Grant will go to efforts at paying off DeYoung loan.
The Leelanau Conservancy's DeYoung Natural Area on Cedar Lake in Elmwood Township will benefit

A SIGN and an old barn mark the location
of the DeYoung Natural Area on Cherry Bend Road.
The Leelanau Conservancy learned last week that
the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund
awarded a $910,164 grant to the Conservancy,
which will be used to help pay down the loan
on the former farm property.

from $910,164 in grant funding from the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund, state officials announced last week.

On Dec. 6, the trust fund board recommended to Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm that 65 recreation projects and land acquisitions totaling nearly $34.5 million be funded for 2007. Two of those projects are in Elmwood Township. (The other Elmwood project is described in a story appearing on Page 14 of this section.)

“The money coming from the trust fund represents almost half of the original purchase price of the old DeYoung Farm,” said Brian Price, executive director of the Leelanau Conservancy. “The state grant moves us to the point where we can do final fundraising to have the property fully paid for and forever available to the public.”

Price said the grant, coupled with the $756,759 the Conservancy has raised to date, puts the organization within $333,079 of its goal to complete paying off the loan.

The Conservancy partnered with Elmwood Township to apply for the state grant after the Conservancy took out a $2 million loan on the property nearly two years ago.

“If we did not seize the opportunity then, the land would have been lost forever to development,” Price said.

Because the state trust fund only allocates money to governmental units, the Conservancy worked with Elmwood Township’s parks and recreation committee to acquire the 145-acre property. The township will own 65 acres between the Cedar Lake shoreline and Cherry Bend Road, and the Conservancy will own the remaining 80 acres on the upland.

“The Conservancy will manage both parcels seamlessly as the DeYoung Natural Area,” Price said.
Just minutes from Traverse City, the DeYoung Natural area is a historic farmstead fronting Cedar Lake along a nearly one-mile stretch. The property is bisected by the Leelanau Trail, which is owned and managed by Traverse Area Recreation and Transportation (TART) Trails, Inc.

“The trail will connect the DeYoung Natural Area with the Greilickville Harbor Park for which the township also received trust fund money,” Price noted. “So people will be able to access both of these properties by foot or on bikes.”

Earlier this year, Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund money was also allocated for park projects in Suttons Bay Township and Bingham Township, although disbursement of the money has been delayed by political wrangling over the state budget in Lansing.

“We’re well aware of how complicated this process can be and how long it may take for the funding to be released,” Price said. “But the funding has been committed, so we and others are confident it will be available.”

Leelanau County’s Parks and Recreation Commission is still waiting on state trust fund money to help support purchase of the former Veronica Valley Golf Course in Bingham Township for use as a county park. In addition, Suttons Bay Township is still awaiting receipt of state funding for acquisition of land for the proposed Herman Park at County Road 633 at Herman Road.