 So thank you all for coming tonight. It's great to see so many people here that are concerned or interested in learning about conservation. And I also want to thank the Historical Museum for inviting me to speak tonight, and I really appreciate them highlighting the conservation efforts in our community. I am Rose Phillips, the Executive Director of Glacier Lakes Conservancy. Just by a shell of hands, I'd be interested to know who has heard of Glacier Lakes Conservancy before. Okay, good. Almost half. That's good. Our mission is to permanently protect land and water resources for future generations. And so in my presentation tonight, I'm going to talk a little bit about how we do that and why we do that. So I figured a good place to start would be at the beginning of our story. And so our Conservancy was established in 1996 by a couple of local folks. The two in this picture are Christie and Mike Sorenson. They are two of about eight that founded the organization. And in the early 1990s, they were noticing that development was really speeding up in our community and they had concerns about the land and it being conserved and having open spaces be available. So they formed this group and it was an all volunteer group at that time. And it was called the Sheboygan Area Land Conservancy because the focus was, as the name implies, the Sheboygan Area. Fast forward six years and in 2004, the name was changed to Glacier Lakes Conservancy because we've expanded our area of service. We now cover five counties as you can see Manitowoc, Kiwani, Calumet and Fond du Lac in addition to Sheboygan County. We now have over 1600 acres under protection. And we do this in one of two ways really. We either purchase property or we hold conservation easements and those can be on public or private lands. At this current time, we now own four preserves and we hold 25 easements. All of the properties with the asterisks are open to the public. All of the properties that we own are always open to the public. Some of the properties that we have easements on are public and some are private. So for example, I'll start with Amsterdam Dunes up at the top there. That one is consistent with this picture here I'd like to point out. This is a picture of Amsterdam Dunes. It's 180 acres in the town of Holland and it's shoreline property. And it's owned by the County of Sheboygan but we hold the easement. Dick Conservation, to tell you the truth, don't know much about. I have not been with the organization all that long but I believe that one was donated to us. The Garden Bear Oak property, some of you may have visited, that is near Maywood. It is owned by the City of Sheboygan and we hold the easement and it's managed by Maywood. So there's a lot of partnerships involved in these sorts of transactions and the management of them. Point Creek Natural Area is in Manitowoc County and it's owned by Manitowoc County and we own or hold the easement. Vanderbrough Arboretum is our newest conservation easement. We just closed on that in December of last year. That's a private property but I'm sorry, it's privately owned but he's going to make it open to the public. So it's an old golf course actually in two rivers. And he has the intention of turning that into an arboretum for education and enjoyment and also an art park. So we're really excited to see how that evolves. So we went from an all volunteer organization to today we have one and a half staff, myself and our land project coordinator Abby. And she works part-time about 25 hours a week. She is very involved in the process of creating our easements and monitoring the properties. And we couldn't do it without our board of directors. We currently have 12 which is a very nice size. We have a very diverse group of folks representing many of our counties. Men and women of all ages and they come from a very diverse background with various sets of skills and experiences. For example, we have an attorney on our board, we have a farmer, we have folks with business and financial backgrounds. We have a retired doctor and architects. So it's really helpful to have these diverse skills on our board giving input on the decisions that are being made. It's a very active board. So what the heck is a conservation easement? Maybe some of you know, maybe you don't and that's okay. I'm just going to explain it a little bit. So it's a land protection agreement. It can be as I said earlier on public or private land. And the purpose of it is to protect the conservation values of the land. So it's a legally binding agreement. There are attorneys involved. The agreement clearly defines the land uses. So what is allowed, what isn't allowed, the permitted and prohibited uses. And some examples of that would be for prohibited, it is not to be developed. It is not to be subdivided. It is not to degrade the ecological characteristics that make it of high conservation value. And some things that might be allowed are passive recreation. And it really varies. When we're working with a private land owner it takes a long time, sometimes a year or two or more to get to the point of closing on an agreement because we really want