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Is your board raising all the money it could? |
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If you answered "no", you aren't alone. Have you ever wondered how you can harness your board members' passion for the cause and channel it into productive fundraising activities? Are you a board member who feels anxious about meeting fundraising expectations or intimidated by asking others for money? Join us to learn there's a lot more to fundraising than just "the ask".
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Case study provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Peter D. Ter Louw
Executive Director
(269) 324-1600 | ConserveLand@SWMLC.org
SOUTH HAVEN/KALAMAZOO, MI -- Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy (SWMLC) has been awarded a $250,000 matching grant to purchase and restore 120 acres of forest and wetland along the banks of the Black River, 3.5 miles east of South Haven. The project, funded by a U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) Joint Venture grant, will become an SWMLC nature preserve dedicated to the protection of water quality and wildlife habitat.
The GLRI is a task force of 11 federal agencies and was developed to coordinate funding in the Great Lakes Basin to clean up toxins, combat invasive species, improve water quality, and restore wildlife habitat. This year, $930,000 has been dedicated for the Joint Venture grant program of which six projects in four states were awarded funding.
"SWMLC’s project received the highest overall ranking of all GLRI Joint Venture proposals," said Barbara Pardo, chief of the Division of Bird Habitat Conservation for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. "Reviewers especially noted the high diversity of flora and fauna that would benefit from the project as well as the strength of the local partnership. The Joint Venture is proud to support this project for the contributions it will make to our bird conservation objectives."
The 120-acre property is located along the west side of the South Branch of the Black River in Geneva Township and includes over one mile of winding riverbanks as well as small streams meandering through deep tributary ravines. Restoration efforts will focus on improving forest health through such methods as invasive species removal and reintroducing prescribed fire to encourage native plants.
Protecting and restoring the Garvey property was a good fit for the GLRI’s Joint Venture grant program, which focuses on birds and is made up of regional partnerships led by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. The natural areas along the Black River protect water quality by reducing sedimentation and contain diverse habitats that provide valuable resources to many different kinds of migratory and nesting birds.
"We were able to identify breeding and foraging habitat for at least 70 different target bird species identified in both state and national plans," explained Nate Fuller, conservation and stewardship director for SWMLC. The species include those from four bird plans developed by Joint Venture: waterfowl (ducks and geese), water birds (herons and rails), shorebirds (sandpipers and woodcock), and land birds (songbirds and raptors).
The property was first identified as important for conservation through a watershed conservation plan developed in 2008 between SWMLC and the Van Buren Conservation District (VBCD). SWMLC worked with VBCD to prioritize lands for conservation that would best improve water quality and wildlife habitat within the Black River watershed. The results were included in the Black River Watershed Management Plan, developed by the VBCD with grant support from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
"During the past three years, SWMLC has been working with landowner, Daniel Garvey, to help him find a solution to permanently protect his property," stated Nate Fuller. "Mr. Garvey was eager to see his land turned into a nature preserve and to share its natural beauty with the surrounding community. He is making this project possible by offering a bargain sale of the property, generously donating a significant amount of the property’s value as a match toward the grant."
SWMLC proposed the project to the GLRI Joint Venture grant program in partnership with the Conservation Research Institute (CRI), Van Buren Conservation District (VBCD), Two Rivers Coalition (TRC), and the Bangor to South Haven Heritage Water Trail Association (BSH/HWTA). SWMLC and its partners in this grant will provide their expertise in ecological restoration, management and public outreach efforts.
Conservation Research Institute was a natural partner for this grant as they had previously worked with Garvey, and SWMLC has an established track record of success in habitat restoration. CRI principals, Dr. Gerould Wilhelm and Jim Patchett, were able to identify over 300 species of native plants in an initial site visit and were excited at the opportunity to be lead partners in the restoration component of the project.
Local partners, such as the VBCD, BSH/HWTA and TRC, joined in support of the project and many more partners are expected to be welcomed as the project gains momentum.
