More flow-style mountain biking, hiking and skiing trails — plus protection of an important wildlife corridor — are on the very near horizon in Leelanau County. The Leelanau Conservancy announced yesterday that it raised $3.5 million — during the pandemic — for the Palmer Woods 1000-Acre Project, which will expand the existing 721-acre Palmer Woods Forest Reserve in Maple City to more than 1,000 acres and create a five-mile border with the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

The full goal was met by year-round and seasonal residents — more than 400 of them — as well as a few Michigan foundations, all with a connection to Leelanau County.

“We are incredibly grateful to our community of supporters who helped us reach our goal so quickly despite the many uncertainties in the world right now,” says conservancy development director Meg Delor.

The funds will be used to purchase 350 acres of undeveloped, mature forest adjacent to the existing natural area and to expand public trails for a total of 40 miles of hiking, cross country skiing, and mountain biking.

Delor says there was a great deal of excitement among donors about the prospect of adding to the groundbreaking mountain biking trails already in the forest reserve. “The trails we currently have are the area’s first flow-style single track trails and we will be expanding the system.”

But building on the momentum of the mountain biking scene at Palmer Woods is just one part of the goal: “The hope is that Palmer Woods will have something that appeals to everyone, whether it be long hikes in solitude, a joyous cross-country bike ride or technically challenging one, an enriching learning experience about forest ecology or quiet contemplation in a one-of-kind forest fern garden,” says the conservancy’s executive director Tom Nelson.

“Thanks to the generous support of this community, we no longer have to hope. I cannot describe the gratitude I feel,” he says.

The Leelanau Conservancy will close on the 350 acres within the next four to eight weeks. “The purchase involves three separate, unrelated landowners, so there will be a series of transactions,” adds Nelson. “We were so fortunate that all three were willing to work with us to make this project happen — that’s unusual, if not altogether rare.”

Also rare: the opportunity for the Conservancy to protect 1,000 contiguous acres in Leelanau County. “We have saved many special places in the last three decades, but this is the first stretch of over 1,000 contiguous acres — 1,070 to be exact — that we have put together.”

Nelson says that landscape-scale conservation is “one answer to the issues we face from the threat of climate change. The benefits are huge. Not only for desperately needed carbon sequestration, but for protecting clean water and wildlife habitat.”

Keeping this particular property undeveloped will help ensure the groundwater-fed waters of Glen Lake and Good Harbor Bay can remain healthy and will permanently protect a five-mile border with Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, thus keeping open a crucial corridor for wildlife to roam.

Leelanau Conservancy staff will be putting out an RFP to contractors for a new trail plan later this summer. The conservancy consulted with Chad Jordan from Northern Michigan Mountain Bike Association and Molly Steck and Cody Sprattmoran from Bike Leelanau on the original six miles of mountain bike trails and will be including these community groups in the next stage as well.

For those who can’t wait to visit the conservancy’s soon-to-be acquisition, Nelson gives this firsthand account of the magnitude of these 350 acres: “It’s not an overstatement to use ‘majestic’ as an apt adjective. This forest, which is nestled into an undulating glacial geography, has a different feel depending where you are. There are stands of massive white pines, unexpected sunny meadows, a gentle hillside of chest-high ferns, and settings of old hemlocks that feel positively primeval.” 

Photos: Palmer Woods path by Mark Wilson; mountain bikers by Drew Palmer