to make sure that we have everything right the first time. Because it's a legal agreement and it's going to be there forever. So we want it to be done right. It can be changed but that time consuming and expensive. So we work really closely to make sure that all of the land owners needs are met. And as I said that's an agreement that will go with the property. So in perpetuity. If the property is transferred or sold, which it can be, but those easement restrictions will stay with the deed. So that's how it's done but why do we do it? Why is it important? Lots of reasons. Plants and animals for one. We want to make sure that we have areas of undisturbed land so that we can support our native plants and animals and provide places with great biodiversity. These pictures were all taken on conserved land. The one in the middle on the top is a baby snowy owl. And that's from Fond du Lac County. I love the one on the bottom left. If you get any of our publications you've probably seen this before because I just adore it. Our land project coordinator took this photo when she was monitoring a property in Kiwani County and it is an endangered rusty patch bumblebee. And then the bottom three pictures there are of native flora. So ostrich ferns, blood root, jack-in-the-pulpit. Bottom left is a wild geranium. So you won't see these flowers in your backyard if you live in the city but you will see them in a forest or where it is an undisturbed high quality habitat. We need high quality habitats to have high quality species living within them. And so that's one reason that conservation is important. Outer public recreation. Maybe you're not going to ski like my father in his shorts in the winter but maybe you enjoy other activities. I was looking for a photo of someone skiing on one of our preserves and couldn't find one so I recalled this picture in my email from a few years ago of my father being silly and I just had to throw it in there. Then I actually did find one later on of some of our members skiing on a preserve but that picture was just too good so I let it be. So other reasons that conservation is important is to provide these environments where the public can enjoy nature. Get out there and snowshoe. Maybe you like to ski with all your layers. Birdwatching, hiking, boating, fishing, nature photography. Maybe you just need a place to go for some respite, some introspection, some reflection, some inspiration. We need these places. It's important not just for our physical well-being but our mental well-being and you can't forget the kiddos. If we don't save the environment for our children now, who's going to? We have to do it before it's too late. We want children to be able to have opportunities to get outside, to have adventures, to explore, to play in a natural space like we all did when we were kids. So my daughter on the bottom right, do you recognize that picture? These are actually all taken on preserves that we manage and I think all of these kids were either attendees of a land walk or children of board members or volunteers. Then I thought I'd take an opportunity to explain a little bit about the different types of properties and agreements. This example I'm going to talk about is a conservation easement that we have on a private property. The owners are the Dromans and they have named their property the Dromans' Manitou Maples. This is in Manitouac County, 57 acres. It's a very diverse habitat as you can see from this beautiful panoramic picture. Rolling hills, ponds, there's a femoral ponds on this property which of course are those ponds also called vernal ponds and vernal means spring. So those are the ponds that with the snowmelt and spring rains they fill up and then by summer they're dry. But they're highly important for the reproduction of amphibians and certain insects like dragonflies. There's also 17 acres I think of agricultural land on this property. There's restored prairie. There's orchard. There's 15 acres of sugar maple and beech forest. And they're very generous land owners as many of the land owners are and often will open up their private properties occasionally to host events where public is allowed to come and share the joy of their land. So on the bottom left you can see some pictures from a spring land walk a few years ago where the land owner took the attendees for a walk through the maple forest and explained the process of collecting sap and then they walked further on down to the sugar shack where he talked about the process of turning that sap into syrup and then he shared samples with the people there. And then this is going to be an example of a property that we own and it's a very exciting property. I'd be curious to know how many of you have heard of the Willow Creek Preserve. Raise your hand if you've heard of it. I think you'll be really excited to learn about it if you haven't already and hopefully you'll continue to follow as things evolve with this through the coming years. So we're like a hop skip and a jump away from this property right now. Let's see if I can figure out how to turn. So there we go. So this is Taylor Drive. This is Indiana and then this