Bete Grise South Preserve

The Preserve is the result of the Keweenaw Land Trust, The Nature Conservancy, the Houghton Keweenaw Conservation District (owners of the property), and the Michigan Coastal Zone Management program working together to protect this vulnerable shoreline. The Preserve borders Bete Grise Bay and stretches for 1.5 miles from Lac La Belle to Point Isabelle. KLT holds a conservation easement on the property, doubly protecting the nature area for future generations. The Nature Conservancy owns an adjoining 63-acre parcel with shoreline and fragile dunes. 

Since this important first step was taken, additional land has been protected by partner organizations within this critical target area. An 840 acre parcel, Bete Grise North, was purchased by HKCD shortly after. Another 1,475 acres of high-quality wetlands, sand dune uplands, and 3,500 feet of shoreline frontage on Lac La Belle was purchased in 2010 with funding from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program (CELCP) and other funding partners. Another 181 acres of land was purchased in 2013 with CELCP support, adding nearly 1.7 miles of Lake Superior shoreline around Point Isabelle. Together, these acquisitions provide significant advances toward the locally-driven initiative to protect the larger 8,000+ acre coastal wetland complex.