Saint Clair County Drain Commissioner
While not funders, the TLC has managed to partner with two Saint Clair County Drain Commissioners, Fred Fuller and Bob Wiley, who have both assisted greatly in furthering the cause of wetland preservation in the County.

Beginning in the late 1990s, Fred Fuller implemented storm water management rules, site plan reviews for wetlands, water quality programs, and natural stream management. All of this benefited County taxpayers, not only in terms of environmental health, but saved them a lot of money by reduced dredging and by avoiding expensive new drain projects because developers filled yet more wetland and built houses on it with flooded basements and cracked foundations. Fred was the first in Saint Clair County, that we are aware of, to seek approval from then Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to preserve existing, high-quality wetlands as mitigation for State-permitted wetland impacts for County drain projects. Not only was this a cheaper mitigation option than trying to construct new wetland, but made use of the County’s abundant wetland just as the housing and real estate market began crashing in 2007 and resulted in protection of a very significant natural community. In 2008, Fred donated our first preserve to the TLC; the 18-acre Dead End Woods Sanctuary in Fort Gratiot Township, Saint Clair County. The property was placed under a State conservation easement as wetland mitigation for a drain project. In receiving the preserve, the TLC agreed to take over all stewardship, monitoring, and reporting responsibilities for the conservation easement.

Not long after he took over as Drain Commissioner in 2009, Bob Wiley also realized the benefits of preserving existing, high-quality wetlands as mitigation for County drain projects rather than trying to construct new wetlands. The purchase of credits through wetland mitigation banks was largely not possible until the late 2010s. Starting around 2012, it became necessary to provide wetland mitigation for a large drain project. Bob began buying significant wetland acreage to be preserved as mitigation, particularly the imperiled dune and swale forest in Fort Gratiot Township, Saint Clair County, where he set aside nearly 250 acres that has become part of the Southern Lake Huron Coastal Park. Then Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, now Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, have essentially approved this land as a preservation bank, of which about 42 acres has been placed under State conservation easements for drain projects and another 52 acres for other County projects. In addition to the dune and swale forest, Bob preserved a very high quality northern swamp forest complex in Kimball Township, Saint Clair County, adding about 30 acres of land to the existing 10-acre Michigan Nature Association Sharon Rose Leonatti Memorial Nature Sanctuary. He has also purchased mitigation land in the south end of Saint Clair County along Lake Saint Clair.