is Erie. So the blue and kind of pinkish section is the acreage that we own. And this was purchased from the city of Sheboygan. Formerly it was known as the shootgurt property. So this used to be a farm and there were dairy cows and there were agricultural fields. Then the city bought it with some intention of developing it but as it turns out it's really not developable land. There's very steep slopes and it's mostly wetland. So we took ownership of this property just this past October and it was a several year process because there were, it was really complex. There were a lot of different organizations involved from the local to the state to the federal level. And the area with the white stripes here, this is where the art preserve is being built just for some perspective. So as I said we own this property and then the WDNR in this case actually holds the easement. And 140 acres comes with a pretty big price. We don't have money laying around to purchase property. But luckily we were able to acquire some funding for this through NERDA, NRDA which stands for the Natural Resources Damage Assessment. Due to the fact that there's a creek, the Willow Creek, runs through this property and is a tributary to the Sheboygan River. And the Sheboygan River has been in the past polluted and we're working very hard to correct that. There's still a lot of work to do, a lot has been done. But the area of concern being the Sheboygan River and the creek running through the property and connecting with the river gave us that opportunity to sort of tap into some of those, the funding that's out there and the settlement case that was established. So that was how we acquired the property. And we're still looking to raise quite a bit of funds to maintain it and to do work on the land. So the intention is to protect it and to restore it. So right now we are working on establishing or creating a master management plan that will outline our short-term and long-term goals for the land. In the first year, some things that we've done and some things we're working towards, we're working, first of all, I'd like to mention that we have a group of stakeholders, so people from the community that are invited to give their input and we always take that into consideration. And then we've also established a land management team which is comprised of several members of our land team committee and some representatives from some other local organizations like the Sheboygan River Basin Partnership, for example. And so they're all working together to come up with this long-term plan for the land. There are some footpaths that already exist on the property and that's just how we're going to leave it for now as far as access. It's open to the public, so you can go there and you can enjoy that land tomorrow, anytime. It's going to be passive recreation, so there will be no non-pervious services. So there's a couple of agricultural fields and some old farm paths that will be utilized for the trail system right now. And then we did install a fence, you'll notice. I'll go back to, if I can go the right way, there we go. The main entry point is right here, which this is the Meals on Wheels Company. And so their road right here, there's the trail access point. We did install a gate there, not to try to keep people out, but to try to keep motorized vehicles out, primarily to deter some of the illegal hunting that's been happening in there because it is in the city of Sheboygan, so therefore there is no hunting allowed. So we're hoping that that gate will help deter that. And we've also posted some signs that indicate no hunting. One of the issues that we're going to be dealing with in the first year is some of the invasive species that are out there. Of course there are some and they will need some management. And then restoring the agricultural fields. For now we're just mowing them just to keep the invasives from, you know, the weeds from getting up over your head. But in the long term we'll be looking at restoring those agricultural fields. It's still being discussed whether that will be reforesting those areas or possibly pollinator habitat. So the Willow Creek is classified by the DNR as a class 2 trout stream. I'm not a fish person, but I have been doing my best to learn. And my understanding is that the class 2 classification indicates that there's enough quality of habitat to provide areas in this creek for a native fish population and spawning. Trout and salmon have been seen here. But the creek does need some restoration in order to remove some of the impediments that are in the way for those fish. We'll fill the water to flow properly first of all and therefore to allow fish adequate passage. In these pictures depict some of those issues. You can see trees have fallen down and blocked the creek. There are some old culverts that need to be removed. And there's some erosion that has occurred on the bottom right you can see. A lot of that is from storm water outfalls. So that is an issue that will need to be addressed. So in the first year we're really looking to focus on the creek and restore that. So I mentioned that we do this land