A northern Michigan group has quietly been raising money from private donors in the hopes of preserving land from development.
The Grand Traverse Land Conservancy raised 53 million dollars before going public over the weekend.
Jennifer Jay is with the Conservancy. She said the goal of the program is to protect land across a five-county region.
“We just want to make sure that development is happening in the right places and not places that have a negative impact on our quality of life, our clean water quality, our ability to farm, our scenic views, that type of thing.”
Jay said the Conservancy works with landowners to either get easements or land rights that would bar development on a property.
She said so far the group has protected 1380 acres and hopes to protect another 3319 across Grand Traverse, Manistee, Benzie, Antrim, and Kalkaska Counties.
Jay said the goal is to raise 71.4 million dollars by 2021.