Keweenaw County will become home to Michigan’s first public forest authority. 

The Nature Conservancy purchased 32,000 acres of forest land in Keweenaw County in 2022. Recently, county commissioners voted to create a local board to manage 20,000 acres of land in partnership with the conservancy. 

Robin Meneguzzo is the CEO of the Keweenaw Community Foundation. She says residents have four goals for forest management. “One is to protect the cultural and historical features of the land. One is to keep it a working, healthy, and intact forest, the third was to maintain government revenues, and the fourth was to maintain public access.” 

Newly expanded legislation opened the door for the forest authority by allowing small rural communities in Michigan to manage their own forest resources.

Meneguzzo says the project is uniting members of the community. “This is a really amazing example of a community coming together that has very different views on how land should be used or managed.” She says 29 different groups worked together for around 4 years to complete the project.

Meneguzzo says the forest covers around 15% of Keweenaw County’s footprint and is used for hunting, fishing, foraging, and hiking. 

Voters can choose forest authority board members in the November general election.

This story is a part of WDET’s ongoing series, the Detroit Tree Canopy Project.