Helen Taylor, left, state director of The Nature Conservancy, and State Representative Greg Markkanen talk after the public announcement of the global conservancy organization’s purchase of the Keweenaw Heartlands in Eagle River Thursday. The purchase of over 31,000 acres in Keweenaw County, formerly in the possession of The Rohatyn Group, a global investment firm, will retain public access rights including trail systems.

Courtesy of The Nature Conservancy/Kari Marciniak
The Nature Conservancy’s graphic detailing protected lands on the Keweenaw Peninsula.

EAGLE RIVER, Mich. — The Nature Conversancy announced at a press conference on Thursday that it has acquired a land purchase in Keweenaw County totaling more than 31,000 acres.

Helen Taylor, state director of The Nature Conservancy in Michigan, said the conservancy has secured agreements to purchase what is referred to as the Keweenaw Heartlands.

“Yesterday at 5:30 p.m. I received word that we closed and now own the first segment of that, 22, 700 acres,” Taylor said at the conference, “purchased from the The Rohatyn Group, also known as TRG.”

By the end of the 2022 calendar year, she added, the Conservancy will have purchased the remaining 8,900 acres.

Taylor said that while she has received countless requests from the public for updates on the acquisition project over several months, the Nature Conservancy was under a very strict confidentiality agreement throughout the entire negotiation process, and so could not provide any information.

The Keweenaw Heartlands, she said, was divided into four large parcels that were for sale, and as of Wednesday, the Conservancy acquired three of them. Those are the Point, which is the most eastern two blocks, the middle parcel, called Harbor View, and also the most southern parcel, called Little Betsy. The combined price for those, said Taylor, was $27.2 million.

While the Conversancy was unable to reach an agreement for the parcel called Keweenaw Alpine, Taylor said, a “conservation-minded individual” will finalize his purchase of that parcel tomorrow (Friday) and he has agreed to sell the bulk of that, including all trails, to the Nature Conservancy at fair market value before the end of the calendar year.

“With these acquisitions,” said Taylor, “the Nature Conservancy is acquiring the land’s mineral rights, trails and historic structures.”

The land will remain open to the public under the Michigan Commercial Forest Act (CFA) as well as remaining on the county tax rolls.

In the long-term, she said, the Conservancy truly believes that the stewardship of these lands is best in the hands of the community.

“And so,” she said, “we look forward to working with the state of Michigan, the county, the townships, the local residents — the people who love these lands — to determine the best ways to achieve our shared goals, and that includes who the final owners of the lands will be.”

By protecting this land, Taylor said, the Conservancy is protecting a landscape of global significance to the Nature Conservancy, to the Great Lakes, to the state of Michigan and especially to this local community.

“And this significance dates back a billion years,” she said, “literally. We are ensuring that it remains a place where people and nature can thrive together.”

The wildlife is not just the bears and the wolves and the bobcats in the woods, she went on. It’s the Steelhead and the brook trout and the rivers.

“It’s the tens of thousands of raptors that migrate over this point every year, including thousands and thousands of songbirds,” she said.

Taylor emphasized that the lands and waters just acquired are vital to the health of the Great Lakes.

The Keweenaw Heartlands are an unfragmented forested and freshwater area that ranks as one of the highest climate resilient places in North America. It is an area recognized by The Nature Conservancy as a global priority for both biodiversity and climate resiliency and presents an opportunity to protect an extraordinary region for both nature and people.

Keweenaw County Board of Commissioners Chairman Don Piche said he thanks the Nature Conservancy for working with community members through the entire acquisition process.

“We have a long-time tradition in Keweenaw County of enjoying our outdoor access and the land that we have here,” said Piche, “and the loss of it would really hurt.”

By the listening to the county’s needs and concerns, Piche said, the Conservancy helped the county achieve a major milestone in the county, which is securing the lands.

“I believe I speak for most of the residents in Keweenaw County,” said Piche, “we’re looking forward to continuing working with the Nature Conservancy and the Michigan DNR to get all (the details) set in place.”