Supporting a Great Organization

I don't want my blog to turn into a beg for donations, but I'm making an exception this holiday season. The Keweenaw Land Trust (KLT) is doing such great work to preserve the natural areas of the Copper Country, the area where I grew up. KLT manages Lightfoot Bay, the cabin I visit every summer and now they are looking to restore another block of land. I feel so strongly about their mission, that I want to share this email I received from them recently.


This is the final email focusing on the major details of KLT's Land Slam fundraising campaign. We've already covered the Paavola Wetlands Expansion and Point Abbaye Initiative, which leaves our Princess Point Water Trail Campsite project for last.  It may be small, but there's a lot of potential at this location and we need your help to make it happen!

The Princess Point property lies on the Keweenaw Waterway directly across from the Sturgeon River Sloughs. What the 4-acre property lacks in easy road access (it's a 40 minute drive from Houghton), it makes up for in its prime location for water-based activities. In addition to the Sturgeon River Sloughs, paddlers can explore the Snake River, numerous islands along the Portage River, and nearby Portage Lake, all within a short distance of their launch point. The majority of the shoreline in the vicinity is undeveloped, making this area ecologically rich and excellent for bird watching and fishing. Paddlers can visit for the day via the Sloughs boat launch off of US-41.

While 4 acres may not sound like much land, it's how we plan to use it that really matters. Princess Point is perfectly situated along the Keweenaw Water Trail and will make for an excellent rustic campsite for overnight visitors. The Copper Island Kayak Challenge recently highlighted the need for more public places along the Keweenaw's shoreline for camping or just a rest. With high and dry public land hard to come by in this area (most is wetland wildlife areas managed by the Michigan DNR), the Princess Point water trail campsite will fill an important need. The property has an old cabin that we plan to repair and allow visitors to stay in, similar to our offerings at Lightfoot Bay. With so many destinations within striking distance by canoe or kayak, paddlers can spend the night in a tent or inside the cabin and head out to visit more special places the next day.

The land, once a cherished family retreat, is generously being donated to KLT by a the current generation of a dispersed family that has local ties to the region. We are excited to share their vision for a public recreation area with the rest of the community. However, to accept the property we need to pay back taxes still owed - just a tiny fraction of the total project costs - before it's a done deal! Please donate to the Land Slam fundraiser to help establish the Princess Point Water Trail Campsite! We appreciate anything you can give to help make the Land Slam a reality.

-Keweenaw Land Trust Team

To give to the Keweenaw Land Trust, click on the Please donate link above or send your checks to

Keweenaw Land Trust

801 N. Lincoln Drive. Ste. 306

Hancock, MI 49930

Going Native

Jack in the Pulpit Seeds - www.denniskalma.com

I have been feeling disoriented and directionless since I returned from Neebish Island. Refreshed from a week of me time, I had thought I would returned home energized. Instead, the opposite happened. I have been going through the motions of daily life but finding myself disconnected from it.

Sleepless nights and days filled with forced activities came to a head this morning. Through my ennui, I had failed to realize that the days here in Northern Michigan are shortening. Without the schedule demands of my clients, I had begun to awaken when the sun rose and suddenly it is dark at 7 am. Still in bed, I grabbed my NOOK and began to read my emails. There had been a message from Prairie Moon Nursery (http://www.prairiemoon.com/) promoting a sale on bare root Jack in the Pulpit plants. This caught my attention and I immediately went to the website to see what there was to buy.

Buying is my antidote to times of uncertainty. Sometimes it leads to new passions, like buying a seat in a historic preservation class or picking up a new bird field guide. Then there are the not so good times, like impulsive clothing purchases that after one wearing, get bundled up and taken to the Salvation Army thrift store.

Prairie Moon specializes in native plants of the Great Lakes region. I had thought about planting a butterfly garden this fall in an area of the yard that has lain fallow for years. During my search for butterfly appropriate plants, I had found Prairie Moon and signed up for email updates.

Rather than go right to the plants on sale, I scrolled down to the bottom to learn more about the nursery. One screen lead to another and I eventually ended up on a page describing how to convert disturbed land into a prairie. It was a long article the length of it would normally send me in search of something fluffier to read. Instead, it held my attention and I read it in its entirety.

As I finished the article, my feelings of disorientation had passed. What I had been unable to define succinctly in my head of late was laid out in an orderly fashion in those paragraphs. All of my passions were pulled together into two words: ecosystem restoration. My love of the out of doors and animals, my work with wildlife rehabilitation and invasive species, the passionate conversations about land preservation that I had with Pat from the Keweenaw Land Trust; it all came together under the umbrella of ecosystem protection and restoration.

I’m a doer; just to sit here and say this is what I believe doesn’t cut it. But being an introvert, public advocacy makes me uncomfortable. Just writing this blog is pushing my comfort zone. Not to mention the problem I have with people who say one thing and then do something else (myself included). Words without action are just verbal noise.

With the coming of winter, I have many months to educate myself about ecosystems and how to restore damaged ones, develop projects to work on my own property next spring and find like-minded people to learn from and collaborate with. The ennui is gone, the passion returns.