By Graham Jaehnig

gjaehnig@mininggazette.com

EAGLE RIVER — The Keweenaw County Board heard concerns regarding tourists and tourism in the county at its regular May meeting on Wednesday.

Paul Putnam, Michigan State University (MSU) Extension District 1 Director, covering the central and western counties in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula read a report prepared by MSU Baraga County Extension Office’s Will Cronin, Tourism and Community Development Educator.

Putnam said that since concluding visiting sessions in late 2022, with Eagle Harbor Township, Visit Keweenaw and the Western Upper Peninsula Planning & Development Region (WUPPDR), Cronin has continued to work on issues of tourism pressure in the Keweenaw.

“As the tourism season starts to wind up this spring,” Putnam read from the report, “the Extension will continue to serve as the point-of-contact and organizer for regional tourism as a working group focused on addressing the following issues in the Visit Keweenaw service area, especially focused on Houghton and Keweenaw counties.”

The tourism pressure issues that have been identified, Cronin’s report states, by the working group are:

• Visitor expectations, particularly poor or no cellphone service.

• Fuel and food availability, especially in the evening hours.

• Lack or access to medical care and other vital services.

The second part of the sessions focused on search and rescue services due to more poorly prepared visitors.

• Kayaking on Lake Superior, with or without proper experience.

• Impact on more visitors on resident such as “characters of the community,” traffic, demands on municipal services,”

• Trespassing on private property to access sites, especially sites that have gone viral on social media.

• Short-term rental impacts and policies.

The report went on to say that Cronin and Visit Keweenaw Executive Director Brad Barnett continue to study the issues with WUPPDR and Keweenaw Economic Development Alliance partners, to put together a presentation on short-term rentals that will likely be presented over WUPPDR’s service area this summer, beginning in Houghton and Keweenaw.

Eagle Harbor Township Supervisor Rich Probst he would reiterate the same issues reported by Cronin.

“The more tourism you have, the more services and everything that we have gets pressured.”

Probst said, as one example, the township’s beach, along with areas around the village of Eagle Harbor conduct garbage-pickup and cleaning up after people visiting those places.

“So, obviously,” he said, “the more people that are here, the more people use the spaces, so the more trash you have to pick up. Things like that. It just sort of trickles down.”