The Keweenaw Heartlands Project
The Keweenaw Heartlands Forest Fund
Join our community fundraiser to protect public access, local leadership, and the future of the Keweenaw Heartlands! To launch this community forest, we are raising funds to support startup operations for the Keweenaw Heartlands Recreation and Natural Resources Authority Board.
PROJECT MAP This map outlines the existing protected lands in the Keweenaw Peninsula and the Keweenaw Heartlands as of spring 2025.
What is the Keweenaw Heartlands Project?
In late 2022, The Nature Conservancy in Michigan (TNC) announced the purchase of over 32,500 acres of working forestland, known as the Keweenaw Heartlands (“the Heartlands”), near the tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula in Keweenaw County. TNC purchased the Heartlands from a large-scale, corporate forest owner, removing the land from private, corporate ownership for the first time in over 150 years. The purchase was completed with the support and input of community leaders, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR), and people locally, regionally, and beyond who love the Keweenaw.
Since then, TNC, the Michigan DNR, and a Heartlands community advisory committee have been working to develop a long-term governance and management plan for the Keweenaw Heartlands. Their collective goal: to shift the Heartlands into public ownership, with DNR and local decision-making working together to ensure the benefits of the forest are realized by locals and visitors, forever.
As the interim owner while these plans for transition develop, TNC cares for the forest day-to-day. The forest remains in the Commercial Forest Program, on the tax rolls, and publicly accessible.
These lands contain many sites of unique ecological, historical, cultural, and recreational significance. From 2023-2024, TNC conducted a comprehensive inventory of all resources—including infrastructure, timber, cultural, and ecological—to inform recommendations for future public ownership, governance, and management.
In 2026, TNC, the Michigan DNR, and the community advisory committee anticipate significant progress toward the Heartlands becoming publicly governed, sustainably managed, and available for the public to access and enjoy indefinitely.
Read on to learn more about this community-driving effort.
Blueprint for the Keweenaw Heartlands
Throughout much of 2023, The Nature Conservancy, Michigan DNR, and other partners worked closely with residents, community leaders, and interested individuals to create the Blueprint for the Keweenaw Heartlands.
This Blueprint is a more than 90-page document summarizing local values and principles for governance and management and outlining a goal of public ownership and community-based governance of the Heartlands forest. The Blueprint also documents the public engagement process for arriving at those values and principles, and it offers recommendations for future implementation of a community forest model for a larger portion of the Keweenaw Heartlands Forest’s acres.
Heartlands Project - Monthly Updates
Community Advisory Committee
Brigitte LaPointe-Dunham / Erin Johnston – Keweenaw Bay Indian Community
Don Piche – Keweenaw County
Bob Demarois – Keweenaw County
Curt Pennala – Keweenaw County Sheriff’s Office
John Cima – Keweenaw County
Greg Kingstrom – Keweenaw County Road Commission
Rob Middlemis-Brown – Sherman Township Fire Department
Sam Raymond – Grant Township
Rich Probst – Eagle Harbor Township
Harvey Desnick – Sherman Township
John Lehman – Michigan Technological University
Dave Reed – Michigan Technological University, retired
B Lauer – Keweenaw Land Trust
Nancy and Bill Leonard – Michigan Nature Association
Wendy Davis – Keweenaw National Historical Park
Sean Gohman – Keweenaw National Historical Park Advisory Commission
Paul and Anita Campbell – Keweenaw County Historical Society
Daryl St. John / Mike McMahon – Keweenaw ATV Club
Dave Donnay – Keweenaw Snowmobile Club
Adam Yeoman – Copper Harbor Trails Club
Gina Nicholas – Keweenaw Community Forest Company
Richard Marsh – Calumet Keweenaw Sportsmen’s Club
Jerry Wuorenmaa / Lisa McKenzie – Western UP Planning & Development Region
Robin Meneguzzo – Keweenaw Community Foundation
Brad Barnett – Visit Keweenaw
Jeff Ratcliffe – Keweenaw Economic Development Alliance
Peter Clevenstine – Agate Harbor Land Pool
Kelly Ryan – U.S. Endowment for Forestry & Communities
Don and Peg Kauppi – The Mariner North Resort
Jessica Curtis – Umbra Arts
KCF and the Heartlands
The Keweenaw Community Foundation’s mission is to serve as a catalyst for lasting change, a partner for local organizations, and a resource for emerging community needs. Our role in this project is to support our local communities’ engagement by organizing public meetings, providing regular informational updates, and ensuring their voices are heard throughout the process.
We also help in fundraising to support the Keweenaw Heartlands Recreation and Natural Resources Authority, a group of elected representatives in Keweenaw County who will manage the working forest.
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