The all-volunteer board of New Community Vision (NCV) is the proud recipient of the Northern Michigan Environmental Action Council (NMEAC)’s Environmentalist of the Year: Grass Roots Group award.
The award recognizes NCV’s dedicated volunteer efforts to secure the acquisition and permanent preservation of land located between Omena and Northport and bordering Grand Traverse Bay in Leelanau.
The award was announced May 16 at the 36th Annual Environmentalist of the Year Celebration of NMEAC, a Traverse City based non-profit dedicated to preserving our natural environment through citizen action and environmental education for over 40 years.
In announcing the award, NMEAC praised NCV for its partnership with the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians (GTB) and the broader community of Leelanau to ensure the acquisition and preservation of a critical 187-acres portion of the former Timber Shores campground property through grassroots fundraising and organizing efforts. These efforts included supporting the successful application of the GTB for a multi-million dollar federal grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric (NOAA) as well as NCV raising over $3.5 million in support from 300 local community groups, foundations and private individuals to facilitate the outright purchase and transfer of the property. This was successfully concluded in late December 2024. The land will remain a nature preserve with public access in perpetuity.
NCV’s partnership with the GTB made possible the return of this historic property to the Tribe as part of their ancestral homeland. The land is called Mashkiigaki (Mashkeeg-aki) meaning the “place of the medicines”. Mashkiigaki includes ecologically critical coastal wetlands, 1,800 feet of shoreline and woodlands.
NCV Vice President Beth Verhey and NCV board member Andy Thomas received the award on behalf of the entire NCV board.
“Our beginning was five people in Northport mobilizing together to forge a positive future for about 200 acres that had been through contentious development threats for decades,” said Verhey. “We came together to find a way to stop the cycle of contention (about this property) and forge a positive future. And that positive future today is Mashkiigaki, returning ancestral land to the tribe.”
NMEAC also awarded the GTB two separate prizes, including one recognizing Sandra Witherspoon, Council Chairwoman of the GTB as Environmentalist of the Year: Public Service or Public Office. NMEAC noted that Mashkiigaki being returned to the Tribe through the receipt of the NOAA grant and the efforts of NCV in advocacy and fundraising is part of continued momentum behind the nationwide “Land Back” conservation movement and should as such “be a point of pride for the whole Leelanau community.”
NCV President John Sentell said: “This recognition by NMEAC is very special to our board and we are very appreciative. The successful preservation of Mashkiigaki is proofpositive of what can be accomplished when we pull together to do the right thing for nature and people. This conservation success story resonates deeply in so many ways. Connecting communities through the power of nature is meaningful beyond measure.”
