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Happenings in the Keweenaw Peninsula June 20, 2005   Text © 2005 Houghton Keweenaw Conservation District and The Nature Conservancy. Photos © 2004 Michele Anderson and (aerial view) © 2003 Michael Jordan. Reprinted with permission.

Bete Grise Preserve to be dedicated at July 9 Celebration

HOUGHTON -- The Dedication of the Bete Grise Preserve, open to the public, will be held at 2 p. m. on Saturday, July 9, 2005, on the Gay Lac La Belle Road between Point Isabelle and Lac La Belle. The Preserve includes 1,104 acres of pristine dune-swale wetlands and 7,500 feet of Lake Superior shoreline, which will be permanently preserved and open to the public for noninvasive recreation, research and education. 

This photo, taken in early October 2004,  shows a view of the Lake Superior shoreline at Bete Grise South on the eastern shore of the Keweenaw Peninsula. Along the beach is a delicate wetland area considered a rare Great Lakes Marsh. This area is now part of the Bete Grise Preserve. (Keweenaw Now file photo © 2004 Michele Anderson)

The Houghton Keweenaw Conservation District and their Partners -- The Nature Conservancy, Keweenaw Land Trust, South Shore Association, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and many concerned individuals -- made possible the purchase of this property from International Paper/Lake Superior Land Co. 

Funding for the Preserve has been provided by the Great Lakes Coastal Restoration Grant Program and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.*

The Program for the celebration is as follows:

Welcome: Gina Nicholas, Houghton Keweenaw Conservation District

Guest Speakers: Dave Kenaga, Michigan Coastal Management Program (Michigan Department of Environmental Quality); Christie Deloria-Sheffield, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service; Jeff Knoop, The Nature Conservancy; Tom Collins, South Shore Association; Evan McDonald, Keweenaw Land Trust; Keweenaw County/Grant Township (speakers to be announced); Bonnie Hay, Reading the Landscape.

After the presentations, refreshments will be served. A walk around the property will follow.

This aerial photo shows the wetlands and beach at Bete Grise South in relation to the Gay-Lac La Belle Road. Lac La Belle and some Lac La Belle sloughs are in the background. (Photo © 2003 Michael Jordan. Reprinted with permission.)

The entrance to the Preserve and the site of the Celebration is on the Lake Superior side of the Gay-Lac La Belle Road between Point Isabelle and Lac La Belle -- 16 Miles from Gay and 10 Miles from the US 41/Lac La Belle Intersection. Watch for signs.

*Editor's Note: For more on the grants awarded for Bete Grise, see "Bete Grise awarded $1 million for wetland, habitat protection" (Oct. 29 and Nov. 4, 2004), "Bete Grise awarded $450,000 for coastal wetland protection" (Nov. 24, 2004) and "Bete Grise wetlands, shoreline protected through TNC partnership" (Dec. 20, 2004).

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