Ann Arbor Greenbelt acquires prime real estate, grant

Wednesday, January 28, 2009 | Source: Concentrate

"Discrete human use is allowed by local fauna"
– sign on Don Botsford property just outside of Ann Arbor

It doesn't take long to figure out Don Botsford's politics on green space and its preservation. The lifelong Ann Arbor resident also known as Grandpa Don recently sold a 10-acre easement of woods and trails to Ann Arbor's Greenbelt. It joins a $10,000 grant to the Washtenaw Land Trust, helping further efforts to preserve green space around the college town.

Botsford's land is on Miller Road tucked away on the Scio Township side of M-14. The city of Ann Arbor and Scio Township are spending a little more than $300,000 to buy the land, but Botsford says the deal is not about the money.

"It seems like a lot of money but it's not like the offers I have received," Botsford says.

He adds that an international business man offered him $1.6 million for the land a few years ago. The last offer went as high as $2 million. Botsford sold the land to the local government for much less than that for pretty much the same reasons he bought it in the 1980s – to save it from developers.

"So much of it has been bulldozed out for housing developments," Botsford says. "It seems like there is hardly anything left beside the parks."

Botsford has blazed about a mile of trails through the property that he takes local residents on nature walks. He adds the city will maintain the property as a natural area park and is looking at extending the trails to even more acreage of an adjacent property.

"This is what I want," Botsford says. "I know this place. I spent years blazing these trails and getting to know the place."

The Jackson Community Foundation's Community Needs Fund has also given $10,000 to the Washtenaw Land Trust to support the Land Trust's Jackson County Nature and Farmland project.

The Washtenaw Land Trust has protected 3,756 acres of land through 72 projects, including 337 acres in Jackson County. It is changing its name to the Land Trust to reflect that its reach now reaches beyond the borders of Washtenaw County.

Source: Don Botsford, Ann Arbor property owner and the Washtenaw Land Trust
Writer: Jon Zemke