TLC CONSERVATION EASEMENTS
Bob Putze was the first residential landowner to place a conservation easement on his land with the TLC. His property adjoins the Port Huron State Game Area along the west side of Abbottsford Road just south of Ruby. It is a nice northern forest community with lots of Eastern White Pine, and tall Red Pines that Bob planted in 1964. Edge species like Big-tooth Aspen and planted spruce are gradually dying off in the increasing shade, while shade-tolerant American Beech and Sugar Maple are colonizing the understory, a natural process known as forest succession which leads to a mature native forest community.
Darrin and Kim Koester were the second landowners to protect their land with a TLC conservation easement on 79.4 acres of their 84.6-acre parcel. The Koester conservation easement protects one of the larger forest tracts remaining in Fort Gratiot Township and significantly reduced the property taxes on this large parcel. The Koester Preserve includes a large area of relatively mature, non-fragmented southern swamp and hardwood-conifer swamp forest complex on seasonally inundated to moist sands with scattered upland knolls. Wetland vegetation includes Silver Maple, Green Ash, American Elm, Eastern Cottonwood, Bur Oak, Swamp White Oak, American Hornbeam, Spicebush, Dwarf Raspberry, Spotted Touch-me-not, False Nettle, Clearweed, Marsh-marigold, Sensitive Fern, Royal Fern, Spinulose Woodfern, Fowl Manna Grass, Lake Sedge, and Tussock Sedge.
Michael and Gail Anderson have protected 24.9 acres of their 40-acre parcel for passive recreation and low-intensity land-use such as hunting, firewood cutting, and limited forest management. Most of the conservation easement site is forested, a complex of mid-successional second-growth mesic to wet-mesic northern forest on sand ridges and southern hardwood swamp on wetland swales. The Anderson Preserve includes about 7% of the remaining forest in the section, which is part of a broadly agricultural landscape in Huron County.
Andy and Natalie Ellis, in partnership with adjacent landowners Michael and Gail Anderson, have protected 34.4 acres of their 42.5-acre parcel for passive recreation and low-intensity land-use such as hunting, firewood cutting, and limited forest management. Most of the conservation easement site is forested, a complex of mid-successional second-growth mesic to wet-mesic northern forest on sand ridges and southern hardwood swamp on wetland swales. The Ellis Preserve includes about 7% of the remaining forest in the section, which is part of a broadly agricultural landscape in Huron County.
Through the assistance of Bill Vandercook, a Lapeer-based land conservation consultant who has worked with landowners in the region for many years, the TLC was given a generous donation of about 10 acres of property from Dr. Paul Croissant of Clarkston. Dr. Croissant was a neurological surgeon with Trinity Health in Pontiac and practiced in Oakland County since 1970. Dr. Croissant has long enjoyed the outdoors, particularly hunting, and has made several trips out West and to Africa. The Croissant Sanctuary is located just south of Ortonville along the east side of M-15 in Brandon Township, Oakland County. The property is outside of our six-county territory but not far from Lapeer County. With the donation, our intent was to sell the commercial frontage to raise funds for other land purchases, and to preserve the remaining land with a conservation easement.
