- Program Environment
- Program Area Addressing the Freshwater Challenge
- Grant Amount $2,000,000
- Grant Period January 1, 2004–January 31, 2011
- Location Arlington, VA, United States
- Geographic Focus upper peninsula
About this grant
In 2003, the Forestland Group (FLG), a timber investment limited partnership, purchased almost 400,000 acres of wetlands, forests, rivers and lakes in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Virtually all of the acreage lies within high-priority conservation areas — as determined by the Nature Conservancy’s (TNC) ecoregional planning process — and borders other public and protected lands that combine to form large expanses of uninterrupted habitat. Recently, TNC and FLG signed an agreement to protect the ecologically most significant areas, totaling 271,000 acres.Multiyear funding will enable TNC, through outright purchase and acquisition of conservation easements, to protect the land, while supporting the timber-based economy, sustaining the local tax base and maintaining public access for outdoor recreation. Activities also will include completing the necessary fundraising and beginning various land stewardship projects.TNC, founded in 1951, is a private, international conservation group. Its mission is to preserve plants, animals and natural communities that represent the diversity of life by protecting the lands and water they need to survive.