NCV Board receives award from the Northern Michigan Environmental Action Council

Press release from New Community Vision

Dated: May 19th 2025  

The all-volunteer board of New Community Vision (NCV) is the proud recipient of the Northern Michigan Environmental Action Council (NMEAC)’s Environmentalist of the Year: Grass Roots Group award. 

The award recognizes NCV’s dedicated volunteer efforts to secure the acquisition and permanent preservation of land located between Omena and Northport and bordering Grand Traverse Bay in Leelanau. 

The award was announced May 16th at the 36th Annual Environmentalist of the Year Celebration of NMEAC, a Traverse City based non-profit dedicated to preserving our natural environment through citizen action and environmental education for over 40 years. 

In announcing the award, NMEAC praised NCV for its partnership with the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians (GTB) and the broader community of Leelanau to ensure the acquisition and preservation of a critical 187-acres portion of the former Timber Shores campground property through grassroots fundraising and organizing efforts. These efforts included supporting the successful application of the GTB for a multi-milliondollar federal grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric (NOAA) as well as NCV raising over $3.5 million in support from 300 local community groups, foundations and private individuals to facilitate the outright purchase and transfer of the property. This was successfully concluded in late December 2024. The land will remain a nature preserve with public access in perpetuity. 

NCV’s partnership with the GTB made possible the return of this historic property to the Tribe as part of their ancestral homeland. The land is called Mashkiigaki (Mashkeeg-aki) meaning the “place of the medicines”.  Mashkiigaki includes ecologically critical coastal wetlands, 1,800 feet of shoreline and woodlands. 

NCV Vice President Beth Verhey and NCV board member Andy Thomas received the award on behalf of the entire NCV board. “Our beginning was five people in Northport mobilizing together to forge a positive future for about 200 acres that had been through contentious development threats for decades,” said Verhey. “We came together to find a way to stop the cycle of contention [about this property] and forge a positive future. And that positive future today is Mashkiigaki, returning ancestral land to the tribe.” 

NMEAC also awarded the GTB two separate prizes, including one recognizing Sandra Witherspoon, Council Chairwoman of the GTB as Environmentalist of the Year: Public Service or Public Office. NMEAC noted that Mashkiigaki being returned to the Tribe through the receipt of the NOAA grant and the efforts of NCV in advocacy and fundraising is part of continued momentum behind the nationwide “Land Back” conservation movement and should as such “be a point of pride for the whole Leelanau community.”  

NCV President John Sentell said: “This recognition by NMEAC is very special to our board and we are very appreciative. The successful preservation of Mashkiigaki is proof-positive of what can be accomplished when we pull together to do the right thing for nature and people. This conservation success story resonates deeply in so many ways. Connecting communities through the power of nature is meaningful beyond measure.” 

Left to right: Madeline Baroli (NMEAC board member), Barbara Stamiris (NMEAC board recording secretary), Beth Verhey (NCV vice president), John Nelson (NMEAC board member), Andy Thomas (NCV board member). 

Notes to editors:

New Community Vision (NCV) was launched as a 501(c)3 non-profit in 2023 with a vision to re-think how the former Timber Shores property located between Omena and Northport in Leelanau could best benefit both current and future generations. The all-volunteer Board focused on acquiring the property in order to preserve the majority of the 200-plus acres - including 1,800 feet of valued lakeshore - as a public nature preserve for the community while setting aside nearly 25 acres in the upland sections of the property with the least conservation value to address some of the housing issues faced in the Township. The majority of the property (187 acres) was successfully purchased and transferred to the GTB Land Trust in late December 2024 where it will remain a nature preserve with public access in perpetuity. The Board of NCV is: John Sentell, president; Beth Verhey, vice president; Dale Lersch, treasurer; Kate Bulkley, secretary; and Andy Thomas, board member. For more information about NCV, see our website: https://www.newcommunityvision.org 

The former Timbers Shore’s property is part of the ancestral homeland of the GTB; it is called Mashkiigaki (Mashkeeg-aki) and is historically, culturally and spiritually significant to the GTB. Mashkiigaki means the ‘place of the medicines’ and represents the importance of these wetlands as a traditionally significant location for hunting, fishing, gathering, and collecting medicines. Going forward, Mashkiigaki will be a nature preserve that is permanently preserved and owned by the GTB Land Trust, to be stewarded by a multigenerational group of tribal elders, youth and the GTB’s Natural Resources Department and with access in specified areas for low-impact walking, birding and hiking.  For more information about the GTB see their website: https://www.gtbindians.org 

The Northern Michigan Environmental Action Council (NMEAC) is dedicated to preserving our natural environment through citizen action and education. Founded in 1980, it is the oldest grassroots environmental organization in the Grand Traverse region. For more about NMEAC see their website: https://www.nmeac.org 

