Co-authored by Allene Smith, Senior Land Protection Specialist and Pam Bierzynski, Communications Manager -
After five years of careful effort, collaboration, and trust-building, Legacy Land Conservancy is celebrating a major land protection milestone. In December, we successfully wrapped up the Raisin Valley Land Trust project, permanently bringing fourteen of their conservation easements into our care and continuing the protection of hundreds of acres in the River Raisin watershed.
Keeping the Promise Behind Forever
The project began when Raisin Valley Land Trust, a longtime all-volunteer organization, approached Legacy to help ensure the long-term protection of the lands they had worked for decades to conserve.
With their board members ready to retire and sunset the organization, Raisin Valley Land Trust needed another organization to take on permanent legal responsibility for their conservation easements.
Conservation easements only work if someone is legally responsible for enforcing them. Without that clarity about who is responsible, protections can be overlooked or forgotten. Assigning an easement to a qualified organization ensures there is always someone watching over the land and upholding the agreement.
When Raisin Valley Land Trust prepared to step back, those responsibilities needed a new, qualified steward. After deep reflection and many conversations, it was clear that as an accredited land trust, Legacy was a good fit with the experience and capacity for long-term stewardship. In 2021, Legacy formally agreed to assume permanent responsibility for 14 of their conservation easements. Two conservation easements were transferred to other organizations.
By stepping into this role, Legacy ensured these protections would remain active, monitored, and upheld for these 14 properties. On a larger scale, this work also reinforces the broader legal premise of conservation easements as a trusted, permanent land protection tool within an evolving and heavily scrutinized legal landscape.
Careful Work for Lasting Protection
Five years may sound like a long time, but when the goal is permanent protection, moving carefully is not a delay. It’s an obligation.
Guided by our promise of forever, we approached each step with intention and care to ensure outcomes that were lasting and meaningful, and to mitigate future risks.
Actively managing the transfer of these existing conservation easements--each with its own history, relationships, legal considerations, and intricate task lists--required meticulous coordination.
Each property was studied carefully from every angle, including legal condition as well as the land itself, and each issue was evaluated for short term and long-term ramifications. When deeper review uncovered unexpected issues, timelines were adjusted accordingly.
Some issues required additional conversations with landowners, neighbors, and attorneys. Rather than rushing ahead, we created space for questions and thoughtful problem-solving. In the end, this work evolved into a five-year process that allowed us to address issues fully and complete a few projects every year.
Coordination and Collaboration
Behind the scenes, this project required patient coordination and collaboration with many dedicated partners. From legal review and documentation to landowner meetings and site visits, the work involved many moving pieces spread across all of the properties.
Because conservation is about people and relationships as much as land and legality, trust-building throughout the process was as essential as technical work. Legacy allowed time to gain trust with landowners who were adjusting to a new organization and a new chapter in their properties’ story.
Legacy joined Raisin Valley Land Trust volunteers on site visits to meet landowners and learn more about them and their land. It allowed space for landowners to ask questions about the process, meet our staff, and understand Legacy’s new role in their property.
We spent quality time sitting around kitchen tables getting to know landowners better, learning about their land’s history, and building a relationship. These talks sometimes broadened to include even neighbors of the conserved lands in cases where property boundaries were unclear.
A Stronger Foundation for Stewardship
With the project complete, these 14 conservation easements are now actively stewarded by Legacy, securing hundreds of acres of land and nurturing dozens of landowner relationships into the future.
What’s more, this experience has genuinely strengthened Legacy as an organization. Working through these complex projects improved our systems and templates, and sharpened our ability to anticipate and address long-term conservation challenges.
Most importantly, these easements and land protection in the Raisin River watershed would not have been possible without the extraordinary vision and purposeful determination of Raisin Valley Land Trust founders and volunteers. We are truly honored to have partnered with them and proud to continue what they started in Lenawee County. We look forward to listening to the community, strengthening new partnerships, and learning more about how we can help play a part in advancing land protection throughout Lenawee’s communities.
Strength in Coming Together
In the flow of time, we are all temporary stewards of the land that we love and protect. What we love and protect came before us, and it will persist after we no longer have our hands and hearts in the work.
Grassroots land trusts like Washtenaw Land Conservancy, Potawatomi Community Land Trust, and Raisin Valley Land Trust are the headwaters of this mission–small but powerful beginnings shaped by care, commitment, and community. Over time, their work, joined by others, gained momentum, and grew into something stronger.
Today, Legacy’s story includes the stories of those organizations whose efforts have flowed into ours. Together, we are a swelling river. And time, like a river, carries us ever onward. In our time, we carry the responsibility of caring for these protected lands well, so that future stewards can do the same.
Looking Forward
None of this work would exist without Raisin Valley Land Trust’s founders and volunteers, whose dedication helped protect more than 740 acres in the River Raisin watershed.
Legacy is honored that Raisin Valley Land Trust entrusted us with the next chapter of land protection in this part of the River Raisin watershed. We are proud to have their story flow into ours, and keep the promise of forever.
As Legacy continues to grow as a conservation leader in the state and across the region, we remain committed to listening, learning, and caring for the land together, while preparing for what comes next.
Special thanks to all those who helped:
Sandy Sorini Elser, our main (extraordinary) attorney on this project who volunteered over 170 hours over the last five years!
Steven Roach and John Moran, attorneys who provided specialized assistance on specific issues.
The Land Trust Alliance, especially MaryKay O’Donnell and Rex Linville, who provided inspiring and supportive thought partnership when we needed it most, as well as encouragement along the way.
Leslie Ratley-Beach at TerraFirma, who helped us understand the unique evaluation of risk management this work asked of us.
All the Raisin Valley Land Trust board members, past and present, especially Sybil Kolon and Woody Kellum, who provided invaluable historical perspectives and supported the transition of landowner relationships.
All the Raisin Valley Land Trust landowners. Thank you for your patience and your warmth. We are so grateful to be your partners in land protection.
Organizations and companies: Lenawee County Conservation District, River Raisin Watershed Council, City of Tecumseh, Lenawee Community Foundation, American Title Agency of Lenawee, Absolute Title Agency, Lenawee County Register of Deeds.
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