Graham Jaehnig/Daily Mining Gazette Rich Marsh, with the Calumet Keweenaw Sportsmen’s Club and a member of the Heartlands Community Advisory Committee, discussed the concerns of continued public access of the Keweenaw Heartlands.

ALLOUEZ TOWNSHIP – The most recent Keweenaw Heartlands Project Public Update meeting on Thursday, provided an overview of the history of the project since 2022 and its evolution from the initial land purchases in 2026.

The update was led by Robin Meneguzzo, CEO of the Keweenaw Community Foundation, which has been a partner with The Nature Conservancy and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) on the project since 2022. Other individuals also spoke at the meeting.

Rich Bowman, director of policy for the Nature Conservancy in Michigan, spoke, saying The Nature Conservancy (TNC) first became aware of The Rohatyn Group’s (TRG) intention to sell approximately 35,000 acres of commercial forestland in Keweenaw County in 2022.

“We spent some time talking to folks here in the community,” Bowman said, “and ultimately decided that we could help the community transition their corporate ownership to public ownership.”

TNC subsequently purchased the lands and is currently the interim owner and is paying the taxes on them, said Bowman.

“We are doing the property maintenance and working with the community and the DNR to develop the plan to transition them to state ownership,” Bowman said.

Rich Marsh, with the Calumet Keweenaw Sportsmen’s Club and a member of the Heartlands Community Advisory Committee, said TRG’s announcement caused significant apprehension among county residents, raising questions such as who will purchase the land, and what might happen with it.

“Right, wrong or indifferent, most of us have been using that land for decades, and somewhat treating it as public lands,” said March, “so a lot of us were concerned with where this was going to go and we would lose what we have.”

March echoed Bowman’s comments, saying when TNC purchased the lands and currently manages them while determinations can be made on how they can be transitioned back to the public good, and whether ownership will be state, county, or locally owned.

To address those questions, there were many public hearings and the formation of an advisory group, which initially was comprised of some 17 organizations, including the sportsmen’s club, he said.

“From the sportsmen’s club perspective, continued public access to this land is a critical point to us,” March said, “and so we’ve been following and watching this process as it goes. I can’t even tell you how many times we’ve met and discussed, and talked about what was going to happen.”

March said those discussions led to the creation of Blueprint for the Keweenaw Heartlands Project, with four primary concerns. The first is to protect the natural and cultural features of the land and ensure public continued public access, and to restore the health of the working forest. Another concern addressed maintaining government tax revenue.

“We didn’t want to lose the revenue that was coming,” March said, “and more importantly, as it all comes together, a healthy, intact, accessible forest system for everyone.”

In addition to the hearings, said March, 1,885 surveys were generated for the blueprint, with an additional 56 one-on-one interviews, 10 interest group meetings, and six public meetings, to determine what was important to the different groups and individuals within the area.

The results of those contributed to the blueprint, March said, which has been published and is available online, on the KCF website.

Meneguzzo said the blueprint has been crucial to what the community said has been important to them, which is now guiding the next steps in the evolution of the Heartlands Project.

The Blueprint for the Keweenaw Heartlands is available at www.keweenawcommunityfoundation.org.