Landowners, Pollinators, and Shared Purpose: Legacy’s Annual Gathering Blooms with Ideas

Every year Legacy brings together our conservation easement landowners and the dedicated volunteers that help our staff steward their protected lands for the annual Land Partner Gathering. It’s a little bit of time each year for us to connect in person as land stewards to share ideas, inspiration, and knowledge.

People  standing in front of water with trees and blue sky in the background.

This year we had the wonderful opportunity to gather at one of our Legacy-held conservation easements in Washtenaw County. The land–protected by Legacy trustee, Karen Ufer, and her husband David in 2015–sits within the headwaters of Honey Creek. Its woodland and wetlands serve as an important groundwater recharge area and provide critical wildlife habitat in an area just outside of Ann Arbor that is seeing rapid development.

The Ufers were kind enough to lend us their historic barn for a morning of conversation and a cross-pollination of ideas.

We were joined by local entomologist and educator, David Cappaert. He discussed the vast array of pollinators that can be seen in a native prairie, home garden, or even a single plant and the critical ways these critters and their interactions with the plant world can improve or shift how we work to conserve land and restore habitat. [Learn more about David Cappaert]

After a captivating photo slideshow of the pollinators David observed on Legacy’s Creekshead and Iron Creek Preserves (over 300 of them!), the group embarked on a short walk to do some bug-hunting and identification of their own around the Ufer’s land.

Man sitting on the grass with bug nets talking to a woman

David showed his techniques for viewing different pollinators like using a variety of nets, screens, and sticks to brush through tall grasses and lure bugs from trees by shaking the limbs. And, he talked in-depth about the ones he found.

Unfortunately, while the weather was sunny and clear of rain, the temperatures were still quite cool which meant we didn’t see as many of our pollinator friends as we’d hoped.

“It’s amazing how many diverse bugs we still saw in not-ideal conditions,” Legacy Land Conservancy Easement Stewardship Manager Clint McGill said. “We observed a few native bee species that are complex to identify in the field, invasive and native lady bugs, and caterpillars.”

Despite the lack of pollinator spottings, the group did walk away with deeper knowledge on a topic that appears to be fairly simple on its surface, but is actually complex and interconnected as revealed by David and other scientists who continue to peel back the layers of this ecological onion.

Stewarding land with a conservation easement requires more resources and technical expertise, and we’re thrilled to offer local experts like David at the Land Partner Gathering!

Thank you, David, for sharing your knowledge, and thank you Karen and David Ufer for hosting us!

 

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