The Foresight of Dean and Bernice Shumway

There is a haunting quality to Dean and Bernice Shumway’s Liberty Grove property. Situated on forty acres along Old Stage Road the Shumway homestead is home to more than fields, forest and wetlands. Legend had it that the storied StoneField Ghost frequents the property as well.

The StoneField Ghost is all smiles these days because its haunting grounds are now permanently protested. A conservation easement agreement recently signed by the Shumways and the Door County Land Trust prohibits the 40-acres from being subdivided into smaller parcels and ensures that over 95% of the property will remain in its natural state.

“The Shumway conservation easement is successful because it accommodates the future needs of the landowner while keeping the vast majority of the property free from human development,” states Dan Burke, Land Trust Executive Director. “A diversity of wildlife depends on the property’s abundant grasslands, wetlands, and forest. These plants and animals now have a refuge to inhabit forever.”
While preservation of habitat and open space are the most obvious results of conservation easements, the peace of mind they provide landowners can not be overlooked.

“It’s hard to describe the sense of relief, the amorphous feeling of well-being derived from knowing that at long last we are no longer in this alone,” explains Dean Shumway. “That the beauty of this property would, in fact, remain, in some form or another, for all time to come; that maybe, just maybe, my recurring dream of seeing Old Stage Road as something like Capitol Drive in Milwaukee might , just might, never come about. At least not for this forty. Maybe now the dream can never end.”

The Door County Land Trust thanks Dean and Bernice for their commitment and is honored to provide long-term stewardship over their beautiful northern Door property.