Bill Gombold has his memories of the land he owns in East Bethel, stretching back to when he was a toddler on outings there with his father and grandfather.
Now he's taken steps to ensure that 45 acres of woods, wetland and prairie will remain the way he's always known them.
Gombold is the 111th metro-area property owner to take out a conservation easement on his land, in cooperation with the Minnesota Land Trust, a nonprofit conservation organization. The land is desirable as natural space; it is adjacent to the Sandhill Crane Natural Area, and close to the Carlos Avery State Wildlife Management Area. Staying natural, it acts to extend those wildlife refuge areas.
Gombold still owns the land, and can limit access to his own friends and family. He still pays taxes on it, too, to the tune of about $200 a month. But neither he nor his heirs nor any future owner can develop the parcel, clear it or subdivide it.
"It is just a tremendous feeling for me to know that with all the land has offered for me and given me in enjoyment in 60 years, that I'm able to give something back to repay the good Lord who made the land," he said.
Family lore has it that Gombold's grandfather, Rudy Gombold, an electrician in St. Paul, got a line on the property and began leasing it from the Walter Jackson family in the 1920s. Through the years, children and grandchildren used the land as an escape from city life. Gombold's father, also named Bill, wanted to buy it, but the Jacksons weren't selling. Gombold offered to buy it, and although Walter Jackson had died, his wife wasn't ready.
But she gave him hope.
"What Mrs. Jackson told me was that someday she'd sell it to me, and not to worry about it," he said.