MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP - The Ponderosa, Linn, Mitroka and Mandenburg Hills land sites were approved to be a part of the Land Preservation Program by the Meridian Township Board on December 12th.

The Ponderosa Land Preserve is a total of 89 acres of land. The funding for this land preserve came from $450,000 of grant funding through the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund, $550,000 from the Land Preservation Millage and $225,000 from the property owner.

The Linn farm land was approved for a partial purchase from Judy A. Linn. The seller donated approximately $200,000 for the purchase of the land.

"It met with many of the objectives of the Land Preservation Program to permanently preserve and provide habitat, and to allow for wildlife corridors to occur throughout the Township," said Meridian Township Treasurer Julie Brixie

Mr. Mitroka and Ms. Miller are donating a total purchase of approximately one acre of land to be apart of the Land Preservation Program. $63,000 was approved by the Township Board to purchase 4.2 acres of land known as Mandenburg Hills.

"This is a small piece of land that's predominantly on the flood plain of the Red Cedar and it is in the area of the Greenspace Plan that we have designated as priority conservation corridor. Those corridors are areas where the land is being used as a wildlife corridor or a pedestrian corridor. All sorts of things that the land preservation program tries to obtain but, it is in a somewhat degraded form and could use support in terms of preventing further degradation, or build-out and moving efforts towards preservation," said Brixie

The Vernal pools present in Mandenburg Hills can be used for research conducted by the Land Preservation Board. This research could help gain more knowledge about the endangered species that live within the vernal pools.