“The wild is where you find it, not in some distant world relegated to a nostalgic past or an idealized future; its presence is not black or white, bad or good, corrupted or innocent... We are of that nature, not apart from it. We survive because of it, not instead of it.”
― Renee Askins
History of Woods & Waters Land Trust
In 2005 the Schimmoeller Family purchased land with a mature beech maple forest with soaring trees and a lush understory of wildflowers in northern Franklin County and southern Owen County. They wanted to ensure that it would remain a natural area.
They explored avenues of long term protection with government agencies, existing land trusts to local conservation groups and found a gap in opportunities for local landowners to protect their land. With the help of other people interested in preservation, ultimately Woods and Waters Land Trust was created to focus on the lower Kentucky River region in 2007. The Schimmoeller Family became the first to establish a conservation easement under a newly formed WWLT.
The new WWLT board members educated themselves and established funding and sound policies in order to partner in long term protection agreements. And, with legal assistance from local attorney Charlie Jones, helped WWLT establish credibility in establishing these legal agreements.
The families that stepped forward to work with the new land trust had all committed to long term conservation of their land and were looking for a means to make this happen. We thank the Caye, Coffey, Hauck and Wigginton families for having the resolve to conserve their land and solidifying the early success of the land trust.