protection and perpetuity and our mission states that we're going to protect it forever. Well, how do we do that? So part of that is in maintaining the properties. Once we acquire ownership we have to make sure that we can maintain them adequately. And that management plan is always in place. And then we rely heavily on volunteers and grants to implement restoration projects. And then they're annually monitored. Same with the easements. A land project coordinator goes out there and volunteers assist her as well. Every year to every property we go out there to make sure that all of the restrictions in that easement are being upheld. If they're not then we do have money and reserves to defend them legally. I don't think we've ever had that issue and hopefully we won't. But you never know. And we also work closely with Gathering Waters which is a state organization and Land Trust Alliance which is a national organization. And they work with us very closely in all of the land trusts all over the state and all over the U.S. to offer support and guidance and tools that land trusts need to succeed. So if you're interested and you're not involved how can you be? You can become a member for one. We rely very heavily on our membership base and support. And there's various levels of membership and involvement. You can sign up on our website glacialakes.org and go to our donate page and sign up to become a member that way. Another way that she can be involved is to attend or season the land walks. They're free and open to the public. We have three or four of them a year. On the top left is a picture from this past fall at one of our easements. And that was a wonderful walk. The landowner showed us around and we plugged into Land Trust Days which was the first time of this what's going to be an annual event. So Land Trust Days promotes conservation work. It's through gathering waters. So that's that statewide organization I was talking about. And they promote events that conservancies are hosting in the months of September and October. And then on the right is an annual celebration that we always have in Fond du Lac on the Solstice. And on the bottom is a property out in Valders and we walked out there in the winter. And the reason we chose that property as our winter walk is because it's a wetland. So most of the time you really can't get in there. And the winter was a prime time to kind of take that opportunity while the ground was frozen to be able to get in and explore a little bit. We have two scheduled upcoming walks. On Saturday May 25th at 8 a.m. we're having a birding walk that's going to be hosted by the Sheboygan chapter of the Audubon Society. And that's going to be at Willow Creek. So you're all welcome to join us for that. And Saturday September 7th at 10 a.m. we'll plug in again to Land Trust Days and we're going to be doing a fall foraging themed walk. So that should be a lot of fun. Another way you can be involved is to attend our annual membership event and dinner auction. So yes, it says membership event. But as I said, you can become a member at any of those levels at any time. So that's all you need or to know a member and be their guest. And you can attend our event. This year it's going to be held at the Ostoff. We had it there last year as well. And there's dinners included in your ticket price and or durbs and there's a cash bar. And we have this wonderful silent auction where many local organizations, companies and individuals donate items ranging from backpacks and hammocks and binoculars to experiences like a weekend stay at a private property or a yoga adventure, all kinds of things. And then these floor arrangements are really beautiful. They're scattered throughout the table. So this event is always held right before Mother's Day. And one of our board members works with a florist to put these arrangements together and then they're available for bid as well. And they make great Mother's Day gifts or gifts for yourself, succulents, herbs, flowers. And of course on the bottom there are some of the wonderful sponsors that have contributed this year. As I said, this year's event will be on Sunday May 5th at the Ostoff in Elkhart Lake. And we also always have a keynote speaker for the evening. And this year is Dr. Bell Klump. He's the Dean Professor of Freshwater Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. And he's going to be talking about water quality and the health of our Great Lakes, what it was in the past, where we're at now and kind of trajectory for the future and what can we do about it. Another way to be involved is you can join a committee. We have lots of committees, outreach committee, fundraising and membership, event planning that's specific really to the dinner auction. So if you like to plan events, we could use your help. It's a lot of work. So that one is now all year. It starts in January and goes until the event in May. So if you're looking for something that's a little less of a commitment, that's a nice option. Land team I put up there, but we're really maxed out on that one. Everybody wants to be on land team. And then finance. You can also share your time