We are still celebrating the Mary & Paul Lydolph Misty Valley Farm Conservation Easement that preserves this 235.5-acre property. The Misty Valley Farm easement includes farmland fields and a homestead farm, as well as habitat protection for the property’s regionally rare bog complex, woodlands, remnant prairie, wetlands, steep-sided valley, and successional open space.
Inspired by Becky Summers who voluntarily preserved her farmland and Kettle Moraine forest habitat with the land trust’s first donated conservation easement, ten years later Paul and Mary Lydolph provide the newest first — our largest project to date — 235.5 acres!
Back in the 1970’s, Paul and Mary Lydolph bought a 160-acre farm that nobody wanted on a rolling glacial landscape. Looking to buy a place to go during summers and weekends, the couple looked in Ozaukee County but nothing seemed to fit until they reached this farm near the Village of Elkhart Lake and made it their home base.
Paul, a geography professor specializing in world climates and Russian geography, grew up on a farm in Iowa. He commuted to his job at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee while they both got busy with the farm raising sheep, keeping a quarter horse, chickens and a milk cow. Neighbors and friends benefited from their maple sugaring, fresh eggs, milk, and bountiful 2-acre garden. “It became a business without even trying!” said Mary. When adjacent farmland went up for sale, they purchased it and expanded their property to the size it is today—235.5 acres.
Along with running a farm, the Lydolphs also went about managing and conserving their beloved landscape with planting trees and enrolling areas in CRP—Conservation Reserve Program. They talked about working with Glacial Lakes Conservancy for years before they made the decision to work with a land trust. “We didn’t want to see our land divided up, sold, and developed,” said Mary. “Now my family and I can rest assured that it is protected from now on with a conservation easement.”
The easement provides for no future development outside the 4-acre zone of the farmstead’s buildings, but does allow for new or replacement structures needed to keep a farm business viable at the site. For instance, structures that might be needed for a subscription farm, greenhouse, or its on-site energy needs, like solar panels.
Finally, along with donating the easement for GLC to hold, the Lydolphs also made another important donation — a significant contribution to GLC’s Land Protection Fund, which has been established for charitable donations to fund the work of future easement monitoring, stewardship, and legal defense. More contributions to this Fund are needed.
All members and contributors to Glacial Lakes Conservancy are invited to donate to GLC to honor our Misty Valley Farm project, or any of our other worthy projects. Your donation to GLC will be very welcome.
(Pictured left is Mary Lydolph and GLC’s former board president, David Grusznski, in front of the Misty Valley Farm maple sugar shack.)
