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Door County Land Trust Surpasses 8,000 Acres Protected

The Door County Land Trust announces they have now surpassed 8,000 acres protected from development through the addition of 106 acres to the Chambers Island Nature Preserve. Door County Land Trust Executive Director Tom Clay said, “We are pleased that with this most recent acquisition we are surpassing two milestones – 8,000 acres are now protected by the land trust, and at 593 acres, Chambers Island has become our largest nature preserve. Chambers Island is an important piece in the picture of Door County’s conservation.”

Chambers Island provides vital stopover habitat for migratory birds. The island is dominated by hardwood and cedar forests with contiguous canopy, an inland lake called Mackaysee, and wetlands including a leather-leaf muskeg (bog), the only one of its kind in Door County. Protecting Chambers Island was recognized as a priority during joint conservation planning sessions with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, The Nature Conservancy and others.

The 8,000 acres protected by the Door County Land Trust are the result of several land protection methods that create corridors of conserved lands benefitting native plant and wildlife species. The Land Trust owns and manages 15 nature preserves and 24 natural areas, which comprise about 4,100 acres protected. Additionally, 3,200 acres are permanently protected through conservation easement agreements with private landowners. An additional 700 acres have been protected and transferred to other organizations for ongoing care.

“There is urgency to our work in Door County. Protecting our thriving plant, fish and bird habitats now creates a refuge in an otherwise rapidly changing world,” said Door County Land Trust Director of Land Program Terrie Cooper. “The Land Trust is poised to protect the most vulnerable places on the peninsula, like the interior of Chambers Island which is so important to the birds migrating over the bay each year – more than 169 species identified so far.”

For more information and to become a land trust member, call 920.746.1359 or visit doorcountylandtrust.org.

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