Western Michigan University’s Board of Trustees voted to make Kalamazoo County the new manager of the Asylum Lake nature preserve Thursday.
Per the resolution, WMU does not consider managing the preserve as part of its core mission.
Jeff Breneman is WMU’s Senior Vice President for External Relations.
He said moving management over to the Kalamazoo County parks department will allow the university to better focus on its students.
“While the preserve has been a great place for research and recreation, it's not core to our mission, and we identified that the county parks is a perfect place to be able to manage this preserve for the future,” Breneman said.
"And they can do so with the existing conservation declarations and restrictions, so that it will always be free and accessible to the public, continued access for research, as well as make sure that it's preserved for the future, only through passive recreation.”
Breneman said Kalamazoo County commissioners will vote on the management transfer on Wednesday.
If passed, the county would take over management of the preserve at the start of 2027, along with taking over the preservation fund that supports it.
"The endowment that we have used to support it, both through prescribed burns and other ecological ways that we have taken care of it, will now be done by the parks," Breneman said.
"They have a county parks foundation that can raise even more money to support the preserve for the long term. This is the best possible outcome."
He said that WMU will also push for legislation that would allow the county to take ownership of the preserve.