on project days. I stopped calling them work days, because that just doesn't sound as inviting. So this is an example. We have an annual brush burn, we call it, out at the Grasshopper Hill Preserve in Elkhart Lake. So we hire someone to come out every year and cut down the buckthorn, which is an invasive shrub. And he applies a little herbicide to prevent it from regrowing. And then he piles up that brush. And once a year, we get some volunteers together. And we move that brush pile out into an open field. And we have a big bonfire. So it's a little bit of work. It's also a little bit of fun. As you can tell from the picture on the bottom left, those are hot dogs on a pitchfork. I'm hoping that's clean. I don't know. I wasn't there. And beer with a bonfire, that works. If bonfires aren't your thing, maybe you want to help plant some trees or some shrubs or flowers on a planting day. This is again at Grasshopper Hill, planting native flowers. There's a lot of invasive napweed that has been removed from that preserve. And so we have to put something in the place to try to keep the invasives from regrowing. And speaking of planting days, I wanted to talk a little bit about this preserve, which is the Point Creek Natural Area in Manitowoc County. It's owned by Manitowoc County and we hold the easement. It's about 38 acres, lakefront property. The Silver Creek runs through it or near it, which is a tributary to the lake. And we're going to be having a planting day coming up, which is why I wanted to mention this property. It was established in 2002 and was purchased using local fundraising efforts and the Knowles Nelson Stewardship Funding, which is a state program for conservation, which I'm going to talk a little bit more about towards the end, and also the Coastal Management Fund. It's one mile north of the Fisher Creek Conservation Area, if any of you are familiar with that. This property had a lot of pine trees. Pine plantation. And so we just last year, it was harvested. So it looks, there's the before and the after picture. It looks like a mess right now when people get a little nervous about that. It looks like a battlefield. There's wood chips everywhere and a big clearing. And you wonder where are all the trees and what have they done with them and why. But there's a method behind the madness. And the reason is because pine plantations aren't really great for the environment. It's just one monoculture stand of trees. You're not going to get the diversity in there. You're not going to have shrubs. You can tell from the picture there's no shrubs. There's no floor. There's really nothing beyond the trees, the pine trees, the row after row pine trees. So you want those native plants. You want that diversity. And also pine trees, they don't live forever. They have a lifespan. So they were kind of reaching maturity. So we thought it would be a good time to have them harvested and to plant a diverse selection of native trees instead. So made third, fourth and fifth. This is the weekend of the auction so I won't be there. But we will need a lot of volunteers. I know we have a lot already but we could use more because there are over 2,000 trees that are going to be planted. 14 different varieties. These are just some of them that will be planted. So the holes will already be dug. So you'll just be putting the tree in, covering it up and putting a protective tube around it. So the backbreaking work will not be required. Community involvement is key to the success of our organization. We really do depend on community. This is a picture from our volunteer appreciation event last year, which is beautiful. This was at the Quashus Lime Kilns. Each year we celebrate our volunteers and express our gratitude and have fun. And did you see me? And we don't spend any money on this. Our board members usually contribute graciously to host these events. All volunteers are invited. So there's that Knowles Nelson funding I promised I'd get back to. I just wanted to touch on this a little bit because it's really important to the state of Wisconsin for conservation. It was established in 1989, and it was a bipartisan effort. This was a funding source for the state created by two previous senators. Senator, oh gosh, I think it's Warren. Warren Knowles, who is a Republican, and Gaylord Nelson, who some of you hopefully know that he was the one who created Earth Day. And the two of these senators got together and created this bipartisan, sustainable fund to support conservation work. And so it helps conservancies acquire property, to purchase property, matching funds are required, so they won't give 100%, but it's a way of leveraging local dollars and federal dollars to be able to purchase these properties. It was historically renewed for 10-year cycles. It's up for renewal right now. It's actually expired in the last budget. And so Governor Evers has proposed to renew it or reauthorize it, which is great. However, he's only suggested a two-year renewal cycle. And so I would encourage all of you to learn a little more about it and to reach out to your legislators and tell them that this is important to you. The website at