Property buyers Ed Strand (left) and Bill Kallio (right) shown with Kalamazoo Nature Center President and CEO Bill Rose.

The property, which will be protected forever through four conservation easements, is also known to be home to moose, bear, beaver, otter, wolf, bobcat, mink, fisher, bald eagle, osprey, and many other wildlife and plant species.

When first founded in 1960, the Kalamazoo Nature Center acted as one of Michigan’s first land trusts. As a result, one of their donors gifted the land to them in 1975 with the main goal of ensuring that the property and its natural features would be given protection for the long term. Yet, located hundreds of miles away from Kalamazoo, ongoing oversight of the land was often challenging.

“The original intention of the land’s donor was to protect its natural resources,” said Bill Rose, President and CEO of the Kalamazoo Nature Center. “Thirty years later, we are able to provide it with even stronger protection. By legally protecting the land with conservation easements that will be monitored by the Little Traverse Conservancy and then selling it to private landowners, this land is given the best permanent protection available.”

And the lucky landowners are thrilled to be part of this conservation plan. When given the opportunity to purchase the land with the knowledge that its ecological attributes would be preserved through conservation easement, neighboring landowners Ed Strand and Bill Kallio saw a dream coming true. “To us, it is not a restriction to own land that we can only hunt, fish, and enjoy for its wildness, Strand said. “That is what we would be doing there anyway.” He and his family have been traveling to their river property for 25 years. “Our three grown children are as excited about this as we are. They were practically raised on this river, spending time every summer and fall of their entire childhoods here,” Strand said.

Bill Kallio is an Upper Peninsula native and has been on the river for 45 years. For much of that time, he and his family operated a tour boat business that took people on river excursions to the Tahquamenon Falls. His five children also spent their lives growing up on the river and are all very pleased to know that this section of land will be preserved. “I have been happy working with the Conservancy and realizing they have a balanced and realistic approach when protecting land,” Kallio said. “For us, this really couldn’t be better.”

Conservancy Land Protection Specialist Kieran Fleming agrees that the resulting partnership is a perfect match for this land. “This is one of those projects that feels good all around. It is so rewarding to partner in the protection of land of this magnitude and to know that those who made it happen did it for all the right reasons.”