Group looks to protect — rather than develop — Grand Marais bluff

A Cook County property owner is willing to do the unusual: sell 80 acres of undeveloped, forested land overlooking Grand Marais to preserve a cherished view.

But there’s a catch. The owner gave an interested group of residents a Dec. 1 deadline to come up with the $475,000. Beyond that, he would consider developing the land-locked plots, or selling them to someone else who will.

The bulk of Cook County land, which covers the northeast tip of the state, is government-owned. That makes it hard for the county to generate revenue through property taxes. At the same time, housing demand is high (and expensive) for the rural area, even with the recent opening of 51-unit affordable apartment complex in Grand Marais.

So Cook County commissioners had to weigh potential revenue generation versus preserving the bluff’s aesthetic and its environment when they voted in the spring whether to support and shepherd a community-led purchase of the land, Commissioner Garry Gamble said.

And the consensus was conservation, he said, with the caveat that they would not use taxpayer money to fund it.

“If you have things that are considered to be of great value, and you recognize that it translates to a benefit for a number of people, you need to protect that value,” Gamble said.

Grass-roots group Preserve the Bluff then formed to raise money for the eight 10-acre plots just west of the Sawtooth Bluffs, a section of the Sawtooth ridgeline largely owned by Grand Marais and Cook County.

The group is working with the county on the effort as it tries to find a conservation nonprofit to pay for the land. It is in talks with the Minnesota Land Trust, which will undertake an appraisal of the property.

The Land Trust is interested in conserving the property because it’s a community-led effort and the land is inside a watershed of a designated trout stream that leads to Lake Superior.

The purchase would align with the Land Trust’s mission to protect fisheries and cold water on the North Shore, said Kathy Varble, a conservation program manager for the Land Trust.

However, securing the grant money before Dec. 1 is “aspirational,” she said.

Property owner John Scheef said he offered it for preservation before putting it on the market because “it’s best for the community” and he knows many in Grand Marais see the bluffs as part of the tight-knit town’s identity.

Sue Abrahamsen lives on the road that would serve as a connector to any new access that would be built if the property were sold for development. She’s concerned about erosion and increased water flow that might stem from a new road. The county in the 1990s asked for development proposals for that area, she said, “and the town was so against it.”

Scheef has never marketed the land for sale, but has offered land swaps to the county and U.S. Forest Service.

If a sale is made to the Land Trust or other nonprofit, the title would be transferred to the county.

The Sawtooth Bluffs were logged in the 1800s and fell victim to wildfire in the early 1900s. They were home to a ski hill in the 1950s and 1960s. Today, the city of Grand Marais and the county are exploring turning the bluff land they own, which abuts Scheef’s land, into a park.

The area is home to the Fall River Patterned Fen, a type of peatland that is the only one of its kind in northeast Minnesota; the black-throated blue warbler; and black hawthorn, a species of shrub that is of special concern in Minnesota.