2007
Elizabeth Levi , 191 acres
Billings Township, Gladwin County

Elizabeth Levi and her mother, Pearl, knew their eight and a half acre oasis of mature forest along Wixom Lake and Lincoln Bayou was unique and in need of protection. Ms. Levi recalled, "Before my mother passed last year, she said, 'Elizabeth, you've got to find a way to protect this.'"

Ms. Levi contemplated many options before reading about the Conservancy in her local newspaper. In December, she signed a conservation easement with the Conservancy.

The conservation easement ensures that 787 feet of frontage along a channel of Wixom Lake remains natural and wooded for generations to come. Mr. Lane said that they donated a conservation easement in December of 2004 “to guarantee that this section of river would remain a natural, free-flowing stream capable of supporting a healthy trout population and other habitat for wildlife.”

"That land and I are like one," Ms. Levi concluded. "For that land to be destroyed, it would be like me getting destroyed."