Iron 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 –

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

-          Over 27 Miles of lake and river shorelines that will remain forever pristine.

-          Over 5,000 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