Tall Pines Conservancy

Land protection - in 2022, Tall Pines Conservancy partnered with lead agencies american farmland trust (aft) and the natural resource conservation service (nrcs) to official launch the Wisconsin farmland protection partnership project. As a result of this unprecedented program, $7 million will be directed to support farmers and land trusts in securing conservation easements. Tall Pines intends to use its share of funding in future years to protect approximately 1000 acres of farmland in our area.tall Pines closed on a donation of 268-acres of farmland and related buildings located in the village of waukesha. Known as ravensholme on the river, the property will be used to develop a model agroforestry farm as a natural climate solution for carbon sequestration and soil resiliency as well as serve as a learning hub for agricultural education.tall Pines was also grateful to receive the gift of a conservation easement from claudeen mcauliffe on a 5.6-acre property located directly adjacent to our existing dukelow dairy farm conservation easement.tpc continues to be a major partner in the oconomowoc watershed protection program (owpp). This program assists landowners within the watershed in implementing sustainable land management practices to reduce phosphorus levels in our rivers, lakes, and streams. As a priority area within this project, we executed the mason creek watershed management plan together with the north lake management district, sewrpc, the Wisconsin dnr, owpp, the town of merton and carroll university. The construction portion of the mason creek re-meandering project was completed in fall of 2022.tall Pines also continues its collaboration with farmers for lake country (fflc), a producer-led mentoring group, to educate and implement best practices on lands within the oconomowoc river watershed, including the aerial seeding of cover crops. The fflc footprint was expanded in 2022 to include a significant number of acres outside of the watershed. As a result of this expansion, many more farms (within a new territory of 450,571 acres in comparison to 83,000 acres) are now eligible for cost share funding for water friendly practices such as cover crops, no tilling, and planting green into living cover. Tpc partnered with many other outstanding non-prot organizations and government entities in 2022 to meet mutual land conservation goals. These groups include ozaukee-washington land trust, cedar lakes conservation foundation, the rock river coalition, the nature Conservancy, waukesha green team, waukesha county land Conservancy, savanna institute, gathering waters, and the land trust alliance.

Education and outreach - the year 2022 was filled with a variety of events enthusiastically received by new and long-standing friends of tpc. They included: the return of the owl prowl program, co-hosted by catholic ecology center and wanakia wildlife; co-hosting the lake country clean waters healthy lakes conference in june as well as virtual quarterly meetings; the 8th annual owpp paddle in july; the 14th annual ride to the barns, a sold-out success in august. We promoted our land protection work in the community through sponsorship of the chamber's summer farmers market in oconomowoc. Tall Pines also conducts presentations for various conferences, garden clubs and community and municipal organizations. This included a gathering of beaver lake residents at the stone bank farm market to discuss land and water conservation in lake country. We also worked with the pine lake yacht club to host an outdoor reception and historic pontoon boat tour. Proceeds from the event benefited the pine lake island restoration project and the conservation work of Tall pines.tall Pines had the honor to present the guy kieckhefer pioneer award to bill biersach at our fall feast at beautiful gwenyn hill farm. Outdoor appetizers and a delicious four-course meal were prepared by farm-to-table chefs using locally sourced ingredients. The evening concluded with a funda, where $60,000 was raised to support tpc's efforts in farmland conservation.

Land management - our outreach strategies included working with landowners in the towns of oconomowoc, ashippun, merton, delafield, and erin. Tpc continues its annual monitoring of its properties each fall and has conducted invasive species removal and trail building workdays at our property near lapham peak. Tpc also maintains a separate fund to support conservation efforts at camp quad, which is supported both monetarily and through volunteer hours contributed by current and retired quad employees.tpc is in partnership with the town of merton to implement a conservation plan for oconomowoc river Conservancy park. We have also worked with volunteers from the boy scouts and laudato si to establish connector trails throughout the park and with owpp and waukesha county on a reforestation tree planting program.