Officials with Cass County have taken another step into protecting the bountiful natural resources contained within the rural county’s limits.

The county has recently entered into a conservancy plan for the Jones State Game Area, which includes the 4,000-acre Crane Pond State Game Area, a fragmented collection of public properties managed by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. The conservation plan was spearheaded by the Southwest Michigan Land Conservatory (SWMLC), and is designed to identify ways in which the local agencies can protect freshwater and land resources within the Cass and St. Joseph county game area.

The plan highlights six general conservation themes and opportunities for the region:

• Expanding the existing Crane Pond State Game Area

• Improving habitat quality to support threatened and endangered species

• Protecting high-quality lakes and streams in the region

• Conserving land to protect groundwater recharge

• Connecting protected lands for wildlife and outdoor recreation

• Integrating agricultural use in the region’s long-term plan

The plan comes after over a year of development by the SWMLC and other stakeholders in the project, which included Cass County organizations such as the county Parks and Recreation Department and the Edward Lowe Foundation, as well as local citizens and farmers affected by the plan’s priorities.

Among the properties included in the conservancy plan is the county’s T.K. Lawless Park, located to the south of the Crane Pond properties outside Vandalia.

“Lawless Park is smack dab in the center of these protected lands, so we [the parks department] were a partner that needed to be part of this process,” said Parks Director Scott Wyman.

The Cass County Board of Commissioners is one of several local governmental entities that has signed off on the agreement. The SWMLC has also received approval from St. Joseph County, and are ultimately looking for support from the DNR, Wyman said.

“It increases the validity of the plan if you can get people to support it, so that is what they are doing, slowly but surely,”

Lawless Park will benefit from the conservation plan as well, Wyman said. Not only will the park benefit from the increased water and land protections called for in the agreement, but the potential expansion of the Crane Pond properties could push boundaries of the publically managed lands further south.

“If we can connect Lawless to those state owned lands, that would create one heck of a corridor for wildlife,” Wyman said. “The recreational opportunities would also be tremendous.”

The agreement could also improve the parks department’s future chances of receiving state grant dollars for improvements to the Lawless property, the director said.