Environmental group acquires 10K acres in U.P. for conservation – By Mark Hicks (The Detroit News) / December 12, 2021
Visitors might not notice, but more than 10,000 acres of land in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula have quietly avoided losing protection and switched hands.
The grounds known as the Slate River Timberlands were recently acquired by the Nature Conservancy, an environmental nonprofit group, after nearly 60 years under a family’s ownership.
The group plans to extend the native forest’s stewardship, which they say helps preserve carbon-rich hemlocks maple and hardwood trees as well as maintain access for outdoor enthusiasts in the renowned Michigamme Highlands near Lake Superior.
“It has some of the biggest hemlocks trees I have ever seen outside a state park,” Rich Bowman, director of policy at the conservancy, told The Detroit News. “It has groves of native red pine. It has lots of mature northern hardwoods. It really is just a beautiful piece of forestland.”
