Archived: Mauer-Ruesch Conservation Easement Signed!

On Thursday, December 22, North Central Conservancy Trust and Cathy Mauer and Gordon Ruesch signed NCCT’s latest conservation easement on a 60 acre property located in the Town of Medford, Taylor County. The Mauer-Ruesch easement will forever protect a scenic mixture of mature sugar maple, hemlock and oak forest, a stream, and black ash and northern white cedar wetlands within rolling glacial topography in the Town of Medford. The signing of the Mauer-Ruesch easement brings the total number of acres permanently protected in Taylor County by NCCT to nearly 500 acres. At the time of the Mauer-Ruesch easement filing, five other conservation easements within ten miles of the Mauer-Ruesch conservation easement protected 435 acres of natural glaciated landscape.

The Mauer-Ruesch easement includes a diverse assemblage of flora and plant communities, which in turn supports a diversity of bird species and other wildlife. The upland parts of the property include numerous large, old hemlocks, red oaks and sugar maples. A high hemlock-draped ridge looks over a beautiful stream and forested wetlands, and two conical hills set off old farm fields planted to prairie and succeeding to quaking aspen, white birch, red maple and white pine. The high ground slopes down to a beautiful cedar grove fringing a black ash swamp.

Since our inception, NCCT has been dedicated to protecting the worthy scenic, working lands and environmental resources for the benefit of the people of central Wisconsin. Conservation easements are especially important for protecting the agricultural, scenic, and environmental qualities of our landscape. From our first Taylor County easement on 120 acres in 2005 to our latest easement with Cathy Mauer and Gordon Ruesch, NCCT is grateful to our conservation-minded benefactors and is dedicated to continuing our growth as an active and vital land trust.imgp0103

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