Dr. Helen Steussy
March 20, 2004
Our land is now protected forever!
What a wonderful way to celebrate the beginning of spring!
I first proposed the spring equinox to Barry Banks, director of the Red-tail Conservancy, as an appropriate time to sign the papers that would protect our beloved land from development. Later, when I told him the equinox actually occurred at 1:47 Saturday morning, you could see him hesitate. Okay, I agreed to wait until Saturday afternoon.
It wasn’t until the day before the event that I realized that this day was also the 10th anniversary of the day that Jack Lee had first shown us and sold us this rolling horse farm near Westwood School. I can remember the date because 10 days later I gave birth to our fourth child, TJ.
We invited several people who care about nature to join us for this celebration. We had Jeff Ray, Randy Jones and Leeann Wallen from the Friends of the Big Blue River. We had Andi and Erich Richter and Shelia Marion of Healthy Communities. And Barry Banks brought several people from the Red-tail Conservancy to help witness the protecting of this land.
We even had Betty Giboney there - a woman who has traveled to every continent and knows the value of protecting precious lands. Betty, a former reporter for the Courier Times, is now 91 years old. She is sharp as a tack and dedicated to seeing the woods south of the high school protected for future generations.
And future generations is what this is all about. We all see the loss of habitat around our neighborhoods. Migrating birds and butterflies no longer find a place to feed or rest with so much of the land turned to concrete or lawn.
Kids no longer have the empty lot near their home where they can catch a toad or a cricket. There is no longer an unmowed space where a butterfly’s chrysalis can wait undisturbed for its magic to occur. Even the soil loses it’s richness as it’s mowed, plowed, or harvested taking all the organic sweetness from the ground.
But our 17 acres out in Westwood will now be protected. Thanks to the Red-tail Conservancy and a conservation easement this land can never be developed. Tom and I will continue to own the land. We can hand it down to our children or sell it. But with the deed now comes the restriction that this land is for wildlife – now and forever.
Yes, we get tax benefits. And the difference in assessed value will count as a charitable donation. But mostly we are doing it because this land is precious to us and to the future generations.
I would estimate we have had hundreds of New Castle school kids out here over the last 10 years – planting trees, seeing nature. We have introduced them to spring beauties, Queen Anne’s lace, mayapples and bloodroot. We have planted over 10 acres in prairie providing the beauty of thousands of wildflowers and the sweetness of nectar for the visiting butterflies and hummingbirds. Is it more beautiful when the wind blows over the fall prairie grasses and it looks like an amber ocean or in the midst of the summer blooming when the prairie is composed of clouds of purples, whites and yellow wildflowers?
Now we know these trees planted by the gentle hands of the school kids will never be cut down. Whatever happens to Tom and me, we know that the time we have spent caring for this place will not have been in vain.
We have protected a corner of God’s green earth. What a wonderful way to celebrate the first day of spring.
If you want to find out more about Red-tail Conservancy and conservation easements, contact Barry Banks at 765-288-2587 or check their website at www.fortheland.com
