It’s “Make-a-Will” month: Six Rivers Executive Director, Chris Bunch, shares a personal story about how the power of planned giving impacts the nature near you. If you would like to know more about leaving a legacy to Six Rivers through your will, trust, or estate plan, please contact Ashley Everhart, aeverhart@sixriversrlc.org.
Giving to the Future
By Chris Bunch, Executive Director
**Click on the name of the bird to hear the call**
On a late summer afternoon, we were on a hike on a preserve, bordered by farmland and residential neighborhoods, much of it also former farmland but with a substantial woodlot. The hike was led by one of our volunteers. An avid birder and well known naturalist, she kept us enthralled with her knowledge of the habitats and all the different wildlife we encountered.
Off in the distance, somewhere on the preserve, I heard an ethereal call that stopped me in my tracks, completely stunned. I thought it was a hermit thrush, which I had only ever heard in the deep recesses of remote forests—never in the much more urbanized region of southeast Michigan. Ruth Glass, our guide, corrected me and noted it was a wood thrush. Still rare, but not completely uncommon in this region. The call is very similar to a hermit thrush. She told us this kind of habitat—a forest, with its leaf litter, food sources and nesting habitat, is critical to the wood thrush—they are not backyard feeder birds. Our work was ensuring this fellow creature had a home.
Ruth passed away unexpectedly a couple of years ago. We were truly shocked and saddened to hear of her passing. This story of the wood thrush is a cherished memory and tremendous legacy. It will carry on for generations because she also made an extraordinary gift through her estate. That gift is helping us to ensure the wood thrush will have a place to sing in the future, and that mere mortals like me will be treated to their other-worldly song if we take the time to seek and to listen.
Our work—land conservation—is all about the future. For people, wildlife, wetlands, forests and fields, rivers, lakes and streams, the planet. Our members, donors, supporters and investors all share our vision of sustaining the character and quality of the natural world we inhabit for generations to come. Legacy gifts—through an estate, by will, trust or memorial gifts are all an important part of the resources necessary to translate those values into lasting, tangible outcomes for the wood thrush, the people, and all the other denizens of our region.
We are extraordinarily grateful to be the recipient of these gifts. They result in lands that are permanently protected and habitats that are restored, improved and enhanced. Whenever I hear a wood thrush or a hermit thrush now, I think of Ruth and her extraordinary gifts to conservation, both during her life as guide and interpreter of nature’s bounty and through her legacy gift that ensures these natural wonders will remain for generations to come.
