For the past 15 years, we've been working to return the land at the Forest Beach Migratory Preserve to its natural state and create a haven for migratory birds along Lake Michigan. We hope you’ve had a chance to spend time on the preserve and enjoy the blooming wildflowers, vibrant canvas of colors and variety of bird songs that fill the air. Over the last three years, the land trust has:
Planted 2,800 trees and shrubs, 2,000 plugs and 8,000 live stakes
Installed four acres of seed
Devoted hundreds of hours to invasive species management
Conducted maintenance on all 20 wetlands
Addressed erosion issues across the chain of wetlands in the center of the preserve
Dedicated over 700 staff hours and 50 volunteer hours in 2024 alone!
On Friday, October 4th, we will take another step in our journey to reclaim additional land by removing the former club house and surrounding buildings. Please know that the buildings underwent extensive structural evaluation in the hope they could be brought up to code and turned into usable spaces. Unfortunately, the path toward reusing the buildings was not feasible. Instead, we will be converting the land into native natural landscapes and recreating a warm and inviting trail head to welcome the public into this beautiful sanctuary.
Throughout the month of October, you can expect to see a lot of activity including our staff and professional contractors, trucks, trailers, heavy machinery, dumpsters, and dump trucks in and around the clubhouse area. Fencing will be placed around work zones and there may be loud noises during work hours. On occasion, there may also be brief delays on the roadway and trails that are temporarily closed or disconnected from each other.
We know this disruption is not ideal and apologize for the inconveniences you may experience throughout the month. This project was originally planned to begin in November, but circumstances beyond our control have accelerated the demolition process.
Over the past 24 months, we've been busy preparing the site for next steps. Specifically:
Knowing that this building played host to many family gatherings, we opened the doors to the community for last tours and a “tag sale” to allow folks one last chance to gather memories in the building.
With an eye toward reducing the landfill impact of deconstruction, we’ve prioritized architectural salvage and were grateful to partner with Habitat for Humanity, who repurposed an entire truckload of items.
All asbestos in the buildings has been removed and properly remediated.
Demolition will include salvaging as much of the building material as possible to recycle into future projects.
Just this summer, we rescued over 30 individual blue-spotted salamanders from around the clubhouse foundation and relocated these cuties to habitats further away on the property.
We’ve begun conversations with staff at the Lake Michigan Bird Observatory who are advising on the possibility of ultimately replacing the club house chimney with a structure that will provide habitat for migrating chimney swifts.
The new preserve entrance will include:
A smaller, more efficient parking area
A relocated and redesigned welcome space
Restoration of the disturbed areas will include:
Filling, grading and laying top soil
Variable grading to help promote wet spots which will provide habitat for amphibians, small mammals, reptiles and potentially crayfish
Planting a high quality native pollinator mix to enhance bird foraging opportunities
Adding logs of various shapes and sizes to provide refuge, perching and more foraging opportunities
Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at owlt@owlt.org with questions about the future of the welcome area at the Forest Beach Migratory Preserve. We appreciate your patience and hope you’ll agree that the resulting natural spaces will be worth the wait!
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