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News from the Keweenaw Peninsula January 29, 2002 Press Releases © 2002 North Woods Conservancy and Mott Foundation Photos © 2001 Michael Jordan of DLP Photographic in Owosso, MI

North Woods Conservancy obtains bridge loan from Mott Foundation

CALUMET -- The North Woods Conservancy (NWC) has obtained a bridge loan from the new Great Lakes Revolving Loan Fund (GLRLF) to complete the purchase of Seven Mile Point for $361,400.

A view of the Lake Superior shoreline from Seven Mile Point, looking south along the coast. (Photo by Michael Jordan of DLP Photographic in Owosso, MI)

The purpose of the new fund, established by a $3.975 million grant from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and administered by The Conservation Fund, is to provide local land trusts like the NWC, as well as government agencies, with the means to respond quickly to land acquisition or conservation easement opportunities.

Based in Calumet, the North Woods Conservancy is a 200 member, 501c3 organization founded in 1992. It is the first organization to receive funds from the new GLRLF. The Mott Foundation anticipates increasing its commitment to the revolving fund by up to another $3.75 million in the coming years. This is the largest environmental grant in the Foundation’s history.

NWC President John Griffith said the $361,400 bridge loan for Seven Mile Point is an amount normally well out of reach for the small, all volunteer NWC.

Seven Mile Point is located seven miles south and west of Eagle River, the Keweenaw County seat. The parcel purchased contains 32 acres, including 1,506 feet of Lake Superior shoreline consisting of volcanic cobble, basaltic bedrock and beautiful sand beach.

"To complete the purchase, the NWC raised 10 percent in cash, received a $100,000 grant from the Lake Superior Basin Trust and obtained the GLRLF bridge loan for the balance, which must be repaid on or before November 2003," Griffith said.

At a minimum, Seven Mile Point will be open to the public on weekends from Memorial Day to Labor Day, and for periods in the winter and fall. When the area is open to the public, NWC will provide a volunteer to be present onsite. When it is closed, the access road to Seven Mile Point will be gated. 

"The purchase of Seven Mile Point simply could not have been accomplished without the GLRLF, or the NWC members and Keweenaw residents who to date have contributed $30,000 toward the $36,140 cash fundraising goal," Griffith noted.

Until Lake Superior Land Company built a road to Seven Mile Point about 1994 as part of the Seven Mile Point subdivision development, Griffith explained, the closest vehicular access was the Sunset Bay Campground, from which campers and visitors could hike down a shoreline trail or the beach to the point.

"From the 1940s into the 1990s, campground owner Pete Lukonich often delivered campers by boat to the point, or beyond toward the Gratiot River, to be retrieved in the evening after a full day of sun, waves and agate picking," Griffith added.

Prior to development, several parties including the North Woods Conservancy attempted to purchase the entire Seven Mile Bay, from Sunset Bay south and west to and including Seven Mile Point. Unfortunately, these attempts failed; the land simply was not for sale for preservation.

When lot lines were drawn, most of the 24 planned lots were narrow, deep 10-acre parcels with lake frontages of 200-300 feet. The last lot, Lot 24, was unique: It contained about 32 acres and 1,506 feet of Lake Superior frontage, including a small cobble beach on the west side, the point itself (made up of exposed 1.1 billion year old basaltic bedrock) and a long stretch of sand beach on the east side of the point. It seems the then-owner of Lake Superior Land Company (LSLC) considered Seven Mile Point to be the most attractive of all the LSLC holdings, and planned to build his mansion there. Before this could be done, LSLC was sold to Champion International, and Lot 24 remained untouched.

In the fall of 2000, NWC again inquired about purchasing Seven Mile Point. The listed sale price ($753,000) was prohibitively expensive, but recent sales convinced Griffith that a new appraisal would yield a more reasonable price, and it did: $361,400. Still, that amount was beyond the reach of the organization, so the NWC mailed an information packet with a description and photos of Seven Mile Point and a plea for assistance or ideas to a variety of individuals, foundations, organizations and agencies.

As a result of the mailing, Peg Kohring of The Conservation Fund -- an Arlington, Va.-based conservation organization with a Midwest office in Sawyer, Michigan -- visited the Keweenaw Peninsula in January 2001. Kohring was enthusiastic about the Keweenaw Peninsula in general and Seven Mile Point in particular, because of its listing by the Michigan Natural Features Inventory as one of the top three sites for preservation in the region (for its basaltic bedrock and volcanic cobble lakeshore and associated habitats), and because the parcel adjoins a mile of shoreline and about 2000 interior acres of protected private and State Forest land.

Seven Mile Point is high on Michigan's priority list for conservation because of  the unique plant and animal communities associated with its 1.1 billion-year-old basaltic lava flow lakeshore. (Photo courtesy Michael Jordan of DLP Photographic in Owosso, MI)

Shortly after Kohring’s visit, a purchase agreement was negotiated between the North Woods Conservancy and Lake Superior Land Company for the acquisition of Seven Mile Point for $361,400. The agreement included a provision that each of the 22 other Seven Mile Point lot owners be contacted and their unanimous consent for NWC ownership of Lot 24 be obtained.

NWC board member Jane Griffith accomplished this task over a period of seven months. In the process, a rough outline for preserve management, acceptable to both the lot owners over whose properties the access road crosses, and the NWC, was formulated.

The final $6,140 in cash must be raised as soon as possible. Donations (only 61 more $100 donors are needed) can be sent to the address below.

The Mott Foundation's revolving fund will provide organizations like NWC with access to short-term loans to assist with the purchase of ecologically significant areas, as well as the purchase of conservation easements on such properties. Technical assistance also will be available to facilitate the purchase process.

"This grant is a tremendous leap forward from what we have had available," said Kohring. "Our conservation efforts can now move to a whole new level. We can look at larger blocks of land and be more systematic in the preservation of ecologically significant sites."

The Mott Foundation has been active in funding environmental projects in the Great Lakes Basin, including protection of freshwater ecosystems, for nearly 20 years. 

"The revolving loan fund provides a significant new tool for preserving coastal and freshwater features that are unique to the Great Lakes," Foundation President William S. White said. "We are pleased that this grant will help conservation organizations and government agencies work with willing sellers to protect such places."

Based on the initial grant from the Mott Foundation, the revolving fund is expected to protect $15 million worth of land value in the coming five years. After Mott completes its commitment to the fund, the value of the land to be protected should increase to $25 million in that time span.

The revolving fund will be administered by TCF, which acts to protect wildlife habitat, working landscapes and community open space by working in partnership with organizations, public agencies, foundations, corporations and individuals. Since 1990, TCF has managed $45 million in revolving loan funds that have been used for 400 land acquisitions, all without a single default on a loan. 

The Mott Foundation, established in 1926 in Flint by an automotive pioneer, is a private philanthropy committed to supporting projects that promote a just, equitable and sustainable society. It supports nonprofit programs throughout the United States, and on a limited geographic basis, internationally. Grantmaking is focused in four programs: Civil Society, Environment, Flint and Pathways Out of Poverty. The Foundation, with year-end assets of $2.47 billion, made 647 grants totaling $130 million in 2001.

Editor's note: Contributions for Seven Mile Point can be sent to:  North Woods Conservancy PO Box 124 Calumet, MI 49913 Visit the North Woods Conservancy Web site for more information and for images of Seven Mile Point or call NWC at (906) 337-0782. Read Keweenaw Now for more about the Seven Mile Point purchase. Visit www.mott.org for a slide show of Seven Mile Point and to see the Foundation's newsletter mott.now, Vol.4, No. 3. Visit www.conservationfund.org to learn more about the loan fund.

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