Existing CEs Expand

Helping people protect the local wild and scenic places they care most about.

Existing Conservation Easements Expand

Two recent projects highlight SWMLC's efforts to protect working landscapes: the Bozymowski Conservation Easement project and the Sebring-Glocheski Family Conservation Easement project, both additions to existing SWMLC-protected land.

When the Sebring family moved into the Otsego area in the 1850s they cleared the land for farming and used that timber to build the farmhouse that still is occupied today. While the land now is a mix of corn and soybeans, the land historically has been host to chickens, beef and dairy cattle, horses, potatoes, and a former sugar shack.

In 2004, the 80-acre Sebring Glocheski Centennial Farm in Allegan County was protected with a conservation easement that allowed farming practices to continue but limited activity in the riparian forest surrounding the Pine Creek, a tributary of the Kalamazoo River. The family has since purchased an additional 30 acres containing additional agricultural land and a portion of the Pine Creek riparian corridor. Joyce Sebring, a direct descendant of the original settlers, and her husband Bernie donated a conservation easement on the additional property, protecting a total of 110 acres.

The Bozymowski family has been involved with SWMLC since the beginning. Alex Bozymowski helped draft the first conservation easement for our organization to protect Dr. Don Minter's Mirror Valley in southern Cass County. Minter sold the 46-acre property to Alex and his family, and the conservation easement stayed with the property. Since 1985 Alex and his family purchased an additional 38 acres of productive, prime farmland that is adjacent to the property they bought from the Minters. After several discussions with SWMLC, Alex decided to protect this agricultural land as well, creating a conservation easement that now protects 84 acres.

Both projects protect working landscapes that provide a living and sense of well-being to the people who live on the land. SWMLC has protected important farmland areas that include prime farmland soils, as well as farmlands within the fruit belt along the lake Michigan coastline, identified by the American Farmland Trust as one of the twenty most threatened agricultural landscapes in America.

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