Local conservationists celebrated a year of land preservation with a Wild Night Out, Oct. 23 at Deer Lake.
The North Oakland Headwaters Land Conservancy’s annual fund raiser, with a theme of Turtles and Tuxedos, included dinner, turtle trivia, wine pull, and live auction.
The conservancy has 1,450 acres preserved so far, and is looking to add about 20 acres on Sashabaw Creek off Maybee Road, where a golf course used to be planned, along with headwaters land in the Clinton River corridor and Shiawassee River valley.
“There are still a whole lot of areas to be preserved,” said Sue Julian, executive director. “To everyone in the area, these kinds of open spaces are important to our quality of our life.”
David Mifsud of Herpetological Resource and Management was the keynote speaker, discussing his work preserving turtles. He worked with Consumers Energy to survey property during recent pipeline projects for rare species such as Blandings turtles and massasauga rattlesnakes, and develop restoration plans.
“Consumers Energy were good environmental stewards ? they were excited about conservation,” Mifsud said. “When the Kalamazoo oil spill happened (in 2010), a lot of them helped with the spill to save turtles.”
Call 248-795-2808 for more information.
? Phil Custodio