2024 Year in Review

January 9, 2025

Happy New Year!

As we enter into 2025, we are reflecting with gratitude on the year we are leaving behind. Together, we continued the important work of protecting and caring for West Michigan’s natural lands with the support of an incredible community. Please join us in looking back at what we accomplished together in 2024.

Land Protection

McDuffee Creek Nature Preserve fundraising campaign complete

Thanks to the support of over 200 donors, the Land Conservancy of West Michigan was able to successfully complete its fundraising campaign for McDuffee Creek Nature Preserve in late 2024. Nearly $700,000 was raised to fund the acquisition, protection, and ongoing care of the preserve. Thank you to everyone who donated to the campaign. With your support, this nature preserve will be a place where nature can thrive, and people can connect with nature, for generations to come.

3 new conservation easements acquired

We worked with the Mueller, Hyzy, and Krebs families to permanently protect 84.7 acres of land this year. Conservation easements take time and effort to establish, and these families’ commitment to seeing the process through ensures these landscapes will forever be protected from development. We are grateful for their collaboration in the conservation of West Michigan’s ecologically critical landscapes.

Land Management

Nature Preserves

The Land Conservancy of West Michigan is committed to the permanent care and protection of our 20 nature preserves. This work ranges from yearly maintenance tasks, like trail upkeep and invasive species removal, to extensive restoration projects aimed at ensuring the long-term health and resilience of the natural communities our protected lands support. Opening new nature preserves also takes a great deal of work, from building trails and parking areas to installing signage. Land Conservancy volunteers participate in every one of these efforts, whether they are building boardwalks, planting native seeds, or applying prescribed fire. Here’s a look at what we achieved together in 2024:

By the Numbers

5.5 acres native grassland and savanna planted

6 prescribed burns across 87 acres

21 miles trail maintained; 1.5 miles trail built; 2,000 feet of boardwalk constructed

1 bridge built

1,328 acres monitored

28.5 acres of eastern hemlocks treated for invasive hemlock wooly adelgid

Invasive species removed from 18 nature preserves

Over 1,000 volunteer hours dedicated to supporting the care of our nature preserves

Conservation Easements

The Land Conservancy of West Michigan supports the landowners of conservation easements (CEs) it holds in many ways. Our first responsibility is to ensure the terms of the conservation easement are upheld, which we do by monitoring each conservation easement at least once per year. The Land Conservancy also supports landowners in managing their land. Here’s a look at the impact we had in 2024:

125 CEs (9,300+ acres) monitored. Among these, 6 CE-protected properties changed ownership.

72 active land management projects, from trail building to restoration work.

2 CEs along Pere Marquette River were enrolled in a Conservation Resource Alliance river restoration project.

6 CEs have active Forest Management Plans for sustainable forest management.

LCWM partnered with John Ball Zoo and Ottawa County Parks to support a wildlife habitat project at the Upper Macatawa Natural Area CE.

LCWM and Ox-bow School of Art partnered to plan larger-scale restoration efforts at Tallmadge Woods CE, which was also designated by the Old-Growth Forest Network as an old-growth forest in 2024.

Community

The hard work of keeping nature nearby is only possible with the support of a strong community. This year, 238 volunteers joined Land Conservancy efforts. Thank you to our board, committee members, and stewardship, outreach, and office volunteers.

949 people supported the Land Conservancy of West Michigan with a donation in 2024, and 47 made a gift for the first time. Everything we do is supported by our community of conservationists. Thank you for your generous support.

We were grateful to the over 25 volunteers and partner organizations who helped host our outreach and events this year. Thank you to everyone who helped us connect the community with the natural areas we’ve worked together to protect and spread the word about the importance of conservation. We are so inspired by the diverse ways you use art, education, and activities to inform, inspire, and connect our communities.

The Land Conservancy of West Michigan remains committed to advancing justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) in all aspects of our work. This past year as we worked to develop a new strategic plan, we intentionally infused these values throughout the document. In 2024, we also developed a JEDI plan, and held JEDI-advancing outreach events, refreshed our staff and board policy and processes to incorporate JEDI education, and worked on developing new project-selection criteria to help prioritize land protection projects that advance JEDI as well as the conservation of ecologically critical land. We have more work to do in the coming years and look forward to continuing to improve equity in our work in conservation.

Organization

The Land Conservancy of West Michigan thanks Myron Erickson, Bill Lawrence, John Scholtz, and Tom Roe for their service on the board of directors. These members ended their terms in 2024. We welcome new board members Jen Howell, Ben Oliver, and Tim Stoepker. You can read about them in our fall newsletter.

We welcomed Land Protection Specialist Rory Thibault to the team this past year, and Allison Blank served as Stewardship Intern for the field season.

In 2024, the staff and board, with input from our community, worked to draft a new strategic plan and statements. We will unveil the results of these efforts in 2025.

Thank you for another wonderful year. We look forward to continuing to work together in 2025!