During an event at Cobblestone Farm on Thursday, Mark Patrick and Suzie Heiney unveil the Washtenaw Land Trust's new name and logo: the Legacy Land Conservancy.

As the nearly 160 guests started dinner Thursday evening, Susan Lackey urged them to continue making bids on the silent auction items – including, she said, “heirloom” Washtenaw Land Trust mugs. “The value of those will go up significantly before the evening is over.”

Those mugs are the last of their kind, as the land trust now has a new name: Legacy Land Conservancy. Lackey, the nonprofit’s executive director, says the name reflects a broader mission and geographical reach beyond the boundaries of Washtenaw County. In the past few years, the trust has helped protect 337 acres in Jackson County, to the west of Washtenaw. Its logo includes the charge of “protecting and preserving Southern Michigan.”

The group unveiled its new name at an awards dinner held at Cobblestone Farm and filled with local links to the land and community. The name, logo and overall new image of the land trust was developed with help from Q Ltd., an Ann Arbor design firm. The meal was catered by A Knife’s Work and included food from Tantre Farm, Zingerman’s Creamery, Café Japon and Jeff Renner’s Best French Bread in Town. Zingerman’s Roadhouse and Deli provided appetizers and desserts, and drinks came from Arbor Brewing Co., Sandhill Crane Vineyards and RoosRoast Coffee.

A special label for Sandhill Crane Wine's blended Chardonnay reflects the land trust's new name and logo.

The evening included news beyond the name change. Scott Simonds, a land trust board member, announced the formation of the Forever Fund, a “quasi-endowment” to be used to defend conservation agreements. Simonds said that landowners have “trusted the Washtenaw Land Trust to protect their land and to protect it forever, and in fact, that’s our intention.” But attorneys told them it wasn’t a matter of “if” some of those agreements would be violated over time, but “when” – and the land trust needs funds to pay for a legal battle to protect the land, if necessary. The goal is to raise $500,000 by year’s end, Simonds said, and they already have commitments for 75% of that amount. An anonymous donor has pledged matching funds for the campaign.

Later in the evening, Guy Williams, board president, presented two Preservationist of the Year awards, calling the winners “heroes in our movement and in our region.” Harold Baker was honored for his lifelong conservation efforts in the Pinckney-Waterloo area. Working with the Boy Scouts of America, Baker helped build a network of trail systems in the Pinckney and Waterloo Recreation area, and last year he provided two acres of land as a buffer for Half Moon Lake, adjacent to the Pinckney Recreation Area.

The second award was given to Rudy Reichert, who in 2006 donated a perpetual conservation agreement to protect a 100-acre forest and wetlands near Portage Lake in Dexter Township. Del Dunbar accepted the award on Reichert’s behalf, saying he’d known him for 45 of Reichert’s 88 years. Dunbar said Reichert told him a “house of ill repute” had operated across from that property in the 1940s and ’50s. Pointing out that Dexter Township supervisor Pat Kelly was at the dinner, Dunbar joked that this fact should reduce the taxable value of adjoining properties. Dunbar noted the historical significance of the land, saying that the French explorer Robert de LaSalle had actually camped on the parcel in the 1680s. One hundred years from now – or even 1,000 years – “people will still appreciate this gift,” Dunbar said.

A final award honored U.S. Rep. John Dingell, recognizing his role in preventing the loss of federal tax deductions given for conservation easements. He not only helped head off that threat, Williams said, but he also helped come up with extra tax incentives. Those incentives expire soon, but they hope to make them permanent. Andy LaBarre, a staff member from Dingell’s office, accepted the award on the congressman’s behalf.

The main speaker for the evening was Rand Wentworth, president of the Land Trust Alliance, a Washington D.C. advocacy group. He praised the land trust’s vision, saying they were part of a national movement of citizens who care about the land. “Land trusts help us know both where we are, and who we are,” he said.

One final note: The land trust offices are located in the NEW Center, a building that serves several nonprofit groups. The receptionist also serves the entire building, and is not directly connected with the trust. Yet when Susan Lackey walked into the building on Thursday morning, there on the receptionist’s desk sat a bird’s nest with three blue candy eggs. Just like the land trust’s new logo, which hadn’t yet been unveiled. “It was an omen,” Lackey said.

Harold Baker, left, receives one of two Preservationist of the Year awards for his work in the Pinckney-Waterloo area and the Boy Scouts of America. The award was presented by Guy Williams, president of the land trust.

"Heirloom" Washtenaw Land Trust mugs were part of the silent auction.

Barns on the Ludwig Farm in southern Washtenaw County, seen from a hill on their property.

