There’s a new nature preserve in Buchanan Township, thanks to a partnership between Chikaming Open Lands and the Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy. The conservancy’s Justin Gish tells us 45 acres off Wolkins Road was donated by Anne Krantz, Julie Dorfman, and Jerry Herst to Chikaming Open Lands.
“It’s a nice beech maple forest,” Gish said. “There’s one small, single family home on the property that Chikaming Open Lands is going to use for educational purposes…It’s a really nice beech maple forest, and the previous owners took good care of it and did their own invasive species work on it.”
The Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy holds the easement on the property, while Chikaming Open Lands will maintain the land itself. The preserve will be called the Myron Perlman Nature Preserve, after the late husband of Krantz. Herst says the property owners fell in love with the land 36 years ago, and “long knew that we did not want this precious piece of land to be…compromised when the time came that we would not be able to maintain [it] or address invasive species in the forest as we aged.”
