West Wisconsin Land Trust, Love Lake Association and Naterra Land Reach Deal To Preserve Waterfront Property

MENOMONIE, WI, November 9, 2006 – http://www.naterraland.com - More than 24 acres of waterfront property on Love Lake in Burnett County will be permanently preserved following an arrangement between West Wisconsin Land Trust (WWLT), Love Lake Association and Naterra Land.

Bixby and the Love Lake Association approached Naterra Land regarding the company's 24.5 acre parcel, which included more than 2,100 feet of waterfront property, after purchasing an adjacent parcel in 2005 and placing that in trust with WWLT.

"We welcome the public on our lake and aren't opposed to development," said Ned Bixby, president of the Love Lake Association, "but this parcel and the one we purchased last year serve as a filter for Love Lake and we had concerns that developing them could increase the risk of disturbing natural springs, loon nesting areas and wildlife."

Naterra Land, a provider of waterfront property and other vacation home sites, had previously subdivided the property into nine lots and was preparing to market them when the Love Lake Association proposed an alternative.

"When the Love Lake Association came to us it was apparent from the start that they weren't trying to keep new vacation homeowners off Love Lake, but had a sincere interest in bettering the environment around them," said Scott Cisney, sales manager at Naterra Land's Spooner office. "At the end of the day and after factoring everything in, we reached the conclusion that putting the land into trust was simply the right thing to do."

The solution that Naterra Land and the Love Lake Association reached involved splitting the property, allowing the waterfront real estate to be put into trust while still retaining and some off-water parcels for Naterra Land to sell.

Using a combination of contributions from lake association members and applying for a state lake protection grant, West Wisconsin Land Trust purchased the waterfront property from Naterra at an attractive price. The parcel that had previously been put into trust was purchased solely by the 33 property owners that make up the Love Lake Association and donated to WWLT for monitoring and management

"Working with the Love Lake association and WWLT was one of the most rewarding experiences in my career," said Naterra Land's Cisney. "The relationship between land companies and lake associations can sometimes be contentious, but everyone in this process was honest, respectful, straight-forward and was genuinely concerned with doing what was best."

The efforts of Naterra Land, the Love Lake association and the WWLT have now conserved nearly two miles of waterfront real estate and 90 percent of the natural springs that feed Love Lake its pure water."


About West Wisconsin Land Trust
West Wisconsin Land Trust is a regional land trust in west Wisconsin. Founded as the Wisconsin Farmland Conservancy in 1988, its original mission was to promote land conservation on family farms in Wisconsin. In 1996, its mission expanded to include the preservation of other kinds of land: forests, wetlands, rivers and lakes, bluffs and prairies. West Wisconsin Land Trust assists individual landowners, lake associations, and communities in developing conservation plans for their property. West Wisconsin Land Trust specializes in conserving land so that the people of the Midwest and their children can continue to enjoy clean air and water for generations to come. West Wisconsin Land Trust is an active member of both the statewide Gathering Waters land trust network, the Blufflands Alliance, and the national Land Trust Alliance.

About Naterra Land
For more than 25 years, Naterra Land has specialized in helping people find and buy beautiful land where they can create lasting connections to nature and build a lifetime of memories with family and friends. Taking extraordinary care to preserve the environment and natural beauty of the land it buys, Naterra makes low-impact improvements, such as adding roads and power, and creates generous-sized homesites. Naterra works to understand the needs of its customers and gain an intimate knowledge of the property it sells.
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