Rotary Camps Donates 560-Acre East Creek Reserve to Grand Traverse Conservation District

Rotary Camps & Services donated the 560-acre East Creek Reserve in Mayfield to the Grand Traverse Conservation District, formalizing more than two decades of district stewardship and securing continued public access after an announcement on Feb. 26, 2026. The transfer makes GTCD the formal owner of land it has managed since the late 1990s and preserves trails, creek frontage and forested habitat just south of Traverse City.

The reserve sits off Mayfield Road and includes trails, creek lowlands and mature forest. Traverseticker describes the site as containing “over three miles of public trails,” while MLive says the property features “three miles of trails that wind through mature forests, open meadows and creek lowlands” and “over a mile of frontage on East Creek.” The Boardman River Trail crosses the northwestern edge of the reserve, and a Record-Eagle photo caption notes, “East Creek rushes by the East Creek Reserve trailhead on Mayfield Road.”

The land now owned by GTCD has a multidecade conservation history. Much of the acreage arrived at Rotary Camps & Services in a 1993 bequest from Howard and Mary Edwards, MLive reports. In the late 1990s RC&S worked with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources on a land exchange that consolidated the parcels into the contiguous 560-acre block GTCD has managed. District staff drew up comprehensive management and forestry plans in 2000, and Rotary and district staff partnered with the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy in 2001 to secure a perpetual conservation easement, MLive records.

Rotary Camps & Services Chair Dan Rickard told Traverseticker, “For over two decades, the Conservation District has been our steward of this property, and they have done a remarkable job.” Rickard added, “When we considered who could and should take care of this property for future generations, it made perfect sense for us to gift the property to them.” GTCD Executive Director Koffi Kpachavi told Traverseticker the property transfer “has been finalized” and called it a “gift to the public and to the community,” describing East Creek Reserve as an “extraordinary landscape that reflects the very heart of our mission.” In a Record-Eagle press statement Kpachavi said, “This property will remain a place where the community can experience nature, learn from it, and participate in its long-term stewardship.”

Grand Traverse Conservation District will continue day-to-day management of the reserve and keep it open to the public, Traverseticker and Record-Eagle report, with operations expected to remain essentially the same while leaving room for future improvements. The donation formalizes ownership where GTCD has already carried out stewardship, recreation management and forestry planning for more than 20 years.

GTCD’s role in local parks work extends beyond East Creek Reserve: Traverseticker also notes the district is partnering with the City of Traverse City to revive day camp at Hickory Hills this summer. Sources vary on a few details: Traverseticker uses the phrasing “over three miles of public trails” while MLive reports “three miles of trails,” and Traverseticker and Record-Eagle call East Creek a tributary of the Boardman River while MLive uses the name Boardman-Ottaway River.

The gift binds a 560-acre block of Mayfield land, decades of management plans and a 2001 perpetual easement to a single steward in GTCD, preserving trail access, creek frontage and public use for the community south of Traverse City.