Hero Story

The Weekly Stewardship Volunteer Groups have been helping Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy’s stewardship staff keep habitats healthy for more than 20 years! They have completed dozens of amazing habitat restoration projects on nature preserves throughout our 9-county service area. Without their efforts, our small staff would not be able to give this land the attention it deserves. In 2023 alone, they spent an incredible 1,326 hours improving local habitat.

The Wednesday Warriors (one of the weekly stewardship groups) have been at it for 21 years. First organized by volunteer Stan Rajnak, the group’s original goal was simply to try to keep up with the needs of SWMLC’s growing list of protected preserves, so they mowed trails, posted boundary signs, picked up trash, and removed invasive plants like garlic mustard. Eventually, the list of tasks grew so long that they increased the frequency of their workdays to once a week. Wednesdays seemed to work best for everyone so, with one part irony and one part sincerity, the rag-tag group of nature lovers called themselves “warriors” – and the name stuck.

Spearheaded by volunteer Jeff Fleming, another group that focuses on collecting and sowing native plant seeds was added in 2016. Their work provides a critical source of native plant material that can be added to habitats that have been damaged to the extent that little of the original plant life is left to recover on its own. The seed collectors’ work helps close a critical loop in the stewardship process, ensuring that after the weekly groups have cleared out the invasive species, native plants will be present to hold onto the habitat and make sure that work "sticks."

In 2017, the volunteers decided to extend their working season from April through October to year-round, working right through our tough Michigan winters.

Every year, one of the volunteers hosts a winter potluck where everyone can sit and connect, review last year's work, and plan over 100 workdays for the upcoming year.

In 2020, COVID presented a major challenge for workdays where people interact frequently, share tools, carpool, and often enjoy a post-session lunch or a frosty pint together. Specifics about COVID were still being understood, and most group members were in their 60s or older and at high-risk, so SWMLC put a temporary pause to the workdays. But between the increased idle time and anxiety about the pandemic, the volunteers wanted to keep working in a safe way. When they asked why they couldn’t work, SWMLC staff had to response in “legalese” that the workdays were not "essential" work. With complete sincerity, one volunteer responded by saying, "But these workdays ARE essential to my life." He was of course referring to the joy of the work, with its embedded physical and mental health benefits. After lots of discussion, we found safe ways for the group to continue their work and, boy, did they have some pent-up energy! Even with a three-month lapse in workdays in 2020, the volunteers still contributed over 1,000 hours, about the same amount as in the previous year! Ironically, rather than setting the group back, COVID heightened everyone's commitment to nature and the work! So, in 2021, volunteer David Riggs added an additional workday every week of the year – contributing what is still a record number of hours (1,866) for a year of work! What also stood out to SWMLC staff during these challenging but successful years was the volunteers’ ownership of their work as they took overthe workdays, the preserves, and their renewed level of diligence in demonstrating top-notch ecological stewardship. Coordinating with stewardship staff, the volunteers measured their own workday acreages using smart phones, created their own tool designs, researched invasive plant control techniques, and sharpened their plant identification skills. Volunteer Kristi Chapman summed up the feeling of ownership by saying "Don't thank me, it's my organization too. This is what we all like to do, and what we care about. It's the volunteer-driven heart that makes the organization so strong."

After most workdays, volunteers bring lawn chairs and gather in a circle in the preserve parking lot to drink cider, hot chocolate, or soda with a snack, savor the day’s accomplishments, and shoot the breeze. This is part of the important connections that keep the group’s social glue strong and keep volunteers coming back.

To keep volunteers engaged and returning, they write a colorful summary of each week's workdays and send the email to a network of interested community members that also includes details for next week's workday. Since 2015, long-time volunteer Kristi Chapman has written exuberant, witty articles for a free, local “baby-boomer publication called Spark that feature Warrior topics like tool choices, native plants, and the joy of volunteering for nature.

When NPR's Story Corps program came to Kalamazoo in 2023 and offered free professional recording sessions to local non-profits, SWMLC jumped on the opportunity. Our recorded interviews included a fun, informal, sincere conversation with the two longest running stewardship volunteers, Stan Rajnak and Kristi Chapman. https://swmlc.org/storycorps-interviews/