"It is the Two Rivers Coalition’s mission to protect the health of the Black River and Paw Paw River Watersheds through conservation, education, and advocacy," said Sam Ewbank, TRC board member. "Protecting and restoring the Garvey property to improve water quality is exactly the kind of active conservation we would like to see all along our invaluable waterways and is the core mission of the project partners."
The official acquisition of the property is expected to be completed this fall and restoration work will begin shortly thereafter. Additional funding is being sought to expand restoration efforts and provide long-term funding for management. SWMLC and CRI have high expectations that this project will become one of the premiere ecological restoration sites in the Great Lakes region. Plans to integrate public use with the ecological restoration will begin after the acquisition is completed.
For more information about SWMLC, visit their web site at www.SWMLC.org or call 269-324-1600.
SWMLC is partnering with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources on the Barry State Game Area conservation project and with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality on watershed management planning projects for the Rocky River, Paw Paw River, Black River, Gull Lake watershed and Augusta Creek. SWMLC is working on waterfowl conservation, endangered species habitat acquisition and stewardship projects in collaboration with other land conservancies and nonprofit conservation partners through funding from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. SWMLC is also working on watershed planning and management with the Two Rivers Coalition (Van Buren Conservation District) and Friends of the St. Joseph River. In addition, SWMLC works with county and municipal governments to protect natural areas and open space along Lake Michigan as well as land that provides significant public benefit.
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]]>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Ty Ratliff
Little Traverse Conservancy
231.347.0991
CHEBOYGAN, MI -- For much of her childhood, Marion Weberlein and her family would travel from their home in Plymouth to the Eastern Upper Peninsula to fish for pike. “At that time, those fish were our family’s meat. My mother would come prepared to can everything we caught,” Marion explains. Her father had been a master baker who had emigrated from Germany, and this was shortly after the Depression.
Marion went on to study veterinary medicine at what is now Michigan State and established a successful business near her home town. But the family’s heart was always up north. Every year, they rented a cabin for their fishing excursions, eventually spending their trips in the northeastern Lower Peninsula. One day, they discovered the nearly 200-acre farm surrounding the cabin they liked to rent was for sale. “My dad just loved it,” Marion says, “but didn’t feel he could afford it.”
So Marion purchased the farm, enabling her parents to move north while she kept her business going downstate. Her folks loved the land and, with Marion’s help, gardened, canned, and built barns for her horses and other animals. Every year, flowers popped up around the homestead, planted by the prior owners who ran a cut flower business.
Many years later, Marion sold her downstate practice and joined her parents on the land, with the intention of retiring as well as raising and showing Arabian horses.
One thing led to another and her passion for the welfare of animals was too strong and the need for her services was too great. She soon found herself back in business just outside of Cheboygan, and worked right up until she was 70. “Marion’s success as a vet was due to her strong spirit and the fact that she always put animals first,” said Mary Talaske, a close family friend. “When someone brought in an animal to put down because they didn’t have the money to pay for a broken leg, she would just say, ‘Oh, I can fix that.’ She never turned an animal or a person away if there was something she could do.”
It was in this spirit that several years ago Marion started thinking about the future of her farm. Throughout the years, she has had numerous offers to purchase the land, especially the 2,000 feet of river frontage. Similarly, she has always turned down requests from hunters wanting to use her land. “She really wants to pass this land on to her family, but with the assurance that it will not ever be subdivided,” says Ty Ratliff, land protection specialist with Little Traverse Conservancy. “The conservation easement was the perfect estate planning tool for her.”
This spring, Marion donated conservation easements to Little Traverse Conservancy to permanently protect a total of 191 acres of her farm. The river easement excludes the homestead and farm, protecting the surrounding 55 acres. A second easement protects a 136-acre forested tract located just down the road. “This place has always been natural and free for the animals to have refuge, and that is just how I want it to stay,” she said
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