the bottom is a great place if you're looking for a resource to learn more, gatheringwaters.org. They also have a really simplified way of reaching your legislators through their website, where you can put in, I think, it's just like your zip code, and it'll tell you who is your senator, who is your governor, and then one click of a button and you can send them a letter. Other ways that you can learn more and keep in touch with us is through our website, glacialakes.org. If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you can sign up for our e-newsletter, which is a monthly newsletter that comes to you in your inbox. And there's also all kinds of information. We just revamped our website in the last, like, six months. So we've got all properties listed on there, and you can click on them, and you can see pictures, and you can read the story, reading the story. That reminds me that I forgot to read you all the story. I knew there was something I was missing. So back to that easement I was talking about, the Jerome and Manitou Maples, where I was showing you the pictures of the land walks we were collecting and processing maple syrup. He wrote this little kind of personal story about his property and why he put it in conservation that I thought was really touching. It's on our website, too, and I thought I'd just share it with you real quick. So this is written by Gary Mary as his wife, and he says, Mary and I own a 58-acre hobby farm where we have lived since 1971. When we purchased the farm, there was a mature climax forest of about 15 acres with many sugar maples. We had zero experience making maple syrup, but a friend suggested we try it. Forty-five years later, we are still lured to the sugar shack each spring. We bought an old Manitou creme and dug a one-acre pond in the early 1980s. We have since added two more ponds and created a dam which flooded a few acres of swamp woods. Dozens of beautiful wood ducks are raised each year in the flooded timber. They spend summers scooting around the pond gobbling duckweed. Our yellow lab can't figure out why I won't shoot some for him. Over the years, we have planted over 20,000 tree seedlings, almost half of them by hand. Oh, how our kids complained 35 years ago, planting seedlings in this clay soil. Now they take pride as they walk the trails with their own children and friends. We now have about 30 acres of trees, eight acres of wetlands, and one-and-a-half acres of prairie flowers. I feel richly blessed to enjoy nature here and hope this is where I can spend my remaining years. I am happy we chose to donate a conservation easement to Glacier Leaks Conservancy. GLC will protect our farm from development and allow us to use a portion for agriculture. If sold, the conservation easement restrictions will always remain on the deed. Gary Droman. And some other ways that you can keep in touch, of course, social media, if you're into that Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, you can find us and follow us. And so with that, I guess I would take questions. I just wanted to mention, too, there's also information up here, our most recent newsletter, which a new one will actually be coming out soon. They do get mailed to any of our members. And there's an informational brochure, my business card. And there's this wonderful brochure that needs updating, and it's going to be updated soon. But it's this nice, colorful brochure, a little explanation, but the coolest thing is these little cards inside, these are our public preserves. So there's a little story about it and then a map. So if you're interested in visiting any of the preserves, that's helpful. Does anybody have any questions? I've got a question. If I ask a water, I could actually put my canoe in, right? If you see a glass of water? Hmm? Will I say that again? I have a 17-foot canoe. Okay. If I see a lake? If I see a lake, yeah. River, river. So basically, they can't kick me out or anything. And I still have that right to go in that water, right? Are you asking if this was through a conserved property in particular? Sometimes actually people don't like and they go wide open with boats and everything like that. Okay? The canoe, you know what that is. Sure. I went canoeing with my father a lot. I was saying that if I go to places, I have a right to go in that water, right? I don't. With access, yeah. Yeah, I think that's where the issue is where you're getting in and getting out. Yeah, because see, I live in Chihuahua, and if I want to get my canoe out, I can go in that bigger area in the little game. Mm-hmm. Or you have to have special properties for a canoe. Well, so I would suggest if you're a canoeer and you're interested in water activity like that, the preserve that we have that has public access, the West Twin River Spring Preserve, that was in the two rivers area, where the West Twin Rivers are. Yeah. And I don't, Mary, we don't have boat access, I don't think, but I think we've been looking into that. But you could get out on the preserve. There's other places that you can put your boat in, and if you wanted, you could get out and walk on that property. You know, just a peculiar