2009 Promising Projects — Protecting the Environment
The projects listed below, from grants awarded last year, provide examples of "on-target" proposals in each of the Foundation's grantmaking program areas that seem to hold promise of high impact if implemented as planned.
Land Conservancy of West Michigan - $1,500,000
www.naturenearby.orgSituated on Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Kalamazoo River, the Saugatuck Harbor Natural Area is a landscape totaling 161 acres of interdunal wetlands interspersed with open dunes with rare plant and animal species. It adjoins the Village of Saugatuck’s Oval Beach to the south and a bit further to the north is the Saugatuck Dune State Park.
A partnership of conservation organizations has been working for years to permanently protect this land for public use. A regional acquisition priority, it is one of the most significant natural areas left along the Lake Michigan shoreline and when protected, would will further a stretch of surrounding protected private and public land totaling 1,700 acres and stretching for almost four miles along Lake Michigan.
The Frey Foundation, with several other private funders in the region, has offered financial support to ensure this regionally significant lakeshore property will forever remain undisturbed and be made available to the people of west Michigan, the state and the broader region as a protected natural area.