Proposed Little Sturgeon Estuary Nature Preserve
The potential trail and infrastructure plans for the proposed 16th nature preserve.
For more than a decade, the Door County Land Trust has hoped to protect the Little Sturgeon Estuary and its surrounding watershed—a remarkable and ecologically significant landscape in northeastern Wisconsin.
Scientists identified the Little Sturgeon Estuary as one of Door County’s highest-priority conservation areas because of its exceptional fisheries, wetlands, and watershed. The estuary supports one of the Bay of Green Bay’s most significant fish spawning and nursery areas, including the only known naturally reproducing muskellunge population in the Bay. Protecting the forests, wetlands, and streams that feed the estuary is essential to maintaining water quality, sustaining fisheries, and preserving the ecological health of Green Bay.
Today, we have an extraordinary opportunity to permanently protect 338 acres at the heart of this remarkable landscape.
Beginning with a small family farm, Kermit and Cleo Franda spent decades gradually acquiring neighboring parcels until they assembled more than 371 contiguous acres within the Little Sturgeon watershed. While managed as a working farm, their efforts preserved a largely intact landscape under a single ownership—creating a rare conservation opportunity.
Following Kermit and Cleo’s passing, their children chose to honor their parents by selling the property to the Door County Land Trust for permanent conservation. Their decision makes it possible to protect a large, intact landscape within a regionally significant watershed, ensuring the Franda family’s legacy will be one of lasting benefits to clean water, fish habitat, wildlife, and future generations.
More than three-quarters of a mile of Kayes Creek flows through the property before entering Little Sturgeon Bay. Fed by springs near Brussels Hill and flowing through Gardner Marsh, the creek provides cool, well-oxygenated habitat that supports spawning northern pike, walleye, and suckers. As the creek reaches the bay, it nourishes a productive estuary that supports naturally reproducing muskellunge, smallmouth bass,
yellow perch, and other native fish that contribute to the broader Green Bay fishery.
The property’s wetlands, forests, stream corridors, and shoreline habitats also provide critical habitat for migratory birds and other wildlife while naturally filtering runoff and protecting the water quality these fisheries depend upon.
By permanently protecting this property, the Door County Land Trust will conserve the ecological connections between the headwaters of the Kayes Creek watershed, Little Sturgeon Bay, and the greater Green Bay ecosystem. Restoring former agricultural lands, protecting stream corridors, and restoring wetlands will reduce sediment and nutrient runoff, strengthen wildlife habitat, and improve the resilience of this exceptional coastal landscape.
In time, the Little Sturgeon Estuary Nature Preserve will become a place where conservation, agriculture, education, history, and outdoor recreation exist side by side.
Open to the public year-round and free of charge, visitors will explore forests, wetlands, streams, restored prairies, and miles of trails while learning how healthy watersheds support clean water, thriving fisheries, and abundant wildlife.
This is more than protecting land. It is an opportunity to safeguard a significant estuarine ecosystem, preserve a remarkable family legacy, and ensure that future generations can experience the beauty, wildlife, and clean waters that make Door County such a special place.
