The Leelanau Conservancy’s role of protecting the natural land and water features of Leelanau County couldn’t be done without the role of docents, volunteers who traverse the terrain and lead groups to educate them.
Julie Kuieck has been a docent of the Conservancy for a little more than six months.
“Personally, my love for the Conservancy started really young,” Kuieck said. “I remember hiking Whaleback and Clay Cliffs as a younger person. Once I moved to the area, it was a goal of mine to become more active with the Conservancy.”
Docents are volunteers that have free-range to lead educational hikes at the various Conservancy areas around the county. Docents meet with stewards and learn more about the trail system, property, and the history of the land, Kuieck said. Docents get to base hikes off of personal preference.
Kuieck went on to say some people are more familiar with birding, or moss, or just leading hikes. Some are more apt to leading athletic hikes.
The whole thing is based on what the docent likes to interact with.
“I don’t really have an area or a genre for the theme of the hike. I personally like the sunrise and sunset hikes,” emphasized Kuieck.
Docents not only learn from the stewards but also have a lot of enrichment activities that docents are required to do,” she said. These activities aid in giving information that can prove helpful in leading the hikes, as the purpose of the guided tours is for the education of the participants on the natural history and facts of the area. Kuieck also is a “stream sampler” for the Conservancy, which proves helpful in areas such as Chippewa Run.
Kuieck said that one of the goals of the Conservancy is focusing on indigenous history. One of such areas is the Chippewa Run Natural Area. Kuieck voiced that docents “learn from the tribe,” and that, “Chippewa Run has a lot of Anishinaabe history,” that she is learning along the way. A large part of the trail was an apple and cherry orchard but has since been removed.
This section of the trail has been replaced by, successive planting or trees and plants that will replace and grow over time. There were about a dozen species of plants that were recently planted.
Kuieck said the reason of this change prevention of tree disease.
“If you don’t tend to the trees regularly, it causes a lot of diseases, that can spread,” Kuieck said. Just recently, last October, the Chippewa Run Area had a volunteer effort featuring many Empire residents to build a connector trail from Chippewa Run to the Shalda Creek Natural Area. The area is a wonderful spot for bird watching, and Kuieck was able to catalog around 50 different species of birds.
Kuieck said that one of the motives of joining the Conservancy as a docent was, learning about the land.
She voiced that her favorite parts are interacting with other people that enjoy the Conservancy.
“ The motive is giving back,” she said. “I feel that all of these areas that are preserved are something truly unique and special. It is a gift to everyone that comes and visits and that (being a docent) is a way of giving back to the Conservancy and providing all of this for my family.
