In October, Dr. Rob Horwich donated a conservation easement on 140 acres he owns in Crawford County, WI to the Mississippi Valley Conservancy.  The easement protects the land from development or other uses which diminish its natural values.

“When you live on the land you begin to feel attached to it.  The only real way to protect the land is through easements,” Horwich said.

Horwich’s property includes a stretch of the Hall’s Branch of the Kickapoo River and woodland habitats of oak and hickory and maple and basswood, with floodplain forest and sedge meadow along the river.

The land is adjacent to a unit of the state’s Kickapoo Wildlife Area and another MVC private land easement, protecting over 900 acres of contiguous habitat.

 Horwich said the mature forest on his land harbors rare warblers like the hooded warbler and other forest-interior nesting birds. 

“I love the sound of the wood thrushes.   I’ve heard them here on the land and know that they’re here for the good habitat.”...