At that time, however, Little Traverse Conservancy was a fledgling organization run mostly by volunteers, and it was not actively working in the Les Cheneaux region. The Les Cheneaux Club wasn’t properly set up to own and manage nature preserves. So Covington, Bill McMillan, and Tad Carr purchased the property from Derby for $3,000 (in George’s words, “equivalent to a gift”) and they established the Les Cheneaux Foundation to hold it. Today, it is officially known as the William B. Derby, Jr. Nature Preserve.

Decades later, dozens of kitchen table meetings and cocktail parties behind them, the Les Cheneaux Foundation has been responsible for the protection of more than 1,300 acres in the Les Cheneaux, much of which is now known collectively as the Aldo Leopold Preserve on Marquette Island. “The impact this group has made for the future of Les Cheneaux is immeasurable,” stated Tom Bailey, executive director of Little Traverse Conservancy. “Thirty years ago, they knew undeveloped land accessible to everyone could not be taken for granted. There wasn’t a mechanism in place to do something about it, so they created their own.” Bailey added, “All of this was done on their own time.”

And the work of the Les Cheneaux Foundation is not yet done! Covington continues to work with the Conservancy to take advantage of significant land protection opportunities in that region. Currently Les Cheneaux Foundation and Little Traverse Conservancy are working cooperatively to protect 72 acres and 2,600 feet of frontage on Lake Huron with fundraising needed by mid-summer. Look to our summer newsletter for more information about this new project.