The Foggs had envisioned one day doing a conservation easement on the property themselves. “We had been working and talking with Tom Bailey for a few years,” Jon said. “Sally and I had accomplished what we intended with this land and couldn’t make it any better. While we had other offers to sell it, we knew what kind of people we felt should have this place.”

The Scullys fit the bill to a “T”. “The magic of this property is related to its remoteness,” Terry said. “We want to keep it amazing. There is clearly a development opportunity for residential or vacation homes and we did not want that to happen at all.”

Terry accurately describes the property as an interesting and breathtaking collection of forests, dunes, and lake frontage. The protected portion includes 173 acres with 1,700 feet of Lake Michigan frontage and half a mile along Barney’s Lake (the Conservancy owns the nearby 120-acre Barney’s Lake Preserve which protects nearly an additional half mile of water frontage).
“The preserve is one of the reasons I began thinking about conservation,” Terry said. “The Foggs told me about the Conservancy and I spent quite a bit of time talking with Tom Bailey about the pros and cons of a conservation easement. What I wanted was for the property to be as unchanged as possible over time.”

“Not only is the Scully property absolutely beautiful, it also has high ecological significance,” said Kieran Fleming, the Conservancy’s director of land protection. Fleming noted that the state threatened Merlin (a small raptor) has been seen at the property and the federally threatened Pitcher’s thistle is also found on the beach.

The generosity of the Scully family members goes beyond their donated conservation easement. A historic and well-loved island trail known as the Kuebler Trail crosses through the Scully’s land. Originally the path of a small gauge railroad bed used during the logging era at the turn of the century, the Kuebler Trail has become a popular hiking and jogging trail for non-motorized uses. Within their conservation easement, the Scullys kept the right to maintain the portion of the trail on their land and they plan to allow people to continue to use it.


Top left: Terry and Beverly Scully;
Right: The Scully kids: Katie, Erin, Mike, Jenny, and Megan.