If you live in a city or suburb and don’t travel off your beaten path, it’s easy to forget how rural much of the surrounding area is. Protecting this land – including farms to relatively untouched natural areas – is the mission of the Washtenaw Land Trust, and on Saturday afternoon about 50 people boarded a bus to see some of the work they’ve done toward that goal. The Chronicle went along for the ride.

The group met at the county’s service center on Zeeb Road, then took the bus west before heading south on Parker Road. As we left the suburbs and passed through fields of dried corn stalks and the occasional herd of sheep (and at least one llama), Suzie Heiney, the trust’s development director, pointed out the significance of what we were seeing and how it fit into the goal of land preservation:

Connie Ludwig, left, who with her father Bob owns 167 acres in Freedom Township that's protected through a conservation easement.

• If there’s a silver lining in the current housing market, it’s that the pressure to sell land to developers has eased somewhat. Now, farmers are more likely to consider other options, such as creating a conservation easement, which limits the amount of development that can be done on the site in exchange for certain tax benefits.
• The Washtenaw Land Trust partners with other preservation initiatives, including the city of Ann Arbor’s greenbelt program. Last year, 10 groups formed a collaborative called Preserve Washtenaw, which meets regularly to coordinate their efforts.
• Through the trust’s 71 projects, 3,711 acres have been protected in this area. That includes the Parker farm’s 188 acres, which has been in that family since the 1830s. It also includes the Ludwig farm on Bethel Church Road, which was the tour’s first stop.

Connie Ludwig and her father Bob Ludwig own 167 acres of rolling fields and woods in Freedom Township, and last year signed a conservation easement for the property.

As we pulled into the farm, someone on the bus said to her seatmate: “I love it out here, but what would you do all day?”

For an hour, at least, what we did was enjoy cider and donuts from Alber Orchard and Cider Mill – you could see the orchard’s apple trees across the road from the Ludwig farm.

Riding a bus builds an appetite for cider and donuts from Alber Orchard.

And for part of that time, Peter DeLoof – a land trust board member – took the group for an old-fashioned hay ride, using an well-preserved red tractor that had surely not hauled a friendlier load.

The sharp scent of hay on a crisp autumn day, coupled with the rural vista of burnished woods and romping quarter horses, “does the soul good,” as one person mused.

While we were there, we also heard from Susan Lackey, the trust’s executive director, who took a moment to do some well-deserved back-patting: The Washtenaw Land Trust is one of only 39 trusts accredited this year under a new national accreditation program.

She also noted that because the board has expanded the trust’s geographic reach to include Jackson County, the organization will be changing its name within the next few months to reflect that broader mission. No word on what that new name will be.

Peter DeLoof, a Washtenaw Land Trust board member, takes on riders at the Ludwig farm.

We also had time to chat with the bus driver for the group, Kim “My friends call me Ketch” Ketchpaw. He grew up in the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area during the 1960s and shared some stories with The Chronicle about musicians he saw at local “teen clubs,” including the Yardbirds, Ted Nugent and Iggy Pop. He also recalled watching war protests on the UM campus, most memorably a time when students were throwing IBM Selectric typewriters out of windows at the LS&A building. (It’s worth noting that Ketch received two separate rounds of applause from riders during the trip, both times when he made particularly difficult turns without plowing over a post in one case or a sign in another.)

Suzie Heiney of the Washtenaw Land Trust and Kim "Ketch" Ketchpaw, the tour bus driver.

Soon it was time to reboard and head north on M-52, then west on I-94 to Exit 150, and into the Waterloo Recreation Area. We skirted the southern edge of this expansive 20,000-acre park, and learned that it’s the largest public park in the Lower Peninsula. The trust looks for properties it can help preserve adjacent to Waterloo, or near the Sharonville State Game Area to the south and the Pinckney Recreation Area to the north – creating a natural corridor of open space and farmland.

A late afternoon wine tasting at Sandhill Crane Vineyards.

On the western border of Waterloo is the Sandhill Crane Vineyards, our next and final stop on this tour. They make 27 different varieties of wine and embrace the goal of buying local, according to Heather Price, whose family owns the business. Despite the chill in the air, many of the vines were still laden with grapes. But most people stayed out of the vineyards and took advantage of the free wine tasting – and by the end of the hour, the line at the winery’s store was long.

The point of having Sandhill Crane Vineyards on this bus tour – as well as Alber Orchard snacks at the Ludwig farm – was to connect us with an active agricultural enterprise, and to show us the value that these land-based businesses have to our community. And ultimately, of course, to help us appreciate the importance of making sure these places can be sustained. It’s unlikely that anyone on the tour needed convincing. But they likely came away with a better understanding of local land preservation issues, and of the Washtenaw Land Trust’s role in safeguarding rural areas for future generations.

Grapes ready to harvest at Sandhill Crane Vineyards.