Graham Jaehnig/Daily Mining Gazette Robin Meneguzzo, CEO of the Keweenaw Community Foundation, spoke at last week’s Keweenaw Heartlands public update meeting, discussing the creation of the Keweenaw Forest Heartlands Fund

KEWEENAW COUNTY – The Keweenaw Community Foundation has started the Keweenaw Heartlands Forest Fund, to raise $600,000 to support local governance and management of approximately 22,000 acres of newly established community forest in Keweenaw County.

In transitioning the Heartlands property to public ownership, the Keweenaw Heartlands Recreation and Natural Resources Authority Board will be created, comprised of five publicly elected county residents. The Board will begin this year, and will require operational funds as it prepares for forest management by the end of 2027.

To provide those funds, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) committed to establishing a $2.3 million endowment for governance and management of the Heartlands, to be held by the KCF. Of that endowment, $300,000 is being set aside for initial operating funds, half of the amount necessary for the first three years of operation.

To raise the total amount,, KFC launched a separate fundraiser which will rely on the local community’s commitment to the Heartlands.

Speaking at Thursday’s Keweenaw Heartlands Public Update, Robin Meneguzzo, CEO of the Keweenaw Community Foundation, said the KCF’ goal is to raise the funds through local community members.

“The reason is, when you start something from nothing, you have to anticipate (expenditures),” she said. There are legal fees that we want to be able to cover, and part of the goal is to raise those dollars locally here, so that way we can ensure that they have those operating dollars when that new Authority Board is created and ready work.”

Meneguzzo said a concept arose during the planning phase of the Keweenaw Heartlands Project that an endowment might be an ideal sustainable way for the project to have operational revenue in perpetuity.

“And that’s typically what an endowment is established for,” she said. “To establish the endowment, TNC secured $1 million, she said, and KCF secured an additional $1 million.”

Eventually those two will merge into one permanent endowment, said Meneguzzo, and will then create off interest monies that every year to go into support of the operations of this new Authority Board, for the management and the governance of the land.

“The KCF is holding a Forest Fund, and every dollar that goes into this, the goal is that goes directly back to the Authority Board for those first few years, Meneguzzo said. “And so, right now, we have raised about $323,000, so we are over halfway there, but we really do need start our community continuing to support that to get us to that $600,000 goal.”

Tens of millions of dollars have already been invested in the Heartlands Project since 2022,Meneguzzo said, including TNC, the state and federal sources, along with donations and contributions from private donors and stakeholders.

“There has been a lot of money brought to this from outside of our community to do this project,” she said, “but this is an opportunity for us as community members to financially contribute to this.”

To learn more about the Heartlands Project, visit www.keweenawcommunityfoundation.org/