500 acres to be protected

Region

March 11, 2012

500 acres to be protected

Leelanau farmer donates easement to Conservancy

Anonymous Record-Eagle The Record Eagle Sun Mar 11, 2012, 07:00 AM EDT

Traverse City — BY JAMES RUSSELL

jrussell@record-eagle.com

TRAVERSE CITY — A large swath of northern Michigan will be preserved for generations after a longtime farmer and businessman donated more than 500 acres to the Leelanau Conservancy.

Glen Noonan is protecting two large parcels of his land through an easement with the conservancy — the single largest easement donation in the organization’s history.

“In the future, there’s not going to be too many larger tracts of land that are controlled by somebody like the Conservancy,” Noonan said. “The land’s meant so much to me and my family.”

The easement protects two separate parcels in Leelanau County. One preserves 200 acres in Empire Township that’s home to a unique ecological feature called a kettle hole — a rare conical depression in the land created by melting glacial ice.

The second parcel is on Polack Lake in Kasson Township. The 306-acre site is near the house where Noonan grew up, and includes most of the private inland lake.

Noonan retains ownership of the land, but the easement protects the sites from future development, even if it changes ownership. The Noonans are allowed to harvest trees under an approved forest management plan, and a couple of homesites are set aside for possible development. But the deal will keep the land much the same for the foreseeable future.

Matt Heiman, conservancy director of land programs, said the property fills an important gap between protected national forests to the north and state forests to the south.

“The southern portion of our county has some amazing ecological features that often go unnoticed,” Heiman said. “The majority of attention is on the coastline … but the border with Benzie County is rich with state land and large forested tracts. Preserving that land helps augment the wildlife corridors.”

Heiman said working with Noonan was one of the most rewarding experiences of his 10-plus years at the Conservancy.

“Whenever you can make permanent impact by protecting large swaths of natural land, and in doing so you can help guarantee soemone’s legacy for their land, I feel like you’re providing them with what I call the ultimate property right,” Heiman said. “You are having a perpetual say in the condition of your land.”

Roger Noonan, one of Glen’s seven children, grew up on the land near Polack Lake and remembers taking school trips to the kettle hole. He and his brother David now farm 1,200 acres in Leelanau County, including parts of the preserved land.

Roger helped convince his father to conserve the property, some of which has been in the family since 1917.

“It’s a great thing for my children, and my grandchildren and further on,” he said. “It will always be a place for them to go.”

Glen Noonan spent much of his life farming in Leelanau County. He also ventured into the gravel mining and landfill business, and is a long-time county road commissioner. Now he’s looking ahead with his decision to preserve his land.

“I think we all have to look toward the future, and what’s going to happen years from now,” he said.