The Outdoor Classroom: Inland Seas Education Association Takes Over Stewardship Of Leo Creek Preserve

An outdoor classroom: It's how Fred Sitkins, executive director of the Suttons Bay-based Inland Seas Education Association (ISEA), describes the nearby Leo Creek Preserve. For the past five years, ISEA has utilized the space to teach students lessons about watershed protection and preservation. Thanks to a recent gift, the preserve now officially belongs to ISEA – something Sitkins says will allow the organization to make even more use of the unique property as it continues to expand its educational programming.

Education has long been an important element of the Leo Creek property, which sits adjacent to the Leelanau Trail, not far from local fixtures like Hansen Foods and Hop Lot Brewing. Leelanau Montessori used to occupy a space nearby, and students from the school “built stick forts, picked blueberries, and let their imaginations run wild” on the Leo Creek land, according to the Leelanau Conservancy. In 2020, thanks to an anonymous family foundation gift and a conservation easement, the Conservancy took over stewardship of the 8.7-acre property, and the Leo Creek Preserve was officially formed.

Kate Thornhill, who has spearheaded those stewardship efforts ever since, knew the property well. The property hadn’t been used much for educational purposes since the Montessori school relocated to Lake Leelanau in 2010. When the Leo Creek Preserve was formed, though, Thornhill knew she wanted to bring educational programs back.

“I was very familiar with the property from having kids in the Montessori school whose favorite thing about school was playing at the creek,” Thornhill tells the Leelanau Ticker. ISEA, headquartered just half a mile north, seemed like a good partner for bringing kids back to the site.

While ISEA is known best for its out-on-the-water Schoolship programs, Sitkins says the opportunity to connect with Thornhill and the Leo Creek property came along at the perfect time. ISEA, he says, is in the midst of “a pretty significant expansion of our work,” most visible in the organization’s 2023 acquisition of the schooner Alliance. That boat is the biggest vessel in the ISEA fleet, and has given the nonprofit a significant bump in program capacity. Even beyond boats, though, Sitkins says ISEA wants to grow its capabilities. 

“We’ve been looking for ways to expand our year-round programming,” Sitkins says. “Obviously, the sailing season is only part of the year, so if there’s anything we can do in other parts of the year to inspire stewardship of our lakes, we’re really interested in that. Specifically, we’ve been working on watershed exploration programs, and trying to teach kids that our actions on land impact our waters. Leo Creek has been really the primary area where we've been doing that work.”

“It really is just the perfect layout for us,” Sitkins adds of the preserve. “When we want to talk about watersheds and all the components of a watershed – wetlands, marshes, streams, rivers, you name it – they’re all easily observable on the beautiful walk we have from our campus in Suttons Bay to Leo Creek. And then the preserve itself is this beautiful space with 1,000 feet of frontage on the creek and a lot of wet, marshy areas, but also some upland areas that have really nice woodland ecology to them. It’s the perfect space for one of our most popular programs, Watershed Watchers, where we have students in the streams sampling and doing water chemistry tests, but also learning about that boundary between land and water and how it impacts our watershed as a whole, including the bay and the lakes.”

While Thornhill will still be involved – she plans to continue taking care of an on-premises garden, and hopes to work with ISEA “on their vision for the land” – she says she’s ready to pass the baton.

“I’ve spent nine years working on that land, working to make it a space that people would enjoy,” Thornhill says. “It’s very satisfying to be so connected to a piece of land, and it has connected me with so many interesting and generous people. I’ve loved the hard physical labor, the environmental science study, and the opportunity to be a bit creative. But I’m just a temporary caretaker. I don’t believe in trying to control our physical environment, but rather stewarding it carefully. Caretaking the environment and environmental education is what ISEA has been doing for 35 years. I think it’s a great fit and they’ve been wonderful to work with. I’m very happy about the transition.”

Per Sitkins, “there is a lot of room for growth” in ISEA’s programs at Leo Creek Preserve – growth he’s hopeful will be easy to achieve now that the organization owns the property. It’s not just kids that could benefit from that growth, either. Now that ISEA is the primary steward, Sitkins says there will be a slew of new volunteer opportunities to help care for the land, potentially creating education opportunities for all ages. It all plays into ISEA's goal of creating a whole army of people who care about the health of the watershed.

“At the heart of our mission is inspiring the future stewardship of our Great Lakes, and part of that mission is to inspire hope,” Sitkins says. “We want our students to understand that there are lots of amazing people doing big and small things that make a positive difference in our natural environment, and the Leo Creek Preserve is such a great opportunity to showcase that. Kate Thornhill and her volunteers have taken this nine-acre parcel of land and created a really incredible environment. By having something like this, we’re able to show students: ‘Yes, you really can make a difference.’”