The Northern Great Lakes Forest Project The Northern Great Lakes Forest Project is a record-setting conservation easement totaling 247,806 acres stretching across the Upper Peninsula from Gogebic County in the west, to Chippewa County in the east. The closure of the final phase of the Northern Great Lakes Forest Project in the fall of 2010 marked an unprecedented accomplishment in the conservation of the spectacular forests, lakes, streams and wetlands of Michigan's Upper Peninsula.