PEORIA — One hundred and sixty acres of farmland in eastern Stark County has been donated to the Illinois Audubon Society by Dr. Maury Brucker and Emiko Yang of Peoria.

The land will continue to be farmed and proceeds will fund restoration and stewardship of all the Illinois Audubon Society’s Illinois properties. The donation is the second largest gift the Illinois Audubon Society has ever received.

“At the forefront of our decision to make this donation was that we could see the value the Society places on the preservation and management of high-quality lands,” said Brucker, a lifelong birdwatcher and former president of the Illinois Audubon Society board. “We appreciate the fact that the focus of the organization is birds, bird habitats and restoration of Society-owned lands.”

The property had been in Brucker’s family since 1939.

Brucker and Yang have a passion for restoring natural habitat. They are responsible for the restoration of a 22-acre high quality oak woodland, savanna and hill prairie in Marshall County that was named Oak Bluff Savanna Nature Preserve and donated to the Peoria Audubon Society in 2015.

They also restored 11 undeveloped lots in a subdivision on the bluffs over the Illinois River, known today as the Hopewell Hill Prairies Nature Preserve and Fern Ridge Nature Preserve. It was donated to the Illinois Audubon Society in 2019.

Brucker and Yang’s most recent donation is much needed because the Illinois Audubon Society has increased land holdings over the last couple decades. The income will help pay for stewardship of those properties, said Illinois Audubon Society Executive Director Jim Herkert.

“The generosity of this couple will ensure that lands protected by the Illinois Audubon Society will be adequately managed for many generations,” he said.