HANCOCK — While Wisconsin conservationists are breathing easier after a massive land sale Wednesday, their colleagues in the Keweenaw fear Michigan may not be as lucky.
A release from Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle’s office Wednesday announced the sale of 64,633 acres in the state from International Paper to the Nature Conservancy and the state’s Department of Natural Resources.
The “Wild Rivers Legacy Forest” project represents the largest land conservation effort in the state’s history, according to the release, preserving 101 square miles of forest, lakes and rivers in Florence, Forest and Marinette counties in northeast Wisconsin.
The agreement, according to the release, is part of a larger effort by International Paper to explore selling as much as 6.8 million acres of forest land in the Midwest, the South and the Northeast.
The announcement came a day following that of a $300 million project involving 218,000-acres in 10 states between International Paper, the Nature Conservancy and the Conservation Fund for lands in the southern United States.
Jeff Knoop of Michigan’s Nature Conservancy office in Marquette confirmed Thursday that an announcement regarding International Paper’s properties in Upper Michigan was “looming” within the next 48 hours, but said his office was not involved.
http://www.mininggazette.com/stories/articles.asp?articleID=1347
Posted by Dave at April 3, 2006 05:06 PM