Amid public confusion and rumors that the Michigan Department of Natural Resources has purchased 10,000 acres of land in eastern Keweenaw County, owned by The Nature Conservancy in Michigan within the Keweenaw Heartlands roughly 32,000 acres, TNC says the acquisition, although in progress, has not been completed.

Ryan Hermes, Media and Public Relations Manager with TNC said that the DNR is committed to the acquisition.

“They’re working on lining up the funding for it,” he said. “It’s probably going to be at least a year before that actually happens.”

Hermes said that the DNR has not publicly discussed it to any extent, in part because the department wants to get its funding squared away.

On Dec. 5, 2023, Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s Office and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources announced that they recommended eight community parks, trails, and sports facilities and one state acquisition to receive a combined $6,461,500 in Land and Water Conservation Fund grants. Included in the recommendations was $3,500,00 for approximately 8,0000 acres of land in eastern Keweenaw County, referred to as the Keweenaw Point Acquisition.

These were only recommendations, however, and funding has not yet been awarded.

The DNR has attempted to acquire the property in the past, but was unable to reach an agreement with the former owners.

Now that the acreage is owned and protected by TNC, said Hermes, the DNR has the time necessary to get the funding lined up and to finalize the purchase.

“The way this works is that the state basically, in a sense, said ‘this is what we want to use the money for, but the Fed still needs to sign off on it. They usually do, but you never know sometimes.”

The DNR, he said, is reluctant to say anything regarding projects that far into the future without knowing that the funding is secure.

TNC in Michigan Director of Policy Rich Bowman said that confusion surrounding the topic has resurfaced several times in the past.

While the 32,600 acres purchased by TNC in 2022 is referred to as the Keweenaw Heartlands, he said, the acreage the DNR is in the process of acquiring is what that agency refers to as the Keweenaw Point Acquisition, and there is confusion over the names, and what the DNR is buying. TNC is continuing to work with the DNR as they work to acquire the land.

“The DNR’s 10,000-acre Keweenaw Point Project,” Bowman explained, “is the eastern 10,000 acres of the Keweenaw Heartlands. That includes basically everything from Fort Wilkins down to the mouth of the Montreal River, and east of the Estevant Pines.”

The acquisition will add to 8,000 acres in that area already owned by the DNR. When the land purchase has been finalized, the 18,000 acres will be reserved as a state-owned recreation area.