Photo courtesy of The Nature Conservancy This photograph, taken from the Helmut and Candis Stern Preserve at Mount Baldy in Keweenaw County, shows the diversity of the terrain of the area, and the significance of the forestland and topography of the Keweenaw Peninsula as being part of natural climate solutions.

KEWEENAW COUNTY — With the proposed purchase of some 34,000 acres in the eastern portion of Keweenaw County, The Nature Conservancy and at least two divisions of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources are looking at several important and significant aspects of the parcels.

In addition to decades-old public access of these lands for outdoor recreation, from sport fishing and hunting to wilderness camping, hiking, ATV and snowmobile trails, there is more than those points to consider.

Within the area in question, from 1844 to the turn of the 20th century, approximately 92 mines were established. These older sites are of international significance because of the archaeological evidence of the transition from old Cornish mining and settlement culture and technology to American cultural and industrial expansion. But the history of mining in the area did not begin in the 19th century — it began much earlier, thousands of years ago.

Professor Sean Gohman, executive director of the Keweenaw National Historical Park Advisory Commission, a member of the planning committee, and an archaeologist who has studied the Copper Country for more than a decade at Michigan Technological University, commented that while many of the mine sites probably would not meet the criteria to establish national significance, the prehistoric sites likely rank among world significance on a scale that is only seen at Isle Royale.

“So, we should think about it in that way,” he said. “The history of human occupation goes way, way back, and we have only scratched the surface on these parcels, at least, and what is there. If the Keweenaw is the mirror image of Isle Royale on the Lake Superior bowl, then what we find on Isle Royale, then we should expect to see on the Keweenaw Point as well. We just haven’t looked into that yet, scientifically, archaeologically.”

Helen Taylor, head of The Nature Conservancy in Michigan, agrees. At the June 11 public meeting of the Keweenaw Forest Acquisition and Conservation Project at Calumet High School, said while those points have been under the consideration of TNC and the DNR, and are definitely important, there is still much more to the properties of great significance.

“We are trying to be mindful of those,” she said. “We want to know where those place are, because we know that is also indigenous cultural heritage.”

But from an environmental conservation standpoint, the timberlands of Keweenaw County are just a part of a much larger ecological picture.

“As a conservation organization, it is significant, because we have done the science of resiliency mapping, and climate change and the northern Great Lakes forests are incredibly important to being natural climate solutions,” Taylor said. “I wanted to mention that yes, it is significant nationally, and that’s why we’re here — because as an organization, we’re looking at that whole northern Great Lakes forest from Minnesota, Wisconsin, here, as a priority and that’s why I’m able to do this, because it ranks so significantly within the organization. So, it’s the balance of all of these things.”

Richard Bowman, also with TNC in Michigan, then discussed part of the reason the internal board approved the project.

“The Nature Conservancy operates in all 50 states and about 70 countries,” he said. “And that board was considering projects from all kinds of places, all over the world, and they approved doing this one. So, for our organization, this is a big deal.”

In addition to forests, Taylor continued, there is fresh water.

“They wanted to know human heritage, the significance from a scientific and a conservation standpoint,” she said. “So, that was one presentation for a lot of people rigorously approaching the subject of how does it rain.”