Our Stewardship Intern, Jackie Bilello, discovered that one of our protected conservation sites is home to a new family of coyotes.

Local resident Mr. Baker knew what he was doing in protecting his land adjacent to the Pinckney Recreation Area! (Please see the press release for more details.) At more than 30,000 acres, Pinckney-Waterloo is the largest block of public protected land in southern Michigan. By protecting buffer parcels, the natural habitat is kept intact.

Summer is a great time to go hiking, biking, or camping in the Waterloo and Pinckney Rec Areas, our local “big wild.” Here’s a trail map of public trails inPinckney Rec Area (PDF), including the Potawatomi Trail, which Mr. Baker has helped build and maintain. Happy hiking!

Butterflies love the warm, sunny days of summer. So much so, in fact, that you don’t see them much if it’s overcast or rainy, as we learned the hard way during a butterfly walk this July. (We still saw quite a few, such as the Baltimore Checkerspot. We just had to look more carefully!).

Visit www.butterfilesandmoths.org to learn more about identifying butterflies and moths of North America.

I was reading something from the Land Trust Alliance (the Washtenaw Land Trust is a member), and one phrase leapt off the page at me:
“We can have faith that in every part of this land, children will be able to see the stars, climb the trees, and experience a personal connection to a cherished place.”

Wow! Every word there is golden, and in particular, I love the idea of a personal connection to a cherished place. I’d like to share with you a photo from one place that I cherish.

The Land Trust’s Creekshead Nature Preserve is a springtime balm for winter-weary eyes. Its wildflowers bloom just when you fear you won’t be able to take even one more day of winter. It’s lovely in the fall, too, as the leaves of the beech trees turn a crinkly gold.

To visit: Creekshead is just northeast of Ann Arbor, on Curtis Road between Brookville and Five Mile Roads. Park along the west side of the road in front of the woods and please watch for traffic. (Map)

Do you have a cherished place, or two, or twelve? Send me an email at suzie@legacylandconservancy.org/; I’d love to hear about it. And if you can, get out and visit your cherished place while the weather is sunny and clear!

One of my favorite pleasures of fall is watching the leaves change color. Not all trees and shrubs follow the same timing, though. Who goes first? Some color-change pioneers include:

Sassafras (Sassafras albidum)—look for medium-sized trees often at the edges of woods, with colors of mottled greens, orange, yellow, pink, and red Sumac (Rhus typhina)—look for shrubs turning bright orange and red Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia)—look for vines with leaves that turn a deep purply-red.

Fall is fleeting, so take the time to enjoy it!

If you were one of the volunteers who helped with the fall mailing, this was the view you saw while lending a hand. Not bad!

Would you like to become a volunteer? Email susancooley@legacylandconservancy.org/ or call 734-302-5263. (We can’t guarantee natural wonders every time, but we can guarantee good company and a good cause!)

Are the short daylight hours of winter getting you down? Then you have reason to rejoice. Sunday December 21 was the Winter Solstice, and the days are now getting longer again. (Yay!) The word Solstice comes from the Latin sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still) because on the solstices, the sun’s movement north or south across the sky appears to stop as it reverses.

Photo: Winter sunshine at the Lloyd & Mabel Johnson Preserve, protected in 2007.

SOLISTICE (WIKIPEDIA)

On the annual site visit to the Reichert conservation property, we got to visit an unassuming but special tree: a small Dwarf Hackberry (Celtis tenuifolia). Dwarf Hackberries are rare in Michigan. They are small, shrubby trees that prefer dry, open oak forests. Their leaves have a distinct feeling of sandpaper.