With the help of $145,000 in government grants, Springfield Township and the North Oakland Headwaters Land Conservancy will protect an additional 42 acres of land from modern development.
The township government and the conservancy made up the difference in the $235,000 purchase for land off of Eaton Road near Broadway (Davisburg Road).
The township government will own and manage the land, but NOHLC has a ‘conservation easement? giving them management oversight.
‘It can never be developed,? according to Sue Topping, executive director of the conservancy.
Township Clerk Nancy Strole called the arrangement ‘a very good insurance policy? for future conservation.
Approximately 37 acres of the newly-purchased land includes frontage on the Shiawassee River and the west side of Eaton Road. It covers the northern half of Davis Lake and an extensive ‘prairie fen wetland,? something Strole called ‘a very rare type of wetland that doesn’t exist in many parts of the globe.
‘It provides habitat for increasingly rare flowers and critters,? she said.
The property connects to the Shiawassee Basin Preserve, nearly 400 acres already owned by Springfield Township. It is also part of the more than 600 acres called the Long Lake Nature Area.
The purchase brings the land under NOHLC protection to a total of more than 1,000 acres.
‘It’s pretty exciting,? Topping said. ‘It’s quite a benchmark for us.?
Strole said the area will have only ‘very passive? use in the future. While there are no current plans, she believes there may be expansion of nature trails or construction of viewing platforms for future visitors. The interrelation of wetland, uplands, trees and other vegetation is fragile, however, and she does not want to threaten that balance.
‘If you mess up any part of that, you mess up the prairie fen,? she said.
The $145,000 Great Lakes Coastal Restoration Grant came through the Michigan Coastal Management Program of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
In a separate transaction, NOHLC bought about five acres which fronts the east side of Eaton Road and more of the Shiawassee River.
The Long Lake Natural Area was inventoried in the late 1990s as part of the Shiawassee and Huron Headwaters Resource Preservation Project. The non-profit conservancy, founded in 1972, has worked with local governments to systematically conserve and protect what it calls sensitive and rare lands along the Shiawassee River corridor.
Strole said the Shiawassee River has ecological impact through several counties until it discharges into Saginaw Bay.
‘Springfield Township is where it starts,? she said.
Later this summer, the township government and the conservancy plan to host a special event to introduce the public to the new conservation areas.