The Science Museum of Minnesota has given, as its part of proving back to the society and help in the preservation of the environment, a 30-acre tract of land good for real estate in rural Afton to be preserved and be left as open space for wildlife keeping.

The deal was struck last week with Belwin Conservancy. Belwin Conservancy is a non-profit making body that concerns itself with environmental awareness and over the years earned a name for drawing thousands of people, mostly students, to its center. The environmental group owns the adjacent land. The two bodies have simply exchanged their pieces of land for protection.

This is a long time vision of the founder in 1972. Rev, George Metcalf, served as Gen. George Patton’s chaplain in the Second World War and his wife made donations to the Science Museum which was to be used to preserve nature and scientific research. That is how the whole idea of conservation in the area came about.

As time went on so did the whole Science Museum later transferred to Belwin for management, simply because of closeness to one another. The final donation was done back in 1982 by Burton, Helen Baker, Robert and Peggy Fritts.

There were three organizations involved in the deal fulfilling the intentions of the original one and the only thing worth celebrating. The environmental preservation group has now got more land (1,300 acres) and are sure if used wisely is more than enough to achieve their goals.

The organization has been growing from strength to strength in recent times; opened the Belwin property, restored 150-acre of oak savanna, and on top of that is restoring and protecting the Valley Creek trout and has a large herd of buffalo.
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