person, but usability, they didn't like people who are past me as a canoe person. But they have just as much rights in the eye of our boat, right? Oh, I would agree. And not that you're going to go to Lake Virginia. Right. Okay. Any other questions, comments? What's the total membership of GLC? We're around 300 members strong right now. We're looking to diversify and grow our membership base, but we have a strong support right now. And as far as the base of control, like at Willow Creek or Amsterdam, do you farm all that out to contractors or do you do some in-house also? Volunteers do sometimes help with that kind of work. But, you know, with big projects, like the Grasshopper Hill Preserve where it's annual, you've really got to, you know, continue year after year to battle some of these things. One treatment isn't going to do it. And there's sometimes large stands of these invasives. So we do at times hire, but we also rely on volunteers to assist. Yes. That's a good question. Sure. So when you put an easement on your property, it does change the value of the land. So you have to have it assessed, reassessed, but your value is going to be lowered because it's not developable and you can't subdivide it, right? You've got these restrictions in place. So that can be a tax benefit to the landowner, but you have to talk with your, you know, accountant and attorney to really get those details. But that's one benefit. It could. It certainly could. You would get less for it in the end, but many times those who have easements, you know, want to end up giving it to their heirs, but you are able to sell it. But the restriction would, the easement would stay with it. Good question. Thank you. Any others? One of your largest conservancy properties would be the Little Creek at 144 acres. Are you concerned with Shopco being sold available? I mean, that puts your property... It does. Yeah. Shopco overlooks the northern edge. And that's a really new situation that's transpired, you know, this Shopco being closing. So we really haven't discussed that much amongst the land team or the board. I think really the only issue we've had is litter kind of being thrown down that hill so far. But it certainly could be something that will need to be discussed. Yes. With the Little Creek Conservancy Area, one of your slides to pick up a public access just north of the Meals on Meals facility, what provision is there for parking? Not much. You can fit a few cars there. We've considered, you know, other options for parking, but we really want to leave the land as preserved and intact as possible and avoid impervious surfaces. We don't want to clear anything out to put in a parking lot. That's not our intention. So we'll have to kind of see how that plays out, I think. And if people start using it heavily, we'll have to address those issues. Right now, there's not a lot of usage on that land. So for now it's not a top priority. It's very tight in that corner. It is. When Meals on Meals is actively involved or the new nowhere, there's a lot of traffic in and out. Yes, yes, that's a good point. We had an event, Mary, Mary's one of our board members, one of our very helpful involved board members. We had an event at the Sunday drive in October and the Willow Creek property was one of them where people stopped at. But I was at the park waiting for everybody to come back and we had cookies and things, so I was setting up. You were on that walk, Mary. Can you explain how everybody handled that? It comes out because we have major things on weekends and then Meals on Meals isn't delivering. So there'll be a lot of cars parked there. We didn't even use, we only used that top part of parking lot and there was plenty of wood. That's a good point. I suppose most people who go out recreationally, it's going to be any evening or weekend, most likely. And that parking is available. That was on Saturday. So it'll be fine. Yeah, good. Okay. How do you determine if you're going to buy it outright or put a concern on it? There's a difference, correct? That is a difference. That's, yes. And it really depends on the situation, on the property and who owns it. So like with the Willow Creek property, it was owned by the city. So it made sense to purchase it and do things that way. But if it's owned privately, they're working with a private landowner and they want to maintain that ownership, then an easement makes sense. Anything else to add to that, Mary? Or did that answer your question? Okay. In the back. Yes, we have been working very closely with the Art Center. Both back and forth, kind of communicating plans and ideas. They are very on board with helping us keep some of that, you know, illegal deer hunting at bay. And so, I might put up a few signs and fences as well. And we've talked about it in the easement. It actually states that art could be, as long as it's movable, could be put on that property. So if we have, you know, that kind of partnership with the Art Center, we're allowed to do that. So again, that had to be worked out with the DNR as well, because they hold the easement and we own the property. But yes, we've been working very