Adopt-A-Beach within Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore
From staff reports
Friends of Sleeping Bear Dunes and Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore will host a kickoff meeting for Adopt-A-Beach volunteers on Saturday, May 31, at 1 p.m. in the Philip A. Hart Visitor Center on M-72 in Empire.
If you are looking for a way to help keep Lake Michigan beaches beautiful while enjoying a relaxing walk on the beach, you’ll want to learn more about the Adopt-A-Beach Patrol. Many of our volunteers are families or groups of friends who enjoy walking beaches together. It’s simple, easy, and fun.
The Adopt-A-Beach program is sponsored by the Friends of Sleeping Bear Dunes, the Alliance for the Great Lakes, and Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Volunteers select one of the Lake Michigan beaches in the National Lakeshore and commit to patrolling their beach at least once each month during the spring, summer, and fall. They keep a record of the type and amount of litter they pick up during their patrol and enter the information on the Friends website. The data is uploaded to a database managed by the Alliance for the Great Lakes and is used to track sources of pollution, influence changes in laws and practices, and provide information to research studies of the Great Lakes. The Alliance for the Great Lakes has over 10,000 volunteers and groups involved in beach cleanup and monitoring in the five Great Lakes.
The Adopt-A-Beach program has been in operation for seven years at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. During that time, their volunteers have picked up thousands of pounds of trash that washed up on the park’s Lake Michigan beaches. They’ve even found an industrial ice machine, boats, TVs, tents, mattresses, tires and sometimes even historic shipwrecks you’d never expect washed up on a remote section of the Sleeping Bear Point shoreline.
Those who wish to join will make a difference by helping keep the beaches beautiful and safe, and getting a little exercise; all while enjoying the great outdoors. Jamie Cross from the Alliance for the Great Lakes will present results from 2013. Kerry Kelly from the Friends of Sleeping Bear Dunes and Park Rangers from the National Lakeshore will discuss the program and volunteer duties as well as help participants select a beach and provide equipment and materials for patrols. Volunteers receive an annual pass to the National Lakeshore.
For more information, visit FriendsofSleepingBear.org. If you would like to Adopt-A-Beach, but are unable to attend the training meeting, contact Kerry Kelly, Friends of Sleeping Bear Dunes, at PR@friendsofsleepingbear.org, or call 231-631-4244.
