October 14, 2025
Saul Lake Prairie: Planting A Community | Fall Newsletter 2025
Read our Fall Newsletter!
Newsletter Archive
October 14, 2025
Letter from the Executive Director: Fall 2025
Dear Friends and Fellow Conservationists, Fall is here again, and with it comes one of my favorite traditions: returning to the prairie to collect seeds and prepare them for planting. This year, the ritual carries special meaning. We will be celebrating 25 years of prairie
October 14, 2025
Step 1: Prepare the Soil
After the Land Conservancy of West Michigan (LCWM), then the Natural Areas Conservancy of West Michigan (NACOWMI), completed its first project supporting the protection of Saugatuck Dunes Natural Area in 1988, the group faced the question: ”What’s next?” In the coming years, the organization would reach
October 14, 2025
Step 2: Collect Seeds
In 1999, Dwight Baker, a volunteer with a burgeoning and well-researched interest in native tallgrass prairies, looked at the preserve’s expansive old field planted with one species of non-native grass and had an idea. “He looked at the site and said, you know, this can
October 14, 2025
Step 3: Plant a Community
In the first couple of years after planting a prairie, the aesthetics leave a bit to be desired. In year one, the entire plot will be brimming with horseweed, a native weed that thrives in disturbed soil. The next year, it’ll be covered in Queen
October 14, 2025
The Pere Marquette River inspires conservation
Terry Stranz’s family has vacationed in northern Newaygo County for generations. He and his wife Kris restored a log cabin on a lake where their five children and five grandchildren enjoyed swimming and fishing. One evening before dinner, Terry and Kris decided to stop by a
October 14, 2025
Step 4: Watch it Grow
At the Black Friday Prairie Planting this fall, we will plant the remaining available acres of Saul Lake Prairie, bringing a 25-year restoration project to completion. “Here we are at the end. It’s amazing,” Chris Baer said. “Where’s the rest of it?” she joked. Work in the
April 15, 2025
Letter from the Executive Director – Spring 2025
Dear Friends and Fellow Nature Enthusiasts, As a child, I eagerly awaited spring, not just for its warmth, but for the return of a small seasonal creek that ran near my home. Fed by melting snow, it would awaken from its frozen slumber, carving paths through
April 15, 2025
Marie Wilson volunteers for conservation
When Marie Wilson lived and worked in the Detroit area, she would periodically drive an hour to Ives Road Fen Preserve, managed by The Nature Conservancy, to take part in a volunteer effort to remove glossy buckthorn from the fen. The rewarding work made the