closely with the Art Center. We have a good relationship with them. Two parts. On a private easement, is there some restriction as to what's allowable for the public to partake in, to reverse? Yes. So if it's privately owned, then the public isn't allowed. But in the case of, say, Willow Creek. Now again, they're all different because there's these partnerships and everybody has to agree. Specifically for private ownership. Okay. What is allowed? You're asking, what is generally allowed? How is it, is it defined? Yes, everything is very clearly defined in the easement. So recreation, you know, whether they can have a building, whether or not they can have... Physically defined so that somebody going to take part in use that facility, that they don't go wandering all over. Oh, I see what you're asking. Yeah, we have boundary signs around the perimeters. Let's say Glacial Lakes. Well, they're monitored annually and then we rely on any, you know, owners or members or volunteers if they notice anything to let us know and then we, you know, handle the situation as needed. So someone litters and usually it's the property owner that sees a benefit and cleans up the trash or the mess? Well, if it's privately owned then the public isn't usually allowed on it unless there's an event where they give permission to be a host. Sorry. Any other questions, comments? Yes. We have a son who lives in Kauani and I wonder if you could elaborate a little bit on what there might be in that county relating to your organization. We have right now just one easement in Kauani County and I haven't been on that property but that Rusty Patch Bumblebee picture was taken on that property. It's private. We are looking at an opportunity right now to purchase a large area of land in Kauani County but that's an ongoing conversation. So we're looking to expand, you know, we still have most of our properties are in Sheboygan and Manitowoc, just a few on the outskirts but we're looking, you know, at strategically sort of planning what's the highest priority, what needs to be conserved and then planning how to do that. Yes, ma'am. Is there an opportunity if you or the owner wants to back out or is it impossible? It's not, I don't know if I would say impossible to make changes. I don't know to back out entirely. I don't know, what do you think, Mary? I don't know if we've been faced with that. You know, because so far, you know, since it's only been to deal with that. Yeah, as properties turn over, as land owners age, I think, you know, we're going to see more of those kinds of issues coming up but we're kind of a young organization yet so we haven't been faced with that. In the easement. Yeah, I actually do recall a recent conversation where there was an issue like that brought up by someone who's getting older and I think his son was going to look at having that property and didn't want all the restrictions. You know, things can be changed but they have to be mutually agreed upon and you have to go through the legal process. I think once that easement is there, I mean, the idea is that it stays with that land. That's really the intention. That's different ideas. I can see that possibly. But we're really there to honor that initial owner who put that easement in place. That's what we're here to do. People would hope for it. That's why they do it. Yeah, perpetuity. It's for forever. That's the plan. People putting that into conservancy would immediately get a tax advantage and that would be tough if you tried to reverse that out. Yeah, that could get messy, I would think. You're right. Any other thoughts? Smallest parcel of land. Oh, we have a couple of really tiny ones around Elkhart Lake that are not even, I don't think, an acre. Maybe an acre. There's a couple of them that are really close together but most of them are at least 20 to 40 or more. We do have a few small ones. I think those were more in the beginning, you know, a few 5, 10 years early on in the forming of the conservancy. They were accepting kind of anything, more or less. Okay, thank you. Mary, you may be no better than I, the exact location. Oh. We own two of them. In our property here in Cheboygan, Maine. Okay. One of them is the old Sharps tennis court. Yes. The other one is the crest where all the 16 properties have advantage of parking in that area. It's specifically earmarked for Cheboygan, Cheboygan property owners and their guests. And so I think the idea there was that they got to, the locals got together to put that under easement so that there was areas kept conserved. 16 property owners jointly owned what I referred to as a slimmer of land. And once upon a time, somebody wanted to buy a development which would have been right behind property owners' properties. A fairly extensive development. And to avoid that, they handed it up and we bought the land and now it's preserved so that it cannot be developed. And it is a big piece of property. Yeah. And it's only good for parking. Well, thank you for sharing that story. Yes. Any other comments, questions? Otherwise I guess we'll close it up for the evening. I thank you all for coming. I hope you'll stay in touch.