Photo above of the Mawby Family Farm near Suttons Bay by Mark Smith Leelanau County is a land of spectacular natural features and amazing farmland. The Leelanau Conservancy is working […]
Category Archives: Land Protection
Executive Director’s Message from our 2020 Annual Report
The more things change, the more they remain the same. – Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr Writing in 1848, Karr’s epigram was intended to assert that while things may appear to change […]
2020 Land Protection Project Roundup
(From our 2020 Annual Report). As the year came to a close, it was pretty incredible to look back over 2020 and realize that with your help and the dedication […]
Porritt Farm Adds to Corridor of Conserved Lands
All photos thanks to Mark Smith Rex Dobson was the very first farmer in Leelanau to permanently protect his land from development. In 1999, he worked with the newly formed […]
It’s Official! Majestic Palmer Woods Grows by 350 Acres
Good things take time. Some of the Leelanau Conservancy’s biggest and best projects were decades in the making. Saving the Crystal River. Preserving the iconic DeYoung Farm and shoreline. And […]
Great News: Mawby, Porritt Farms Protect 288 More Acres
Your Leelanau Conservancy is still saving farmland under a high threat of conversion to development despite the ongoing pandemic. Two more iconic farms rooted in Leelanau County’s agricultural heritage have […]
Pat’s Preserve at Lime Lake: A Dream Come True
May, 2020–The dream to create a new Lime Lake Preserve has become a reality! In May we closed on the final two parcels that protect 26 acres, over 1,000 feet […]
Bernie Rink’s Boskydel Vineyard Lands Protected
Story by Carolyn Faught, Senior Writer for the Conservancy. (Feature photo by Mark Smith.) Before moving to Leelanau full time in 1987, my husband and I owned a tiny cottage […]
“Highest and Best Use” Philosophy Leads to Protection of 80-Acre Fleese Farm
For years, Cedar businessman Walter Jedena had long admired the Fleese Farm on the corner of French and Hohnke Roads. He had driven by it many times, always intrigued by […]
“Leelanau Woods” Protected
There is a book that Dick Emens reads every year during the holidays, titled “Self Renewal,” by John Gardner. It’s his way to welcome the new year, reading fireside in […]