NMEAC posted a video of the full awards ceremony at: https://www.nmeac.org/2025_eoy_recipients?utm_campaign=eoy_video_2025_1&utm_medium=email&utm_source=nmeac

Record Eagle: Mashkiigaki, formerly Timber Shores campground, back in GT Band's hands

BY JORDAN TRAVIS

jtravis@record-eagle.com

January 26, 2025

NORTHPORT — Land once the site of a campground near Northport is back in the hands of its original stewards. Mashkiigaki — formerly known as Timber Shores — is part of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians' ancestral homelands, tribal council Chairwoman Sandra Witherspoon said. Buying the property with the help of a grant and local nonprofit means the tribe can restore the 187 acres of mostly undeveloped land fronting Grand Traverse Bay, saving its critically sensitive habitat for flora and fauna within what she termed a land, water and nature preserve.

"We view the return of the land to tribal ownership as a unique and rare opportunity, so I mean, it's just wonderful," Witherspoon said.

The tribe purchased the land, for which the Anishinaabemowin name means, "place of the medicines," in part with a $6.53 million grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, according to the tribe.

Local nonprofit New Community Vision partnered with the tribal government to buy the property, totaling 214 acres, by raising $3.5 million in private donations, money from philanthropic organizations and more, as previously reported. The nonprofit will donate 25 acres near the corner of M-22 and East Camp Haven Road to Peninsula Housing to build below-market-rate homes there.

The tribe will use $928,000 included with the NOAA grant for restoration efforts, Witherspoon said. Within the year, a multi-generational group of tribal elders, youth, natural resources department managers and others will start a community engagement process to plan the land's future.

That'll no doubt include some replanting of native species, and restoration work to undo some of the campground alterations, Witherspoon said — the grant application calls for removing a small marina, taking out culverts to allow fish passage and restoring former wastewater treatment lagoons.

Brett Fessell, the tribe's restoration section leader, said those plans are still in the works.

"We want to leave that to the community — the tribal community and the local non-tribal community, and have visioning sessions toexplore and discuss what kind of features we should pay the most attention to, and then for what species and those elements," he said.

Coastal wetlands like those at Mashkiigaki (say, mashKEEG-aki) are becoming more rare, Fessell said. They give refuge to migrating birds, land animals and insects, and serve as nurseries for breeding fish. Such wetlands also act as natural shoreline buffers as lake levels rise and fall.

Further inland, dune and swale complexes — where ribbons of swampland run parallel to sandy ridges — not only capture rain water but serve as habitat to lots of different species of plants, animals and insects, Fessell said. Dune and swale complexes is home to threatened and endangered species, and future assessments will give an idea of what species are found on the land.

The name points to something endangered as well, Fessell said — the history of the land passed down by the Anishinaabek who recognized it as excellent hunting, foraging and medicine-gathering grounds. Such traditional knowledge came close to disappearing altogether, and the space offers a chance to reconnect with the land and memories of it.

More recently, the land was the center of controversy over a proposal to reboot the former Timber Shores campground submitted in 2020.

While neighbors and others raised fears of its impact to wetlands and the bay's water quality, the developer pushed back on those as exaggerated or false. Leelanau Township voters in 2022 upheld recent changes to zoning ordinances that would have imposed deeper setbacks from wetlands on the property, prompting New Community Vision's founders to look for ways to save the land.

Mashkiigaki will join the 2,981 acres under Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians ownership, according to figures from the tribe. That's down from 87,000 acres set aside in Leelanau County in 1855, which the U.S. illegally terminated in 1872. The tribe regained federal recognition as a sovereign Indigenous nation in 1980.

To Witherspoon, regaining ownership of Mashkiigaki is an example of the "Land Back" movement in action.

"This has just been a wonderful gift," she said. "Those were lands that were traditionally and historically our homeland, that were supposed to be ours through our treaties that were taken and used for other purposes, so that's what the whole 'Land Back' movement is about."

NCV thanks the Record Eagle for allowing us to share this article with you. If you have a subscription, you can view the full article here.

Glen Arbor Sun: GTB + NCV Re-acquire Mashkiigaki

UPDATE: The Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians and the New Community Vision (NCV) nonprofit have reacquired land historically known as “Mashkiigaki” (formerly called Timber Shores)—which totals more than 200 acres along West Grand Traverse Bay between Suttons Bay and Northport. The Band gets more than 188 acres, including 1,800 feet of pristine shoreline; NCV gets 24 acres along M-22. The transfer deeds were recorded on Dec. 26.

New Community Vision has worked for two years to acquire and preserve the former Timber Shores property, which developers unsuccessfully tried to turn into a giant RV park until they were stopped by a ballot referendum in 2022. NCV is collaborating with Peninsula Housing to develop attainable housing on its portion of the land. Mashkiigaki is one of the largest undeveloped coastal properties in the Grand Traverse region.

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