A year ago at the Annual Meeting, I reviewed the preceding 12 months, as I'll do now. There have been many achievements, initiatives, issues and what I'll call opportunities over the past year's march to advance conservation in Southern Walworth County and in particular through the Geneva Lake watershed area.

We'll be increasingly talking about our area in terms of the word "watershed," but suffice it to say that a watershed embraces all the land that drains toward a common area, and in our case locally, that is the great ancient preglacial valley that today we call Geneva Lake. There is a deep geographic common ground between all the nearby lands that drain into and out of Geneva Lake.

And that common ground applies to the future of the people who live and recreate on the land. Because what we do with our woods, ponds and wetlands, and with our wells and septic and water treatment systems, with our lawns and farm fields, with private and commercial run-off management, with new residential and commercial development and construction -- will all effect the underground aquifers that feed our lake and under-grid our watershed, that interconnect with the lake, and flow on into the White River on down the Fox.

These effects, much of which will be determined by large and small decisions by our citizens and the multiple municipalities in which we live, will strongly influence the quality of life, our local land values, the desirability of living and working here, the vitality of our deep lake itself, and the very life and health of all living things in our watershed, now and for future generations. That is our real natural common ground, and these are the issues that animate the Conservancy. They are the issues that should become a priority in our communities, before damage to the natural environment becomes irreversible and the costs of recovery overwhelming.

So back to the past 12 months. I must say that this period begins and ends with deep concerns about the near and ultimate fate of the very place we sit today, Yerkes Observatory. Twelve months ago, there had just been a meeting of some 70 citizens concerned about the future of Yerkes, next door at Aurora University and led by Larry Larkin, and including our State Senator Neal Kedzie, who is with us today. And the community-based initiative to save this national monument for the 21st century, called Yerkes 21, was launched that day. That initiative was later merged into the proposal made by Aurora University to save Yerkes and its native grounds.

Today, a year later, Aurora's response to the University of Chicago Request for Proposal has apparently been rejected by the University of Chicago, while the competing plan by a shopping mall developer and owner of Mirbeau Resorts of upstate New York, to build an imposing commercial structure containing a 100-room resort spa hotel, restaurant and conference center on the lakefront and 72 homes up near the observatory, has been accepted by UC. The observatory itself would be protected for 5 years, but no firm plans for its long-term preservation and utilization are yet know.

The Mirbeau proposal will be subject to approvals of zoning changes, complex and costly tax and financial structuring and specific plans presented to the Village of Williams Bay. Mirbeau's presentation of its plan and public Q&As on these issues have been scheduled over coming weeks; a group called the Concerned Taxpayers of Williams Bay, which I'm sure includes some of our 115-plus Conservancy supporters with Williams Bay addresses, has been formed and will be critiquing the proposals; and I guarantee you that the Conservancy will join in with questions and observations and ideas to share with its own membership, with the people of Williams Bay and with the entire Geneva Lake network of communities in the weeks, months and possibly even years ahead.

We'll talk with the experts and with the public, analyze the plans and their implications, and focus our commentary on the many historic preservation and land conservation issues that arise.

An observation I share with others is that the determination of Yerkes Observatory and its site is not only a question of the future for this particular unique and threatened manmade and very special natural place. It is a special kind of "watershed" issue for our entire area, because its results and implications will flow out effect the common ground and future direction of many other dimensions of our community life throughout this geographic watershed. Call Yerkes a bell-weather or a turning point on community character, or just call it important.

But issues surrounding Yerkes, important as they are, and which we can discuss at more length later this morning, aren't the only highlights of Conservancy activity of the past year, which I'd like to continue outlining. As a disclaimer, I won't try to be comprehensive, because there's just too much going on, and anything I overlook or get wrong in this report is my fault, not that of the staff or Board.

Twenty months ago, we launched a development initiative to focus a lot of effort and resources on the growing pressures for suburban subdivision expansion throughout our area. We agreed that Conservancy members are not blatantly anti-development - good development can carry real economic and even social benefits if carefully planned, in context with overall community vision and local consideration. We decided to focus on what we could do to educate, cajole, confer and strive for BETTER development - development sensitive to density considerations and to proven conservation practices.

Jim along with staff and board members have since met often with developers and builders, municipal, county, state and even federal officials at every level, with other conservation and community organizations and with private citizens, and we've made some progress. Any "wins" we've had have usually been combined efforts, and we don't begin to take sole credit. They are "wins" for and by the community.

For example, the Lake Geneva City Planning Commission heard from the Conservancy and many others and rejected plans for what has been referred to as Geneva Ridge, off the southeast corner of the lake, even after these plans were scaled back, and notably reformatted, largely the encouragement of the Conservancy.

