Anglers Bay project
meets milestones 

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This article was written and posted on INHF's website in October of 2006.

 

Just one year after the Anglers Bay project was first announced, major milestones have been reached.

Last October, Don and Nancy Yarnes decided that, rather than developing a long stretch of natural shoreline they owned on Big Spirit Lake, they would sell it to the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation (INHF) for conservation purposes.

Today, with widespread support, this project is well on its way to preserving two-thirds of a mile of bulrushes and other aquatic plants, plus restoring prairie, wetlands and wildlife habitat on adjoining land.

Three project milestones have just been reached at the same time:

• 80% of the private funds needed have been raised.
• More than 600 donors from around the state and the country have now contributed.
• 100 of the 600 donors have contributed at the major level of $1,000 or more.

“We hoped there would be strong local support for the Anglers Bay project, “ said Mark Ackelson, INHF president.  “What surprised us is how wide-ranging that ‘local’ support is.”  Donors from many Iowa communities, neighboring states, and beyond have joined donors from the Iowa Great Lakes region in contributing $1,333,500 to this $6.7 million project. An additional $3.5 million in public funds have also been committed to the project.

The Anglers Bay project is the costliest INHF has undertaken. The benefits of the project are significant, as well—not only to the Iowa Great Lakes region, but to the entire state.  “People understand that this is the last opportunity to save natural shoreline at the Iowa Great Lakes that is this extensive and this ecologically important,” noted Ackelson.  “Many of the benefits to people and wildlife are tangible, and others are invisible. But people see that we simply have to save this place with its 3,500’ shoreline and its adjacent bulrush bed.”

Benefits include enhanced bird, waterfowl and fish habitat. Fishing in Big Spirit alone has a $2.3 million impact on the local economy each year.  The project will also provide access through the property for the Dickinson County Trail system.  Water quality is protected by retaining and restoring the land’s natural features.   

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources will eventually own and manage this site as a public area for wildlife habitat and low-impact recreation.

Two hurdles remain in the funding campaign for Anglers Bay. About $333,500 must yet be raised from families, foundations and businesses. Also, the Iowa Legislature will be asked to appropriate $1.5 million to the project in 2007, as they did in 2006.

“Even more private support for the project over the next two months is vital, before we seek this special appropriation from the legislature,” said Ackelson.  “Our legislators need to know that this project is important to a wide audience.”     

Recent major grants have been received from the Dickinson County Water Quality Commission and Bank Midwest.

Ackelson said, “Many families who own property on Big Spirit Lake have been very generous recently. In contrast, about half the project donors are Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation members who live in other communities and other states—but they share concern for this special place.”

You can contribute to this project online—or send contributions, designated “Anglers Bay,” to the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation at 505 Fifth Avenue, Suite 444, Des Moines, IA  50309.

For more information, e-mail Cathy Engstrom, Director of Communications, or call (515) 288-1846.