Imagine finding a place that was planned and executed to be a silent sports park instead. No 4X4s tearing away at the paths, no internal combution engines and no electrical devices to blast sounds from town. A place you could be lulled to sleep by nothing but the sound of a loon perhaps, awakened by the throaty call of a bullfrog or reminded midday whose land you were on by the shriek of a hawk high above. I have enjoyed times like this, sometimes literally miles from nowhere. In the Quetico region of Canada or the Boundary Waters, but they were many hours drive into the bush and even a dozen miles or more of paddling out past the furthest reaches of motorized traffic. Few hearty souls are willing to portage extra gear beyond the first thousand meter portage. I would like to propose somethnig much closer to home, a place where the hurly burley of the outside world is held at arm's length. A place where you might find peace and quiet without keeping one ear tuned to the whine of engines or be assured that you would not be distracted by the buzzing of chainsaws while you tried to relax and unwind. I am tired of seeing people try to get away from it all while being addicted to their gasoline powered generators or only being able to see nature down the barrel of their guns. This week I have found such a parcel of land, one that can be protected forever and held in trust perpetually to allow silent sports to rule the day. If you would like to bike, or hike, canoe or cavort, you can do it without worry of being run over or coated in a plume of dust from passing vehicles. It is quazi-public space already, but privately held and for sale. Thousands of acres stretching over headwaters of two river systems and a handful of lakes, waiting to be protected from the heavy hand of humankind. I always see opportunity in these sorts of places, a chance to have something better grow where even the remoteness had not protected it fully in the past. Places where, without being protected, more forests will fall and get carted away for pulp or lumber to feed faraway people from what is left of the woods. In my heart of hearts, I have always sought out places like this in hopes of giving back to them in ways that show Mother Nature that I value them. My tiny breaths of carbon rich air, feeding the trees which provide me shelter with a living roof of branches. Most of my travels which were never about getting anywhere but to a moment unmolested, where I could feel time unfold at the pace it always has. A place to reflect upon my self and how it fits into the puzzle pieces of nature surrounding me and to realize that all of it was fine before we came along to appreciate it and will exist long after my body returns to the earth as worm food.
I would like to share this place with as many people as possible, to secure it from the possibility of further noise and haste, quiet the wilds in a profound way that lasts forever, creating a hush that will extend through generations allowing native creatures their voice. https://americanforestmanagement.com/real-estate/properties/twin-lakes/2419 This link will take you to the site digitally, but if you want to help purchase this property, we ask you to give as generously as you are able. It may not be sub-divided and will only be for non-consumptive uses if we can raise the capital to purchase it. Unlike other investments, we are not doing this for money and will not be treating any contributions as investments, but we will manage the land to restore the soil, plant trees, expand the carbon sink that is the soil resource, bring back beaver and slow the flow of water from the landscape. The purpose of our efforts are solely to protect the headwaters of the rivers that flow from this relatively unmolested area, to recover the areas that have been denuded, planted into monocultures and exploited for timber harvest in the past. Our long term goal, as we begin is to use a minimal amount of highly selective cutting to appease the current management plans on file with the USFS and the State of Wisconsin, but to also enshrine the area as a memeorial forest to the ancient ones who once passed this way and did not leave waste or destructuon in their wake. We seek to hold this land as sacred and to encourage those who come to enjoy it to forget about the "outside" world for a while. Our intention is to use it to teach sustainability through imersion and practical, respectful enjoyment, not tearing it up as so many other places allow folks to do. Our intention is to save just under 22 square miles as a pocket of highly protected landscape and to slowly coax climax forest to re-establish itself in the Northwoods. Our goal is to use this property to sequester over 42,000 tons of carbon there over the coming years and to show as many people as possible how to use regenerative agriculture and restorative forestry practices to leave something better than what we found in the wake of our passing. We also intend to do it