Or, Jim met with the Shodeen group and shared our conservation concerns about the Big Foot Farms subdivision proposal. The Village of Walworth Planning Commission grabbed the bull by the horns and made it clear to them that the dense Big Foot Farms suburban development proposal south of the Geneva Lake was inappropriate to the site and did not fit into Walworth's well-reasoned and up-to-date master plans for the future growth of their community.

And, Jim Celano has been an outspoken advocate for broad evaluation of the area-wide effect as well as the local community impact of the massive Jackson Creek residential development proposal by Shodeen east of Lake Delevan will have on us all.

On another front, recognizing that conservation development design can be responsible and far-sighted, the Board authorized creation of our very first Excellence in Conservation Development Award, presented it to Keefe and Associates and Red Wing Land Company for their Sugar Creek Preserve conservation community. Located on Bowers Road just south of I-43, Sugar Creek offers 52 house sites on 260 acres of adjacent woods, streams, ponds and wetlands, all designed by famed conservation planner Russell Arndt. We publicized this new award to send a signal to other developers that good conservation design can be successful and gain positive recognition from both the community and the market.

For six months, we've been involved with the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater in our initiative to evaluate the economic impact that the health of Geneva Lake itself has on the economic vitality of the surrounding communities. This important baseline research is now about to be conducted. We think this program will draw increased attention to the practical value of conservation practices on our community.

Regarding the agricultural community and our fast disappearing prime ag land, last summer we took assembled an exhibit at the Walworth County Far to reach our to the ag community and other new friends. Jim has met with several ag officials and we are looking into both governmental and private means to accelerate agricultural land conservation, both to help keep prime farmland in farming, and to help maintain a measure of the casual country and rustic character of much of our area.

We have continued to expand our portfolio of protected lands in Southern Walworth County - current conservation easements and those on the drawing boards will soon add up to about one thousand acres of permanently protected lands. Voluntary donations to the Conservancy, which carry along with them the responsibility of permanent land stewardship, are from private landowners and municipal officials alike, all of whom make this achievement possible. Did you know that nationally nearly 10 million acres of land are protected by regional and local land trusts like the Conservancy? That's 4 times the size of Yellowstone National Park, and represents double the land protected just 8 years ago.

Land trusts are the vanguard of land protection in the 21st century, now that deficits have limited the ability of the federal government to conserve new lands. Current rates of development mean we have 20 years or less to protect our best natural landscapes, before they are gone forever. Walworth County is one of the fastest developing areas in Wisconsin, and a corollary issue is that prime farming land is being converted to other uses at an alarming rate.

Shifting gears to a very positive note, we've enjoyed over the past year several great get-togethers with the community that has also been critical fundraisers for us. From a fun Mai Tai No Tai party at the yacht Club last July to our sellout upcoming 3rd annual No Tai party at the Lake Geneva Country Club this July 15th. We continued the Holly Ball tradition with another great event at the Big Foot Country Club last December, where Bill Peterson was singled out for our annual Conservation Stewardship Award for his unrelenting efforts to preserve the historic Black Point Estate, where we now have a shoreline conservation land protection agreement. Just this June we held a Farmers Market and Garage Sale at the Mill House. followed a few weeks later by a Sunday brunch and tour fundraiser at the Driehaus Estate. If you've missed these events, please join us in the future.

Our staff Land Protection Specialist Lynn Ketterhagen has made great progress in updating one of the key documents associated with each of our local conservation easements, called baseline documentation, to bring these in line with current national standards. We've become more sophisticated and educated in learning how to best assure the long-term, permanent protection of these lands, and Lynn hopes to have this documentation completed and in the hands of all our easement land owners by this fall.

Regarding the Conservancy and the news media, we have received excellent coverage of issues and initiatives in local press, and credit them for adding power to our public information outreach. In addition to working closely with the Lake Geneva Regional News, the Beacon, the Janesville Gazette, At the Lake magazine and others, this past year we have met with the editorial board of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and liaised with the news and editorial sections of the Chicago Tribune, the Kenosha News and other key media to get conservation issues out there to the people.

In the office, our Administrative Assistant Katie Sullivan has revamped our website at genevalakeconservancy.org and our newsletter, assuring they are each full of current news and valuable information. We have installed new computers and upgraded and updated our software and records systems.

There's a lot on our agenda, now and looking ahead. But I'd like to add that none of our work would be possible without our small but great staff, led by Jim, without our active and involved officers and all our board members, or without our many Conservancy members, volunteers and donors. A big thank you to all.

At the Conservancy, we try to live by our motto: Common ground. Community character. Natural Resources. And, we are always on the outlook for new supporters who can donate their time or money, and even prospective board members, so if you know of someone who may be interested in learning more, please put them in touch.

Charles Ebeling
GLC Chairman