A recent article written by Craig Sterrett for the Peninsula Pulse showcases True North Real Estate’s dedication to the environment. Craig interviewed our very own Jacinda Duffin and wrote about our Firm’s involvement in a conservation plan designed to protect snails.

There are six tiny species of snails indigenous to the microclimate along the escarpment, which are considered glacial relics, according to Jeff Nekola’s studies of Wisconsin snails. Among those are 2-millimeter Midwest Pleistocene vertigo land snails, listed as endangered in Wisconsin. They – as well as the cherry-pit-sized cherrystone drop snail – live on and along Door County’s cool, north-facing cliffside niches where the snails have thrived for 10,000 years, said Chad Fradette of Evergreen Consultants.

Completion of a habitat-protection plan for rare snails made it possible for Alpine Resort ownership to sell north-facing bluff lots with outstanding views. “Is there a way we can have views for homes and protect snail habitat at the same time?” Fradette said, and the answer is yes. The lots have DNR-approved “viewing corridors” to the bay and Egg Harbor and are subject to a plan that protects the snail habitat, which includes Alpine Resort Acquisition Co. offering the DNR perpetual access to inspect the site and keeping the conservation easement area off-limits to the public.

Duffin explained that the lot buyers showed patience, waiting from summer to late autumn for the Alpine and DNR to work out details, such as allowing the cutting of some taller hardwoods while conserving and planting all shorter, shade-producing native trees and evergreens.

“The holdup has been on our side, making sure that we were doing everything that the DNR wanted and working to protect the habitat as much as we can,” Duffin said. “We have been working with the DNR and Evergreen Consultants of Green Bay to revise a conservation plan and have been successful in doing so.”

Covenants prohibit short-term rental of these single-family homes. The DNR prohibits the lot owners from discarding yard waste, cutting any trees – or utilizing in any way a 20- to 40-foot-wide buffer zone near the top of the escarpment where two types of endangered or threatened snails live in cliff crevices. The snails also live at the base of the cliffs and in the talus slope of broken rock and soil just downhill from the cliffs.

You can read the full article detailing how a habitat-protection plan for rare snails, DNR-approved viewing corridors, and True North Real Estate‘s patience and dedication to the environment shaped the sale of these five north-facing bluff lots in Egg Harbor