Do you care about the future of your land? Maybe you value your land for more than just its dollar value. Maybe your family's history on a property goes back to the beginnings of our community. Maybe you have wisely managed your forested lands with great care for decades. Maybe you built a hunting camp or family vacation home that several generations have enjoyed. Maybe you are sad to think that someday the land you have come to know and love will be developed and altered, losing something precious and irreplaceable in the process. The Keweenaw Land Trust can help you create a legacy by protecting your family lands. While there is more to life than money, we know that sometimes the financial considerations may seem to limit your options. We want you to know that land conservation can offer you potential state and federal income and property tax incentives.

The Keweenaw Land Trust (KLT) is a local, non-profit, non-political, charitable organization that works with community partners and landowners to conserve land and water resources in the Copper Country. We partner with willing landowners to reach mutual goals. Through partnership, we work to protect the rich heritage and natural resources that give us a great quality of life here in the Keweenaw. Incorporated in 1996, the land trust staff and volunteers offer skills and assistance to private landowners wishing to create a permanent legacy through protection of their land. The Land Trust Alliance is a national umbrella organization assisting land conservation organizations, and KLT has formally adopted their professional Standards and Practices to guide our entire program. 

The KLT is qualified to own land to establish nature preserves, as well as hold conservation easements that create formal land protection agreements. Currently, the KLT owns and maintains several preserves. The KLT holds conservation easements on over 2000 acres of privately owned land, including scenic roadways, shoreline, dunes and wetlands, and working forests.  The conservation easement is a more powerful tool than a simple deed restriction because it gives the land trust the legal authority to monitor and enforce the terms of the easement. Your long-term legacy will be assured as we work to establish positive relationships with subsequent owners of easement protected lands to help them steward the land resources in keeping with the intent of the original easement donor.

We appreciate your care for the land because we share it, and we are working to make sure that lands like yours will be protected forever. The KLT relies heavily on donations of land, conservation easements, volunteer time, and financial contributions to make our land protection program possible. Gifts of easements, lands, or financial resources to KLT are tax deductible.  

If you have a specific piece of property you want to see protected or you want to support our efforts to protect the character and beauty of the Keweenaw contact us for further information.