From staff reports
New Community Vision’s (NCV) two-year effort to acquire and preserve the former Timber Shores property between Omena and Northport will benefit from a multi-million dollar federal grant to the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians (GTB) as part of an overall $11.9 million funding recommendation announced last Thursday by the federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The grant is being provided through NOAA’s FY 23 Transformational Habitat and Coastal Resilience grant opportunity—which is funded by the Biden administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act.
NOAA announced the news on July 18. NCV, which launched as a non-profit in 2023 with a vision to re-think how the former Timber Shores property could benefit both current and future generations, has focused on acquiring the property in order to preserve more than 200 acres—including 1,800 feet of lakeshore—as a public nature preserve for the community while using 24 acres in an upland section of the property for affordable housing—an acute issue facing the region. NCV is collaborating with Peninsula Housing to develop attainable housing with community input. Launched in 2022 by Larry Mawby, Peninsula Housing is a community land trust based in Suttons Bay with a mission to provide affordable workforce housing in Leelanau County.
A significant portion of the NOAA grant will be earmarked to integrate with NCV’s ongoing fundraising campaign to acquire the former Timber Shores campground—one of the largest and highest-profile, undeveloped coastal properties available in the Grand Traverse region—specifically for land preservation and restoration. Other allocated grant monies will support GTB’s river restoration efforts on the Lower Boardman-Ottoway River.
The land between Omena and Northport, which sits along West Grand Traverse Bay and was once the site of Timber Shores campground, was later considered for a luxury condo development with a private marina. More recently, developers sought to turn it into an RV park and campground, but faced local pushback and were stopped by a 2022 ballot referendum that opposed the RV park.
According to NCV, the former Timbers Shores property was part of the ancestral homeland of the Grand Traverse Band for more than 300 years. It is called “Mashkiigaki” (pronounced Mashkeegaki) and is historically, culturally and spiritually significant to the Band. Mashkiigaki (Mashkeegaki) means “the place of the medicines” and represents the importance of these wetlands as a traditionally significant location for hunting, fishing, gathering, and collecting medicines. That land was taken from the Band in an 1855 treaty and transferred to non-Native settlers and lumber firms.
“The name for this land is Mashkiigaki, which means marsh lands, but it also means the ‘place of medicine’ because this is where, in times past, tribal members would find food and medicine and connect with the earth,” GTB River Restoration project manager Naomi Louchouarn said at a June event. “To collaborate with NCV and everyone in the area is important for the ecological restoration of this place, but also for the restoration of the irreplaceable cultural and spiritual connections to the land as well.”
NCV needs to raise an additional $2 million to reach its fundraising goal and acquire the Timber Shores property. It hopes to reach that goal by the end of the year, after which the group will transfer the land to the Grand Traverse Band for restoration and preservation.
“We are deeply grateful for our close partnership with the Grand Traverse Band. Their expertise and leadership in the stewardship of natural habitats throughout our region reinforces the importance of preserving this special lakeshore property,” said NCV president John Sentell. “This close partnership is key to not only preserving and restoring the property, but connecting all people in the community to the wonders of this remarkable natural asset again.”
The NOAA grant award will also provide substantial funding for long-term restoration of this parcel’s vital coastal, wetland and fish habitats.
“This is the largest, most significant site available for conservation and restoration located on West Grand Traverse Bay. Coastal resiliency, essential fish habitat, critically rare ecosystems, spectacular vistas—it has it all,” said Sentell.
Acquiring the property will preserve and restore critical ecosystems, including strengthening native fisheries, broadening ecosystem resilience, and advancing priorities within the Coastal Grand Traverse Bay Watershed Plan by preserving and restoring 187 acres of critically sensitive habitat including: 0.75 lineal miles of a Lake Michigan tributary, Ennis Creek, within the property contributing the to the broader health of the 5.3 lineal miles of the full creek; 1,800 feet of Laurentian Great Lakes shoreline; 20 acres of Ennis Creek riparian wetland corridor; 42 acres of fractured wetlands and artificial marina created in the late 1970s for the former campground called Timber Shores.
When coupled with the protected Gull Island offshore, the protection of this parcel creates a virtual “land and water nature preserve” on West Bay, said NCV.
The portion of the overall NOAA grant to the Band for land acquisition will be coupled with critical matching funds secured by NCV through private donations.
“With this grant recommendation from NOAA, we are incredibly close to success. As of now, thanks to donations and monies already pledged, raising an additional $2 million more will get this deal done,” Sentell added. “The importance of protecting this site forever will benefit our broad community and the health of our entire region. As a community, we simply must get this done now.”
The landowner has told New Community Vision that if they are unable to make the purchase, plans for an RV campground could move forward again.
NCV thanks the Glen Arbor Sun for allowing us to share this article with you.
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