The Keweenaw Outdoor Recreation Coalition, or KORC, is joining Giving Tuesday for the first time in 2026 to help keep public access to the region’s wild lands open as ownership changes hands.
The Keweenaw Outdoor Recreation Coalition works throughout Keweenaw County to protect the pristine wilderness that residents and visitors value. Its members include people from across the county and neighboring regions.
The nonprofit was founded in 2019 to keep historically accessible lands open to the public. Those lands were once used by mining and forestry companies. As those companies left the region or changed how they used the land, parcels across Keweenaw County began coming up for sale.
Bryce Holden, marketing and outreach coordinator for KORC, said the trend has accelerated.
“More and more recently for the last really 20 years, and certainly in the last 10, a lot of that ownership is changing. The timber companies, or more appropriately the investment groups that own them, are divesting. What that’s doing is it’s threatening our access to these public lands and unfragmented tracts of them. There’s an opening now and a need for stewardship of those lands,” Holden said.
Land management that keeps public access open is KORC’s top priority. The board of directors and volunteers also organize community clean-up events each spring. The group offers educational and recreational programs to help people explore the region’s wilderness.
KORC’s member groups include many local clubs, such as the ATV and snowmobile clubs, the Copper Arbor Trails Club and the Keweenaw Land Trust. Holden said those partnerships help the coalition learn about land that could become available.
“The Coalition is a lot of our member groups. So most of the clubs up here, you know, the ATV Snowmobile Club, the Copper Arbor Trails Club, Keweenaw Land Trust, on and on, are all members of KORC. So one of the benefits of that is some of our user groups, also the Sportsman’s Club, I should say, they may be out in the woods and they may see a place like this and kind of give us a heads up,” Holden said.
KORC’s involvement with Copper Shores Giving Tuesday began recently. The 2026 campaign will be the first time the coalition benefits from community donations.
Holden encouraged residents to stay engaged.
“We and I personally just encourage people to continue to be involved and engaged with these types of things that are going on all over the Keweenaw and certainly within Keweenaw County. It is changing times, and it’s important that people remain informed and engaged,” Holden said.
The Giving Tuesday campaign aims to improve health outcomes across the Copper Country by combining community donations through one centralized campaign. Over the past 10 years, Copper Shores has expanded how nonprofits affect health outcomes. Recreation and environmental groups serve a unique role, where physical and mental health intersect with the region’s environmental health.
Readers can learn more about KORC and find more details about the 2026 Giving Tuesday campaign online. Residents can also follow the Spotlight Series from Keweenaw Report and My UP News to learn about other participating organizations.
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