CROSS PLAINS, Wis. (SPECTRUM NEWS) - A Dane County farmer has ensured his family’s land will be preserved for generations to come, and everyone to enjoy. will live on by allowing expansion of the Ice Age Trail onto his property.
The Ice Age Trail is a 1,000-mile long National Scenic Trail that stretches from St. Croix Falls, down to Janesville, all the way back up to Door County. Communities across Wisconsin have been working since the 1970s to maintain and expand the trail, and the properties surrounding it. A local farmer has now joined that effort by allowing the county to preserve his land.
Michael Coyle lives on 150 acres in Cross Plains, just outside Madison. “I believe it started in 1912, that would’ve been my grandpa,” said Coyle. His family has farmed that land for generations. “When we were kids we always would walk down by the pond, would ice skate on the pond,” he paused and smiled to himself as he thought about his childhood. “The pond is pretty special.”
His father was born in the farmhouse Coyle now lives in. “He lived on this farm his whole life.”
When the opportunity came to preserve the land for generations to come, he mulled it over with his siblings and his kids. “I have seven siblings, and the farm is pretty important to all of us,” Coyle said.
He sold a land easement to Dane County, allowing the county to use the land to expand the Ice Age Trail. Coyle still owns his property, and will still farm on it. A small corridor of his land will be added to the Ice Age Trail, but the rest will be preserved. The agreement with the county officially limits development on the land forever, no matter who owns it.
Coyle thinks he may be the last one in his family to farm that property. He didn’t want to think that someday there could be apartment buildings or retail shops littering the scenery that’s been so important to his family.
Long after Coyle is gone, the land his family loved will stay this way forever. “I want to leave it so my grandchildren and nieces and nephews they know, they’ll actually be able to drive out here and see where it all started.”
The easement cost Dane County taxpayers just over $1 million.