Lancaster/Fuller Easement

Looking to the Future: Conservation in Action

This fall, Doug Fuller and Martha Lancaster placed a conservation easement on their 40-acre property in Readmond Township, Emmet County. Devoted to conservation issues of all kinds, the couple have truly added to their accomplishments of “practicing what they preach.”

What prompted you to pursue a conservation easement on your land? Since April 1991, when we purchased the property, we’ve been managing it in what we feel is an environmentally friendly, sustainable manner. However, we’ve always worried that whoever owns the property after us could easily undo all of our stewardship efforts. Having an easement in place with the Little Traverse Conservancy ensures that will not happen.

Can you tell us about your land ethic, and what this land means to you? We bought this land for many selfish reasons—to have a private place to hunt, provide firewood and some lumber, pick berries and mushrooms, camp, and enjoy nature. These 40 forested acres near the end of a seasonal two-track road and bordering on state land satisfied many of the things we were looking for in a piece of land. However, we also bought it to preserve it. It is an excellent example of the dominant cover type in Emmet County—a mature upland hardwood forest on rolling moraines.

It seems as though the majority of the world’s landscapes have been radically altered by the explosive sprawl of humankind—and not for the better. We basically believe that on the majority of land, natural ecosystem processes should be allowed to proceed with minimal modification and interference by people. We try to limit our activities on our land to those things we feel are relatively low-impact and compatible with that goal.

Do you have any words of advice for others who might be interested in using the tool of a conservation easement? We don’t foresee that having the conservation easement in place will in any way affect the way that we use and enjoy our land. Although defining the terms of the conservation easement needs to be a thoughtful process, the staff at LTC is good at what they do and they made the process quite painless. In short, our advice is that if you have a piece of land and if you care about what its forest, wildlife, or other natural resource features will be like in the future, call your local land trust today!

What are examples of some of the stewardship activities you do on your land? We practice current best management practices for sustainable forest management. Through our selective cutting, we are trying to promote old-growth qualities in the forest (a diverse assemblage of large, mature trees). We also remove invasive exotic species of plants as best we can, try to prevent ORV use except on designated rustic two-track roads, plant trees in some unforested areas, and create and enhance small forest ponds.