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News from the Keweenaw Peninsula October 8, 2001 Photos (except as noted) and Text © 2001 Michele Anderson

Easement, bridge may jeopardize grants for mouth of Gratiot purchase

ALLOUEZ -- A newly proposed easement including a bridge across the Gratiot River could kill $588,000 in grants awarded to Keweenaw County for the purchase of the mouth of the Gratiot River, North Woods Conservancy (NWC) members heard on Saturday, Oct. 6.

Mouth of the Gratiot River and Lake Superior shoreline included in Trust Fund grant (Photo courtesy John Griffith)

The parcel, being purchased from International Paper/Lake Superior Land Company (IP/LSLC), contains about 100 acres, including 4,000 feet of Lake Superior shore and 3,000 feet of the Gratiot River. It could become a county park used for hunting, fishing, primitive camping and other recreational activities.

However, because of the proposed easement, inserted into the closing documents by IP/LSLC at the last minute after more than a year of negotiation with the county, two grants are at risk. One is for $441,000 (75% of the cost) from the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund. The other, a $147,00 grant from the North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA), is intended to provide the 25 percent match for the Trust Fund grant.

At the North Woods Conservancy's public meeting Oct. 6 in the Allouez Township Community Building, NWC Board of Governors members discussed the proposed easement added to the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund grant to Keweenaw County for purchase of land at the mouth of the Gratiot River. Seated at the table are, from left, Jeff Crumbaugh, board member; John Griffith, president; Jane Griffith, secretary/treasurer; and Mike Kroenke, board member.

Speaking to NWC members and visitors at the conservancy's annual meeting in Allouez Saturday afternoon, NWC President John Griffith said the easement -- intended to grant unlimited access for any residential, commercial and industrial purpose in Section 12 -- would jeopardize the Trust Fund grant and definitely kill the just-awarded NAWCA grant.

Griffith noted the easement bisecting the park with a potential bridge across the Gratiot could service as many as 22 lakeshore homes and any other commercial or industrial development.

"It would destroy the values for which the parcel is being purchased by the county," Griffith observed.

A potential easement across the Gratiot River, added to the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund grant to Keweenaw County, would include construction of a large bridge across the river, not far from where this photo was taken from the mouth, looking upstream. (Photo courtesy John Griffith)

"This bridge," he said, "would be within about 100 yards of the mouth of the Gratiot. If you've been down there you know that there is floodplain and wetland much much wider than the river there. So this bridge, if it ever actually is built … is going to be necessarily really large."

The position of IP/LSLC, Griffith said, is that the Section 12 property owners are "landlocked."

"This parcel is not 'landlocked,'" Griffith said. "Landlocked means to have no access … All the owners in Section 12 have vehicular access to their property (across Section 13 on the north side of the river) for any historic recreation or timbering activity. They just can't expand the use of that access."

Griffith asked NWC members and supporters of the original, easement-free county purchase to attend the Ways and Means meeting of the Keweenaw County Board of Commissioners Monday at 6 p.m. in the Courthouse in Eagle River and show their opposition to the proposed easement.

Continued Page 2: County Commissioners divided on easement issue

Note: See John Griffith's Oct. 4 "Letter about the Mouth of the Gratiot." Also, read more about the North Woods Conservancy on their Web site.