Letter from the Executive Director Archives

Words Matter: What Stewardship Means to Us

A Letter from the Executive Director In 2021, ACRES Land Trust began referring to our work in the field as “stewardship” rather than “land management.” In this letter, ACRES Executive Director Jason Kissel explains the distinction and what stewardship means to us. Dear Members, On ACRES properties, staff, volunteers, partners and contractors accomplish a wide ...

12/06/2021
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In appreciation of not knowing: Letter from the Executive Director

Dear Land Lovers, As many of you know, trees are my primary draw to nature. But I’m also fascinated by many other aspects of nature, including bogs. While my interest in trees continues to lead me to learn all I can about them, my interest in bogs takes me in a different direction: I like ...

11/12/2019
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Summer growth: mimicking our land’s peak performance

Dear Friends, We Midwesterners have a reputation of being hard workers. I think this is partly because we mimic the land we live on. We follow the lead of the plants and animals around us. Your preserve visits this summer immerse you in green — surrounded with plants operating at peak performance. On a preserve, ...

08/14/2019
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Nearly 60 years: celebrating land today

Dear friends, Each day is a victory for ACRES. Life thrives on 7,000+ acres of land because our members, and members before them, chose to acquire each of these acres. And it is a choice. People choose whether or not to support ACRES, ACRES staff and board choose whether or not to acquire each acre, ...

06/06/2019
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The long view: glimpsing forever, one day at a time

Dear friends, Since ACRES protects land forever, I often engage in conversations envisioning what natural areas will look like during the course of forever. We think about how much bigger trees will be in a hundred years, how some lakes will become bogs in a thousand years, how rivers will move. We wonder what plants and animals ...

01/17/2019
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Fifty-eight years of reliability, thanks to you

“It’s continuity, it’s peaceful, it’s something you can rely on.” — Dana Davis, speaking about returning to her family’s land. Dana and her husband Duane donated The Walter H. and E. Marie Myers Flowers Creek Nature Preserve and hand-restored farmhouse. Dear friends, Nature is reliable. It reacts, but doesn’t overreact or underreact. ACRES strives to ...

11/07/2018
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A tale of two regions: how different cultures value land

Recently, ACRES Land Trust Executive Director Jason Kissel vacationed with his family along the Canadian Atlantic Coast. His trip included jaunts in and around New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Jason was so moved traversing the coastline and meeting various folks, he penned the following narrative to capture those experiences for our readers. May ...

09/05/2018
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Letter from the Executive Director: Perishables

A land donor recently handed me a box of documents related to their family’s land now owned by ACRES: photos, handwritten deed records from the 1800s, crop history, and other treasures. With box in hand, I was humbled, aware that ACRES is responsible for safeguarding not only the family’s land, but also their memories of ...

01/10/2018
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Valuing Your Gifts | $28.12 Adds Up

Dear Friends, ACRES is fortunate to receive major monetary gifts from individuals and foundations. We often highlight these gifts through press releases and within the pages of the Quarterly. Although smaller donations don’t result in newspaper headlines, they are of immense value to ACRES. I want to share two recent examples of donations that had ...

12/01/2017
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Kokiwanee, 1941 farmland to nature preserve

In my recent Letter from the Executive Director, I write about how land can produce a wide variety of products. I make the claim that when compared to nature; we are unimaginative when it comes to deciding what land should produce. To illustrate this point, let’s explore the recent history of Kokiwanee – a 140-acre nature ...

02/22/2017
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