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Land Resources / News / Minnesota
Belwin Conservancy buys prairie land
Source: Stillwater Gazette
AFTON - The Belwin Conservancy recently purchased an eight-acre property that will forever protect one its most iconic places: Kettelkamp Prairie.
This 40-year old restored prairie is where countless students have had their first exposure to nature and glimpsed the St. Croix River for the first time. Now, it will be protected forever.
The purchase of the eight-acre Wilson Tract was a 40-year old goal of the Belwin Conservancy and was made possible through the outpouring of financial support by the members of the Belwin Conservancy.
Since the early 1970s, the Belwin Conservancy has been welcoming students from the St. Paul Public Schools to its preserve in Afton. More than 10,000 students visit the preserve every year. At the core of their experience is Kettelkamp Prairie. Located adjacent to the Belwin Conservancy's Valley Branch Environmental Learning Center, this 20-acre restored prairie is a focal point and features sweeping vistas of the prairie and the St. Croix River beyond.
Kettelkamp Prairie - named for Dr. B.H. "Benny" Kettelkamp who led the restoration of the prairie - was restored in the early 1970s at a time when prairie restorations were not nearly as common as they are today. Now, 40 years later, this unique place is important for the diversity of plants and animals that live here, but also to the generations of students who have visited this spot over the years.
For many visitors, adults and children alike, the peace they find at Kettelkamp Prairie is unlike anything they have experienced before.
"This is a place that people remember," said Steve Hobbs, executive director of the Belwin Conservancy. "We're constantly reminded of how important this spot is to so many people. They recall the minutest details of their visits here - years and decades later. It was very important to us to protect that."
The property borders the entire eastern side of the prairie and posed a special threat to Kettelkamp Prairie; so much so that the Belwin Conservancy had been seeking to purchase this property for decades. Were it purchased by a third party, it would almost certainly have been redeveloped and any new construction would have directly threatened this unique place.
The Belwin Conservancy also had a new reason to be concerned: the brand new Joseph J. Casby Observatory, a cooperative effort of the Belwin Conservancy and the Minnesota Astronomical Society, is under construction nearby.
When completed this spring, the observatory will house one of the largest refracting telescopes in Minnesota. Its location takes advantage of dark skies and a southern view; unique so close to the metro. Any new house on the Wilson Tract would have brought with it new lights that would have forever degraded the views from the telescope before it was ever installed.
In 2009, the Wilson Tract came up for sale for the first time in over 40 years.
"We put out the call to our members and explained what was at stake if we didn't purchase it," said Hobbs. "When people heard that Kettelkamp Prairie was in any way threatened, they sprang into action. It's obvious how strongly people feel about this spot."
Within only a few months, between member contributions and other sources of funding, the Belwin Conservancy was able to finalize the purchase that was completed on February 18.
"We couldn't be happier about this," said Hobbs. "Buying the Wilson Tract will protect what has unquestionably been a special place for generations of students, for generations to come."
Tara Kelly, director of Ecological Restoration for the Belwin Conservancy, is already thinking about what this additional land will mean for its preserve and for the future of Kettelkamp Prairie itself.
"This property opens up a new world of restoration opportunities for us. It's really exciting to think about what we can do now, and how it will make Kettelkamp even better when school kids visit 40 years from now," Kelly said.
The Belwin Conservancy has been a leader in conservation and environmental education in Washington County, Minnesota for nearly 40 years. The Belwin Conservancy owns more than 1,300 acres of land on the bluffs of the St. Croix River and in the watershed of Valley Creek - one of Minnesota's premier trout streams. In protecting and restoring land, the Belwin Conservancy hopes to be an inspiration for others to do the same.
The Belwin Conservancy owns and operates the Lucy Winton Bell Athletic Fields. This premier youth athletic complex receives over 70,000 visits annually. In the spring of 2008, the Belwin Conservancy ignited imaginations by releasing a herd of bison on its property to help restore the prairie. The Belwin Conservancy is a nonprofit organization.
February 24, 2010 Read the complete article from Stillwater Gazette » |
