STEWARDING NATURAL WONDERS

by ALLISON JARRELL

Andrea Denham, the U.P.’s steadfast environmental advocate, shares her favorite outdoor adventures and goals for the coming year.

Andrea denham has always been an adventurer.

Growing up in Saint Paul, Minnesota, she found she felt “better” outside, preferring to read next to park trees over other cityscapes. Her father taught her how to backpack in junior high, and her aunties took her on all sorts of adventures—from camping in national forests to sliding down waterfalls. She recalls one night in a northern Wisconsin cabin when they woke her up at 3 a.m. to listen to the ice boom of the frozen lake while an aurora danced overhead.

“We call ourselves the ‘ Wilderness Women Victorious,’ and we celebrate one another’s achievements, independence and fortitude as women in the outdoors,” Denham says.

She continued to cultivate that independence and resilience, wandering in awe-inspiring places like Minnesota, Yosemite National Park and Alaska before finally landing along Lake Superior and the wilderness of the U.P. In 2015, Denham made the commitment to protect those wild places forever, joining the Upper Peninsula Land Conservancy staff.

The U.P. called to her for many reasons—she longed to breathe clean, tree-scented, smoke-free air. She wanted to use her skills to work on large-scale land preservation and mitigating the effects of climate change on communities. But more than anything, she’s drawn to the people who inhabit its cities and forests.

“No matter who you talk to, or what their background or political beliefs are, just about all of us are drawn together by our shared love for the Upper Peninsula—the land and water and forests and soil that surround and sustain us in so many ways. An entire population connected by a love of the land—that ’s special.”

When Denham first joined UPLC, she recalls just two people working part-time in “what may be best described as a utility closet,” with annual donations of under $20,000. Since then, the conservancy has tripled their protected land (to more than 7,000 acres) and increased annual donations by more than 1,400 percent. In 2019, Denham became the conservancy’s executive director, leading the only U.Pbased, U.P.-wide land trust, now nationally accredited through the Land Trust Alliance.

Denham says when she isn’t working on preserving the great outdoors, she’s out playing in them. We recently caught up with her to hear about her favorite spots to explore and how she plans to preserve their wild wonder.

Allison Jarrell: Come March, the U.P. is still a winter wonderland. What are some of your favorite areas for snowy adventures?

Andrea Denham: I love snowshoeing and backcountry skiing at the McCormick Wilderness in Michigamme, or heading out to Powell Township’s trail system off CR-510 toward Big Bay. Winter is my favorite time of year. I can’t get enough of it. For shorter, close-to-home or melty days, the UPLC’s Chocolay Bayou Nature Preserve in Harvey is a good place to spend a couple hours listening to birds and waiting for otters.

AJ: Looking ahead to spring, where should folks plan to visit if they’re seeking out idyllic wildflowers and waterfalls?

AD: UPLC’s Vielmetti-Peters Reserve in Marquette/ Negaunee Township has a great trail system that includes two streams and a small waterfall. Wildflowers will start showing up sooner closer to the Big Lake as opposed to deep in the woods. I love to walk or bike the Iron Ore Heritage Trail from Marquette to Harvey in the spring—the snow melts along the bike path earlier, and you can stop at Chocolay Bayou for a quick hike before dropping by the neighboring Lake Superior Smokehouse Brewpub.

AJ: What are your favorite pre- or postadventure pit stops?

AD: Oh man … that’s a hard one! I love a pre-adventure oat-milk latte from either Dead River Coffee Roasters or The Crib, and a post-adventure burger from The Burger Bus—especially if it’s outside Blackrocks Brewery or Drifa Brewing Company. Before the food trucks come back out of hibernation, I’ll usually stop at whatever local bar or restaurant is closest to where I’m adventuring; Mount Shasta [log cabin restaurant] in Michigamme is great if you’re visiting Craig Lake or the McCormick.

AJ: What’s on the horizon for the conservancy in 2023?

AD: No matter which new projects we land on this year, UPLC will be focusing on “community conservation”—asking not just, “What critical conservation action needs to happen here to preserve the ecological benefits?” but additionally, “ Whose voice is missing? Is this action supported by the local community?” For example, our Dead River Community Forest protects 161 acres and nearly three miles of riverfront in the Dead-Reany Watershed. (We purchased the property last fall, and our goal is to finish the management plan this year.) The forest is ranked in the 90th percentile of importance for groundwater filtration in that watershed, and the City of Marquette’s drinking water intake is where the Dead-Reany empties into Lake Superior. So, no healthy forest there, no clean drinking water in Marquette. Unhealthy forest means less-healthy Lake Superior, lesshea lthy fisheries, increased mechanical and chemical filtration and increased municipal water costs. Not only are we permanently protecting forest ecology, but we’re also protecting our health and economy. That’s the tone that we’re looking to strike with our upcoming projects and it’s very exciting.

For more info on UPLC, visit uplandconservancy.org or follow @uplandconservancy on Facebook and Instagram.