A $1.7 million grant, Michigan's first funding under the new federal Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI), was announced today by the Department of Natural Resources and Environment.  The grant will support the acquisition of approximately 1,475 acres of high-quality wetlands, sand dune uplands, and 3,500 feet of shoreline frontage on Lac La Belle - a freshwater estuary of Lake Superior.

"The State of Michigan has worked hard to ensure that we are ready to use the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative money in a strategic and collaborative manner," said Lt. Governor John Cherry.  "The Bete Grise Wetlands preserve with its many partners is an excellent example of how the Great Lakes Initiative will enhance our efforts to protect and restore the Great Lakes.  This is the first of what I expect to be many Great Lakes Initiative dollars that will flow to Michigan."

"We are very pleased to be a part of the continued success to preserve the Bete Grise Wetlands," said DNRE Director Rebecca Humphries.  "The success of this project will ultimately be attributed to the tremendous collaboration of many agencies and organizations involved in this tremendous effort."

Humphries noted that the Bete Grise Wetlands contain an extremely high number and diverse mix of plant and animal species that live in this rich mosaic of habitats, including a rare type of wetland called a patterned fen.

The DNRE's Michigan Coastal Management Program (MCMP) application for the Keweenaw County project was selected for GLRI funding by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) through the Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program (CELCP).

"Through NOAA's CELCP/GLRI funding for Bete Grise Wetlands, we have accomplished another major step in protecting Bete Grise, the last best coastal dune swale system of its type in the United States.  The contributions of many individuals and organizations, including the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, The Nature Conservancy, Keweenaw Land Trust and the Houghton Keweenaw Conservation District (HKCD), have accomplished more than any could have done alone.  Bete Grise - and all of the animals and plants within it - now belongs to all of us, and the future," said HKCD chairperson Gina Nicholas. 

The land acquisition is the latest in a multi-phase effort to protect the 8,000-plus acre coastal wetland complex at Bete Grise.  The HKCD will serve as the titleholder and land manager for the conservation area, which will be preserved in perpetuity for conservation and open to the public for passive recreation such as hiking, kayaking, and bird watching. 

The CELCP was established in 2002 to provide funding to eligible coastal states for the purpose of acquiring important coastal and estuarine areas that have significant conservation, recreation, ecological, historical, or aesthetic values, or that are threatened by conversion from their natural or recreational state to other uses.

For more information about the GLRI, visit the U.S. EPA website at http://www.epa.gov/glnpo/glri or the DNRE website at http://www.michigan.gov/deqgreatlakes , click on Protection and Restoration.

The DNRE is committed to conserve, manage, protect, and promote accessible use and enjoyment of the state's environmental, natural resource, and related economic interests for current and future generations.