Waldeinsamkeit

You may need to set the mood to feel it . . . no earbuds, podcasts, or music. No phone, no conversation. That’s when you tune into a new world: the sound of bickering squirrels, tapping woodpeckers, wind softly roaring in the treetops, your feet crunching through leaves, the pulse of your own blood. Colors become more vivid. Scents demand attention. Away from human-made stuff, the mystery becomes apparent . . . a strange natural essence that’s grounding and somehow familiar. An ancient voice calls and it’s your soul that answers. This important unnamed thing is always there, you just need to quiet the busyness to sense it.

There’s no word for this mysterious natural spirit in English. But in German, it’s waldeinsamkeit (pronounced “valt-ain-zahm-kite”), a beautiful word that’s difficult for most Americans to pronounce but which translates into “solitude of the forest” or even better, “forest loneliness.” Knowing what waldeinsamkeit means, one understands why Lisa Miller chose it for the name of the huge property she has so generously given to SWMLC to protect forever.

The oddly-shaped (like a moose drinking from Fish Lake) 168-acre property is nestled between three Cass County lakes (Saddlebag, Finch, and Fish) and contains a 126-acre wetlands buffet that includes cattail marsh, sun-loving sedge meadow, hardwood swamp (with definite Up- North vibes), and several patches of fen. This array features special wetland plants like tamaracks, old-growth poison sumac, mnomen ( wild rice or “good berry” in the language of the Bodewadmi people who are indigenous to this area), orchids, pitcher plant, and a variety of sedges. The uplands feature pockets of old-growth beech-maple forest and oak-hickory woods, with magnificent ferns and lots of Pennsylvania sedge at ground level.

Like so many of us, Lisa’s love for the natural world traces back to her childhood, living proof of the benefits of getting kids out into nature. Growing up in South Bend, Indiana, her family spent summers at their farm near Jones, Michigan, where she and her siblings got to do fun country-kid stuff like ride horses, fish, and spend the whole day outdoors. It was this idyll that Lisa had in mind when she moved back to Indiana in 2020 to her father’s seven-acre property outside South Bend, a woodsy piece of paradise with a creek running through it. She thought it would be her forever home.

But within just a few years, Lisa was horrified to watch the two-lane road out front widen into five lanes – with a stoplight at the foot of the driveway. Businesses promptly popped up and the accompanying traffic noise and lights threw shade onto her memories of working on the property with her dad. “It was a gorgeous piece of nature until it wasn’t,” she said sadly. “Land is a precious commodity, and once it’s developed, everyone loses.”

The first time Lisa walked the old logging trails on the parcel that would later become Waldeinsamkeit she knew it was what she was looking for. It was so big she got lost a few times at first and wondered about bears (which had been sighted by area residents in recent years). She rejoiced when she found beaver signs and acquired a pontoon boat so she could explore from the water. The place became her sanctuary, a peaceful haven to walk with her dogs while “breathing in the trees and leaves, listening to the sandhill cranes, woodpeckers, and turkeys. I could just be alone in nature in a spiritual way, the epitome of the word waldeinsamkeit.”

Waldeinsamkeit (the property) is exceptional from a strategic conservation perspective, too. Situated as it is, it protects a whopping 1.86 miles of shoreline on lakes that make up the headwaters of Dowagiac Creek, the very stream that flows through SWMLC’s LaGrange Valley Wetlands to the south. According to Nature’s Network, SWMLC’s 2020 Climate Resilience Strategic Conservation Plan, Waldeinsamkeit is crucially positioned within the Glacial Lakes Corridor, which connects the Paw Paw River Headwaters Hub with the Jones Conservation Area Hub. It’s a prime area of focus where land cover and usage have seen little change when compared to other parts of southwest Michigan.

“I could hear the passion in her voice when Lisa first reached out to SWMLC in spring of 2023,” reflected Kaleigh Winkler, SWMLC Land Protection Director. “This was such a rewarding project to be part of and I’m so grateful for conservation champions like Lisa who are keeping nature’s best interest at heart.”

When asked why she made the generous decision to gift her land to SWMLC, Lisa reflected, “I’m so lucky to have had a place to wander as a kid and I feel like this is the one thing I can do to pay it forward. It feels really good knowing the plants and wildlife will flourish with this decision and I wanted to turn it over to a group that would also love and care for it.”