Thank you Lee & Betty Troutwine for a beautiful location!
Sponsors:
Mary Margaret Lowe
Trek Advancement
Nancy Rose Osborne
Heather Housman & Rex Hunt
Auction Item donors:
Aaron Lawrence
Linda Pratt
Ed Lawrence Photography
Nancy Rose Osborne
Celebrate at Land Extravaganza—Saturday, August 30
You’re invited to our celebration at Woods & Waters Land Trust’s newest conservation easement land, with a mile of Elkhorn Creek access, while we honor our watershed's beauty. Lee and Betty Troutwine are opening their special Peaks Mill property, Creekwater Farm, to our supporters as we toast to our community’s land-conservation efforts.
You’ll want to join us at this year’s Land Extravaganza for:
* Live music with Jeri Katherine Howell and Nat Colton beginning at 6:30
* A fun night on a special property with our hosts, Lee and Betty Troutwine
* Live and silent auctions, with your chance to win unique local experiences and artisan items
* Appetizers, dessert, and beverages will be served
Great music, a beautiful location that’s only open to the public for this event, and a super cause!
The band:
Songwriter duo, Jeri Katherine Howell and Nat Colten, command performances with magnetic harmonies, raw claw hammer banjo, driving acoustic guitar, and contagious joy. Their original music centers a love of place, nature, and community - blending stories from around the world with sounds rooted in their Kentucky home. Explore their debut duo album Holding On (2021) and Jeri Katherine’s new solo album Woman (2025) at jerikatherinehowell.com, or check them out on Facebook and Instagram @jeri.katherine.
The location:
Creekwater Farm, home of Betty & Lee Troutwine | 6057 Peaks Mill Road | Frankfort, KY 40601
This is a private residence, not open to the public outside of Land Extravaganza.
The live and silent auctions:
The Land Extravaganza silent auction is a storied event! Each year, business owners and private citizens donate extraordinary gifts and experiences that cannot be found elsewhere.
Why is preserving a whole mile of creekside property worth celebrating?
* The Elkhorn Creek is one of Kentucky’s best-known streams for paddling, floating, and fishing. It’s an absolute treasure for our community.
* Healthy riparian zones—lands along the edges of the creek—are essential for filtering and slowing the rainwater and runoff entering the Elkhorn. Preserving a mile of riparian buffer means a healthier creek for us all to enjoy.
* Riparian zones provide habitat and migration roots for all kinds of birds and wildlife.
* Riparian zones planted with a diversity of vegetation stabilize stream banks and reduce floodwater velocity.
* The trees and vegetation overhanging the Elkhorn Creek from the stream bank shades the water, which reduces water temperatures for fish.
* The Elkhorn Creek feeds the Kentucky River, which feeds the Ohio River, and so on. What happens in the Elkhorn happens to our community as well as every community downstream.
Land Extravaganza is one of Woods & Waters Land Trust’s largest in-person fundraisers.
We’re raising money for all of our conservation work in the Lower Kentucky River Watershed, including:
* Working with more landowners to permanently protect more land and waterways with voluntary conservation easements
* Monitor properties enrolled in conservation easements for ecological changes
* Restoring our 43-acre Backbone Wetland property in Peaks Mill
* Maintaining the trails at our Vaughn Branch Nature Preserve
* Managing the Boathouse at River Row, where community residents keep their small vessels and community groups gather for educational programming
* Connecting more people with nature, such as through the City Nature Challenge and West Sixth Farm Hiking Club
Why is Land Extravaganza in August this year?
This year, we’d planned to host Land Extravaganza in June, as we had last year. The April flooding in our region had other ideas for this work. It takes months to clean up from the scale of inundation that the Troutwines’ Elkhorn Creek-side property saw in the spring. They, and many of our neighbors and community members, are still cleaning up.
Please thank Lee, Betty, and the team of people who are making it possible for us to celebrate Land Extravaganza on their special land this year!
