Conservation Value

DePersia South Highlands Preserve protects a forested backdune in a designated Critical Dune Area. A forest of towering oak, maple, and beech blankets the landscape, providing important habitat for a variety of wildlife. Wooded areas like DePersia are particularly important for migratory birds, which use forest patches along the lakeshore as stopover habitat during migration. 

History

Humans have shaped the landscape in the vicinity of DePersia South Highlands Nature Preserve for thousands of years. Native Americans altered the landscape around the preserve by hunting, farming, burning, and the establishment of villages and trails. European settlers extensively logged forests in the area at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century. Along with other forests in the area, the property that is now the preserve was likely logged in the late 1800s. 

The land that is now the preserve was originally purchased by John and Dora DePersia and their friends in 1909 when the first lakeshore cottages in the area were being built. In those days, traveling to the property was difficult: the DePersias took the steamer from Chicago, boarded the interurban train to Grand Haven, traveled by horse and buggy down the beach, and finally climbed the steep dunes on foot to reach their destination.  

Nearly 100 years later, the DePersia family and others in the area wanted the land to be conserved, permanently protecting its natural beauty. In 2002, the Land Conservancy worked with the DePersia family and the South Highlands Beach Association to create a nature preserve, the Land Conservancy’s second preserve in the Grand Haven area.