A $1 million gift to the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy helped secure a new nature preserve along the Torch River in Antrim County. | Photo by Noah Jurik, courtesy of GTRLC
TRAVERSE CITY, MICH. -- A Northern Michigan land conservancy plans to open a new public nature preserve along a rare, undeveloped stretch of the scenic Torch River in 2021.
The Traverse City-based nonprofit Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy announced that a $1 million donation has completed the fundraising necessary to establish the 290-acre Antrim County preserve, ending decades of work by conservationists to protect this particular slice of land.
The preserve is to be named the Torch River Ridge Nature Preserve: A Cotanche Family Legacy, honoring Marty and Valerie Cotanche, who live near the preserve and made the donation that secured its creation.
“We both realize the importance of acquisition and preservation of natural spaces given an ever-increasing population and development pressures,” Marty Cotanche said in a release. “Special places need to be identified and organizations need to be prepared to act when opportunities like these become available.”
Highlights of the property include mature hardwood forest and hemlock groves, cold-water seeps that originate from its slopes, and a prominent ridge that contributes to the land’s scenic character.
The preserve also will protect one of the last sizeable stretches of undeveloped frontage on the Torch River, which connects Torch Lake to Lake Skegemog as part of the nearly 100-mile-long Chain of Lakes waterway.
The conservancy is now in the process of preparing the preserve for public access in 2021, including planning sustainable hiking and cross-country ski trails to be named by the Weiss family — honoring local conservationist Bill Weiss, who bought the property roughly 50 years ago and sold it to the conservancy at a discount.
“I just didn’t want to see this place developed. I’ve seen it happen all over the country,” Weiss said in a release. “If I didn’t sell it to the conservancy, it would eventually have turned into hundreds of home sites.”
The Torch River Ridge property will be the newest of the conservancy’s nearly 40 public nature preserves. It is also the latest to be secured as part of the conservancy’s ongoing Campaign for Generations, which encompasses dozens of natural landscape and farmland protection and stewardship projects across Northwest Lower Michigan.
More information and updates on the new preserve’s projected opening and the Campaign for Generations can be found on Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy’s website (gtrlc.org), and via its Facebook page.
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